Corporate

PARTNERSHIP 15 | WSPS.CA/AnnualReport The Sum of a Strong Partnership: More Partners and Greater Reach Gayle Ecker, director of Equine Guelph, believes that when it comes to strong partnerships, 1 + 1 = 11. "When two strong partners come together, many more follow." And that is certainly true of the partnership between Equine Guelph and WSPS. These partners have a long history of success in providing training and education to keep the equine and farm communities safe with programs such as Play Safe. It's Horse Sense; EquiMania; and Stop, Think, Act Hopscotch, to name just a few. And per Ecker's theory, the success of their partnership has helped them corral many more like-minded partners who share their passion for health and safety, including Imperial Oil, Kubota, and Ontario Equestrian. Most recently, the partners have joined together to develop and deliver training and resources for first responders related to fire prevention and large animal rescue. "Few people have had to approach large animals, let alone one that is injured or is in distress, and they don't have training on how to handle them," says Ecker. The large animal rescue program combines in-class and practical training to introduce first responders to many aspects of successful rescue, including large animal anatomy and behaviour, handling, forward and rear assists, dragging and trench rescue. The fire safety workshop is a turn-key program that fire departments can use to educate community members with farms about basic fire safety and their role in assisting first responders in preventing and dealing with fires when they occur. These resources have been extremely well received. In fact, in 2019–2020 Equine Guelph saw its number of engaged participants increase by 15% over the previous year, due in large part to the programs. Equine Guelph credits WSPS' support as a key factor in their ability to continue developing and delivering new safety training programs. WSPS has been a supportive partner in helping us achieve our goals, Ecker says. "With their help we reach more people, particularly those with horses who aren't part of the equine community. We may be horse-centric, but we are all about health and safety on farms."

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