How To Manipulate a Recumbent Horse (Entrapment, Clinical, or Technical Emergency Rescue Situations) Rebecca Gimenez, BS, PhD*; and S. Smith, BS Authors’ addresses: Technical Large Animal Emergency Rescue, Inc., 1787 Georgia Highway 18 East, Macon, GA 31217 (Gimenez); Gadd’s Animal Doctors of Gray, 300 Bill Conn Parkway, Gray, GA 31032 (Smith); e-mail: delphiacres@hotmail.com. *Corresponding and presenting author. © 2017 AAEP. 1. Introduction Recumbent horses are fractious, frustratingly diffi- cult, and very dangerous to handle. Even dead horses represent a significant challenge to manipu- late for staff safety due to their great weight and size. 1 Safe manipulation requires knowledge of anatomy and physiology to prevent injury when em- placing webbing or slings, 2 as well as proper person- nel positioning (Table 1). The confined spaces that animals commonly are found (inside stalls, trailers, or entrapped in equipment or topography) require appropriate personal protective equipment such as helmets; and may require reaching, prying, and cut- ting tools (Fig. 1). Strategies and equipment to mitigate these situations in various recumbent po- sitions (Table 2) are available but underutilized by responders; the effectiveness of proper response sys- tems is further emphasized by appropriate proce- dures, equipment, training, and emergency drills. Slides, drags, vertical lifts, and assists are basic to technical large animal emergency rescue—a spe- cialty form of heavy rescue in the Fire and Rescue Services that is intimately tied to the veterinary practitioner’s expertise and advice. Some poorer methods that well-intentioned “rescuers” have used in the past reflect our predatory human instincts to solve the problem— but have caused iatrogenic in- jury in the equine victim (traumatic amputations, lacerations, asphyxiation, corneal damage, myop- athy, neurologic injury, etc. 3 ). Ironically, horses do not instinctively understand how to help them- selves, or have the capacity to understand that re- sponders are there to help. The use of the methods presented here represent viable options for the successful extrication and transport of horses 4 trapped during a disaster or emergency, or dead. Use of these equipment and procedures requires planning, coordination of re- sources, and personnel placement. For these rea- sons there is a need to coordinate the effort better to keep the victim, the practitioner, and their staff out of harm’s way. Many animals, when manipulated out of the entrapment or enabled to roll to sternal, will rise and stand on their own; thus, facilitating self rescue is the best use of manipulations methods. The purpose of this article is to suggest methods for response to horses that are recumbent due to being geriatric, debilitated, injured, or in daily AAEP PROCEEDINGS  Vol. 63  2017 1 MEDICAL MALADIES OF THE HORSE: HOW TO FIND AND TREAT THEM NOTES AQ: 1 T1 F1 T2 Orig. Op. OPERATOR: Session PROOF: PE’s: AA’s: 4/Color Figure(s) ARTNO: 1st disk, 2nd ARP xppws 1 F1-15 AAEP0205