Featured Article (July 2008)

For three evenings, Virginia horse owners learned how to prepare themselves and their horses for emergencies that may occur on their farms. Virginia Cooperative Extension hosted an educational program on On-Farm Emergency Preparedness in Winchester, VA with instructional support from Farm Consultant Reid Folsom, Veterinarian Jennifer Brown, and Frederick County Emergency Management Specialist Gail Miller.

The course taught horse owners to assess the risks of barn fires, structural collapse and other weather-related emergencies. Participants also learned the importance of pre-planning with local Fire & Rescue, developing evacuation and sheltering plans for their animals, and building first aid and go kits equipped with the necessary supplies to deal with emergencies. The final night of the course, participants were able to practice the skills they learned and also were trained on properly maintaining and using fire extinguishers.

Participants at seminar learn how to use the fire extinguisher.

The course evaluation revealed many positive impacts and intended behavior changes in the participants.

After the course, 93.8% of the participants were planning on filing a pre-plan with fire and rescue; no one had done so before the program. Over 62% were going to build a first aid kit and over 81% were going to prepare a go kit. Over 87% were going to develop an evacuation plan for their horses. There was a 20% increase in the number of people proficient at using a fire extinguisher as a result of the hands on training. Participant comments included:

"Obviously I needed this course!" and "This was one of the most useful seminars I have been to. I got many new ideas and reminders of things I need to do."