[MSAR] Another Search
Marie Lester
marie.lester at gmail.com
Mon Jul 2 08:47:07 EDT 2007
Hi Una,
I need to clarify my previous comment about picketing our horses. I should
have said that we string a tie line, and then tie the horses to that, which
is above their heads, but the lead is long enough for the horse to reach the
ground. I do not sleep well when I have my horse that way, however, and
insist on being near the horse. They will sometimes lie down, and I have
heard of one case in which the horse caught a foot in the line. My
preference is to use my electric fence set up with step in poles. I have a
solar powered fence charger that I keep in the trailer. Since my horses are
familiar with this type of fence, they respect it. I make the stall area
large enough that they can move around easily and lie down without fear of
hitting a side. One horse per stall.
It is not always possible to use this set up, however.
I have ridden in the dark---specifically a midnight ride once. Though I
could not see my hand in front of my face, the horse did great.
The lead rider did have a flashlight......
I would love to learn how operations work in different areas of the
country. Sounds like your recent evaluation process went well!
Marie
On 7/1/07, una.smith at att.net <una.smith at att.net> wrote:
>
> Marie Lester (COMSU) wrote:
> > turned all out together. We do not normally have these four horses
> > together, but felt that their mind sets and the space provided were
> adequate
> > for their safety. Additionally, these horses have ridden together many
> > times.
>
> And they had done a good amount of work so were perhaps more interested
> than
> usual in grazing and sleeping.
>
> Many times I have had good success putting horses together in a corral who
> do not live together, but I would not leave them unsupervised. Overnight,
> I
> sleep on the ground or in the truck beside the corral.
>
> Many horses are amazingly wide awake and active at night. Once you see
> what
> they will get up to, there can be no doubt that horse see extremely well
> in
> the dark and would make an excellent resource for night
> searches. Provided
> SAR management is comfortable with supervising field teams at
> night. (When
> most searchers are untrained, inexperienced and without radios, then it
> seems
> wise to suspend the search overnight.)
>
>
> > In other cases, we picket our horses. I have never hobbled and would
> need
> > some coaching in that department.
>
> Picket meaning each horse is tied separately to its own ground stake? Or
> some other arrangement? What do you use for the stake? On the horse end
> of
> the picket rope do you use a halter or a leg cuff?
>
> Have you ever picketed overnight? Do you get up in the night to move the
> picket, so the horse gets more grazing?
>
> Hobble training is discussed in some books on backcountry riding. There
> is
> a video about it for sale on ebay all the time, that I have not seen. Can
> anyone here recommend it?
>
>
> > While we were able to utilize the knowledge from our various trainings
> (GPS,
> > tracking, search pattern techniques, radio protocol,documentation), it
> is
> > clear that there is always more to know.
>
> Always. :-)
>
>
> > We were the only trained
> unit
> > there, and the other local volunteers on horseback looked to us for
> advice
> > and leadership.
>
> Good all around. Did you get contact info? Send them an URL or even a
> printed
> copy of the MSAR-Riders blurb (
> http://www.ibiblio.org/msar/msar-riders.html)
> and invite them to join us.
>
>
> > Sounds like Chris has had a busy year, and that may be the case for many
> of
> > you in the west.
>
> SAR has been slow here in New Mexico, but I did have an interesting
> experience
> working Planning Section (SAR mission management) on a series of mock
> searches
> in which a New Mexico technical rescue unit was evaluated for
> accreditation by
> Mountain Rescue Association. The unit succeeded! The interesting part
> was
> that most of the MRA evaluators came from other states where a single SAR
> unit
> provides both field teams *and* mission management people. In New Mexico,
> SAR
> management is separate, so the MRA evaluators had to evaluate this unit on
> its
> field teams and on how well they worked with the mission
> management. Mission
> management itself was not evaluated. I heard many comments from the
> evaluators
> about how different SAR is in New Mexico compared to their home
> states. Food
> for thought...!
>
> Una Smith
> New Mexico
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> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/msar-riders
>
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