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msar-riders - [MSAR] Re: New Mexico mock search, November 2

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  • From: Una Smith <una@lanl.gov>
  • To: msar-riders@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [MSAR] Re: New Mexico mock search, November 2
  • Date: Wed Nov 6 11:57:00 2002

The Philmont mock search was great! Attending were the Philmont
SAR team and others (organizers and incident command), an
observer, one groundpounder team, two dog teams, and two horse
teams. The turnout was smaller than I had expected, but on
Monday the New Mexico SAR Resource Officer told the nmsar-forum
mailing list there were eight SAR missions in New Mexico that
weekend!

The horse teams were from Taos and Santa Fe. All four Taos
riders and one of our three Santa Fe riders were on their very
first search, so we split the two units between the two search
teams. Our new person and two from Taos went with our most
experienced person, and the others from Taos came with me.
Each horse team was assigned to go to a certain location on a
map, scanning for signs of the "missing person", a teenager
who had an argument with his parents, went hunting by himself,
and did not return. We were to radio in our UTM coordinates
each 30 minutes. These we obtained from GPS, our map, or both.
Our new people handled all radio communications with IC, using
the GPS units, and map reading; they all did a great job. My
team rode up on a ridge between two canyons where all the other
teams were searching, so we were the only team that could hear
everyone and we ended up relaying a lot of messages. We almost
found the subject ourselves, but the groundpounder team got to
him first. In addition to our radio on the IC frequency, I
had 3 spare radios, each on a different frequency, so I was
information central. Sometimes it was too much information
and I had trouble concentrating on my own task at hand.

I and our new person trailered to the area the night before,
and camped out with our horses in Cimarron Canyon State Park.
Although outside the canyon the skies were clear, inside was
another story: it was cloudy, wet, and cold. In the morning
there was ice in the horses' water buckets. We dressed for
bad weather, but it was perfect; sunny, calm, and cool. The
views from our ridge were spectacular.

My lessons learned:

1. I was not expecting to be training anyone, much less people
I had never met before and knew nothing about. They were on
horses I also knew nothing about, and we rode at times on top
of a cliff, and back and forth across a stream full of trappy
silt runoff from a forest fire. Although everything went well,
the situation was stressful for me and sometimes I let it show,
which was probably stressful for them. I should anticipate
this kind of situation, and ask my companions more questions
about their skills and their horses *before* we start riding.

2. Wearing more clothing does not always make you warmer;
wearing less does not always make you cooler. One rider got
hot in the sun, wearing a long sleeve flannel shirt and no hat.
Wearing a winter coat and wide-brimmed hat, I was perfectly
comfortable: the air was cool and my coat and hat insulated
me from the hot sun.

3. The gear a rider and horse carries can be a safety hazard.
Riding with a backpack is easy, except when you have a lot
of stuff (like radios) hanging on your front. Then getting on
the horse can be tricky. Getting on and off can also be hard
if your saddlebags behind the saddle are too big. In fact,
it can even be dangerous, especially if you wear spurs. It
is easy to get hung up. Carrying too little gear can also be
dangerous. Although we had perfect weather, it could have
been different. The expected storm arrived a little late, on
Sunday night, dropping 6 inches of snow where I live.

4. Saddle bags should be arranged so that the rider can get to
anything in them, and close them, without dismounting. It is
especially important for the rider to be able to reach water
and food. Otherwise, it is easy to forget or neglect to drink
and eat! We usually do not stop for meals.

5. I had trouble with a hand-held radio, entirely my own fault.
The other team said I was getting cut off after the first few
words, but only hours later did I realize why. I was using
the radio while dismounted, and to suppress the distracting
sounds around me I leaned into my horse while I was talking.
This is usually not a problem because my radio is on the horse
and I am holding only the microphone. But, using a hand-held,
I no doubt smothered my own radio signal.

6. My horse refused to drink from any stream, and also refused
almost all of the local water offered in buckets. This is a
serious problem. I will try to teach her to be less finnicky,
and also bring plenty of water from home.

7. Because of our name, most people assume we are law officers.
We need to do a better job of telling people we are volunteers
and not law officers.

Una Smith
(Santa Fe County Sheriff's Posse)




  • [MSAR] Re: New Mexico mock search, November 2, Una Smith, 11/06/2002

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