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Subject: Mounted search and rescue

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Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Jorene Downs" <Jorene@CEOates.com>
  • To: "Mounted search and rescue" <msar-riders@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [MSAR] Effective Use of MSAR / SAR City
  • Date: Tue, 5 Oct 2004 11:17:57 -0700

From: Edususan@aol.com
Jorene...Hi. I can't come to the conference. But we are a struggling mounted team in New Mexico. Do you have anything along the lines of an outline that you are going to speak on that you could forward to me to present to our board? They don't know when to call us, when to use us, etc. Perhaps having something like you are presenting would help them. THanks. Susan Nestor, Taos MSAR <<


Hi, Susan -
Sorry you can't make it to CA. I'm willing to travel to put on my course, but the budget insists that someone else has to pick up my travel expenses. ;) Effective Use of Mounted in SAR and Disasters is available for SAR/MSAR conferences as a 3 hour course. I am also available to put on a 4 hour workshop (course included) and provide consulting as needed for operational areas and Mutual Aid regions. No attachments are allowed on MSAR-Riders, so I'll send you some basic course information on separate email.

What you're describing is not uncommon, which is what motivated me to finally put together some training on the subject a couple of years ago. Even experienced horsemen don't necessarily see all the opportunity for MSAR in SAR and disasters. This results in MSAR typically being a greatly under-used resource.

SAR Management is usually handicapped by not being experienced horsemen, and therefore have a hard time understanding how versatile Mounted teams can be. However, another problem is MSAR teams often get stuck in a rut, and don't look for more opportunity then share that identified potential with management. "We've always done it this way" is a common problem that limits expectations for both management and MSAR teams, and many opportunities are missed..

Did you hear of any Mounted units responding as resources after the hurricanes and flooding? MSAR can be very useful in this kind of situation, yet disaster management also doesn't understand when and how MSAR can be effective.

You might get some ideas to share with your team - and with management - from an article I wrote that was published in SAR Professional earlier this year. "Mounted SAR: Basic Options" is on the NASAR web site ( www.nasar.org ) and you can find it under Specialty Fields / Mounted SAR, then the link is at the bottom left of the page. (New articles will be added every few months.)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Jorene Downs
Tulare SAR - Hasty Team ICP Team
www.ceoates.com/sar
Tulare-Kings CERT
www.tk-cert.org





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