Every good workhorse deserves a second act.
For years, one of Rappahannock Electric Cooperative’s trusty service trucks carried crews and equipment to keep the lights on across the co-op’s service territory in Virginia. These days, however, it’s saddling up for a different kind of service: helping rescue horses and other large animals when they’re in a tough spot.
Fredericksburg-based REC recently donated a 2011 Ford F-550 crane truck to the Little Fork Volunteer Fire and Rescue Co.’s Technical Large Animal Rescue Team, giving the well-traveled vehicle a chance to gallop into a new career.
“It had some miles on it, well over 200,000, and even though it was time for it to be replaced in our fleet, it still had some life in it,” said Michael Lee, the co-op’s director of fleet services and operations. “We’re always looking for places where we can do good, but we also want to make sure there’s reasonable life left in the equipment we’re going to donate.”
But before the fire company could even repaint the truck or install new emergency lights and a siren, the vehicle answered its first call last month. Beauregard, a 2,200-pound Belgian draft horse, was trapped beneath boards in a run-in shed. His owners and veterinarian had unsuccessfully worked for hours to free him.
Using the truck’s hoist, rescuers lifted the exhausted animal using a special sling and helped bring the ordeal to a happy ending. Doug Monaco, chief of Little Fork Volunteer Fire and Rescue Co., said Beauregard was rescued, unharmed and headed back home in, well, stable condition.
“The operation was flawless,” he said.
Rescuers free about one or two cows or horses each month, Monaco said, and the operation is dangerous enough for people and animals to warrant a special vehicle. A new truck similar to REC’s donated vehicle runs in the six figures.
Previously, rescuers had to borrow equipment and assemble a portable lifting system using ropes as pulleys or an aluminum tripod lifting device placed over the animal—a painstaking and sometimes traumatic experience for the horse or cow.
“I was driving along and I saw an auger truck used to pick up telephone poles,” Monaco said. “I was looking at one and thought, ‘Well, that truck has a cable on the end of it, that would be perfect.’”
Lee and his team researched the company’s request and found a better option: a smaller vehicle with four-wheel drive, a crane that could handle at least 7,000 pounds, and the ability to maneuver in tight spaces. Previously, substation maintenance crews used the truck’s crane to lift transformers and other heavy equipment.
“The F-550 can get in smaller, tighter areas than a big truck, and it’s much quieter for the animals, which would maybe keep them calmer,” Lee said. “Plus, the crane has the ability to really do what they needed.”
Meanwhile, the Little Fork team is raising money for the Ford F-550’s full makeover, Beauregard’s owners are breathing a sigh of relief, and the co-op is pleased to have helped another neighbor in need.
For Lee, the donation was “definitely a great thing to be part of. I was glad to see it come through, and it really meant a lot to be able to see them use it and the good it did.”
Victoria A. Rocha is a staff writer for NRECA.