At 11 a.m. on October 12th, Arthurs Creek-Strathewen received a call regarding a “horse stuck in a dam.” They discovered a 1-week-old foal trapped in an erosion hole in the face of a dam wall upon arrival. The situation was delicate, and the head of the foal was visible from the land side of the dam wall.
One of only two brigades in Victoria with a dedicated LAR team, the Arthurs Creek-Strathewen Brigade serves the Arthurs Creek community, known for its equestrian and livestock-oriented culture. The brigade also uses specialised helmets designed for impact protection and enhanced safety to prevent accidents caused by animal kicks or impacts against visors.
Because the land side of the dam wall was unstable, it was deemed unsafe to approach from that direction. Therefore, it was decided to use a mattock to dig from the water’s edge, where the soil is more stable. A veterinarian successfully administered an intramuscular sedative while securing a strap around the foal.
Throughout the rescue, the potential for further collapse of the dam wall posed the greatest threat to rescue personnel and the foal.
The foal weighed approximately 70 kilogrammes, making its extraction relatively simple. The foal was transported to its mother on a canvas sheet after the sedative wore off, and it made a full recovery.
The rescue of large animals requires a calm and methodical approach, with minimal speaking to reduce the animals’ stimulation. The brigade emphasised that a successful rescue involves quiet discussions off to the side and the seamless application of their training. The distressed foal’s mother was confined 30 metres away from the incident, and another horse was relocated to a different paddock to minimise distractions.
The Arthurs Creek-Strathewen Brigade performs between twenty and twenty-five large animal rescues per year.
