Randy is built round a galvanised steel chassis that supports the foam-filled Polyurethane torso and provides axles for the steel reinforced, articulated legs. These horses are abrasion resistant and engineered so that they can be positioned easily to provide any required rescue training scenario. The horse is built with particular emphasis on making it as life-like as possible, which includes appropriate weight distribution, careful placement of joints and a fully poseable head and neck, not to mention that he leaves the observer in no doubt that he is very much a stallion; all these features help the emergency services to train using a model as close to the real thing as possible.  A feature that puts Randy head and shoulders above his rivals is the ability to lock his legs in the standing position; this enables him to stand unsupported on his own hooves, essential for so may rescue training situations, particularly those involving water and mud entrapment.

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We have now reached a point where the sculpt can be converted into a working prototype; this is an involved process as it necessitates the design of various joints that have the range of movement necessary for the animal to be placed in a wide variety of rescue training situations.  Having done this exercise before, in the development of the horse, we expect to have a mannequin rescue training cow on the market by mid 2010.

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The sharp rise in numbers of people in the UK classed as being obese poses a new challenge for the emergency services.  Put bluntly, as people get bigger, it becomes increasingly difficult to train staff in the correct ways to move, transport and care for them effectively.  This is especially true when a person is ‘morbidly obese’ - a term used to describe those people so large that their size directly affects their health and life expectancy. Resquip are currently at the research and development stage of a bariatric mannequin for rescue, movement, and safe handling training.  Moving and caring for the morbidly obese is not only a problem for the emergency services, it is a massive challenge for porters, theatre staff, nurses, and carers too. Resquip intends to create a mannequin, which not only resembles the size and proportions of a morbidly obese human, but also behaves physically in the same way as a human, even to mimicing the way the fat would behave on such a body.

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