[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
> _______________________________________________
> MSAR-Riders mailing list
> MSAR-Riders at lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/msar-riders
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/msar-riders/attachments/20070702/73688886/attachment.html 


More information about the MSAR-Riders mailing list