(Human) first aid courses for equestrians - recommendations?

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Widgeon

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I'm looking for a good one day first aid course - for humans, but with a focus on the kind of injuries and incidents that typically occur around horses. Ideally something I can just book myself onto as a single participant, rather than having to arrange the whole thing and find more attendees.

Any recommendations or suggestions? I'm based in Yorkshire and unfortunately it's not feasible to trek down to the likes of Newmarket (most of what I've found so far is based in the South).

Thank you!
 
Honestly - you’d be better off doing the two or three day ones. The one day only ones simple do not have the time or depth for what you’re after.

Have you looked on the BHS site? There will be courses running around the country all year round - scroll down to your region(s) and look for the ones marked ‘initial’.

First aid | The British Horse Society

www.bhs.org.uk www.bhs.org.uk
 
2nd (or 3rd) the recommendation of the 2 day outdoor first aid, which also includes incident management modules.

Although not riding specific, the instructors (I’ve been doing this course for about 15 years so several different providers) have always asked on day 1 what backgrounds people have. I have always then been provided with horse related incidents to lead, and had tuition on helmet and body protector removal etc.

I’ve found these courses far more useful than the emergency first aid type ones, as you do more casualty management and monitoring/transport from more isolated areas, as well as some creative uses of materials to support and splint. FAW assumes you’re on a nice comfortable heated indoor environment with perfect phone signal and a comprehensively stocked 1st aid kit!
 
Re BHS quality - caveat of I’ve had good and bad (you get that with anything these days), but at least they’re likely to recognise you could be somewhere rural without signal.
 
Rowreach said:

REC: Outdoor First Aid (16 hr), All Dates

recfirstaid.net recfirstaid.net

REC courses are your best bet, they are two day but very good and focused on outdoor sports. There are lots in Yorkshire!

I've done many BHS first aid courses and found them to be pretty poor.
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Ah this looks really promising - thank you!

Unfortunately we just don't have the budget or the time available for three day courses.

I've done 1st aid courses via work before (this one is not for work) and they've been genuinely shocking. I was about ready to chew my own foot off by the end of the last one, but I didn't because that wasn't covered in the course. It was basically six hours of how to do chest compressions.
 
Widgeon said:
Ah this looks really promising - thank you!

Unfortunately we just don't have the budget or the time available for multi day courses.

I've done 1st aid courses via work before (this one is not for work) and they've been genuinely shocking. I was about ready to chew my own foot off by the end of the last one, but I didn't because that wasn't covered in the course. It was basically six hours of how to do chest compressions.
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FWIW - the Red Cross one day first aid course is £10 less than the two day one @Rowreach linked to… (assuming you can find one with travel distance to avoid hotel costs)
 
I need something with more of an outdoorsy focus really - the ones Rowreach linked look ideal, plus they're very close to me, and I can impose myself on the in-laws overnight (to make the travel time even shorter) rather than paying for a hotel 😆
 
They are much more relevant to outdoor sports and the one I did was very scenario based (we were on an island in all weathers for added realism). I’ve just refreshed via a training company and it wasn’t a patch on the REC course.
 
Widgeon said:
Thanks, yes I've been in touch with them, they've got nothing in the North but they are trying to get one set up in Middlesborough, so I'm hoping to hear back about that in a week or so
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Sorry, I thought they were nationwide, I didnt realise they didnt cover your area, they are really good, so I hope you are able to go to Middlesborough if they get one going there.
 
daffy44 said:
Sorry, I thought they were nationwide, I didnt realise they didnt cover your area, they are really good, so I hope you are able to go to Middlesborough if they get one going there.
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I think they are, in theory - the lady I spoke to was very helpful and she said they've tried three times to get a course established in the North East, but have really struggled to get enough participants. I hope they get this one off the ground as I think between some of the local riding and rights of way groups I'm part of, we should be able to round up quite a few people to send her way.
 
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