Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

msar-riders - Re: [MSAR] Horsemanship and such / Mounted SAR to include ATV?

msar-riders@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Mounted search and rescue

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Scot hansen" <ScotHansen@horsethink.com>
  • To: "'Mounted search and rescue'" <msar-riders@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [MSAR] Horsemanship and such / Mounted SAR to include ATV?
  • Date: Thu, 8 Sep 2005 23:25:25 -0700

Regarding being attacked/harassed while horseback riding:

As a retired Mounted Police Officer I can say that there are ways to
defeat an attacker, and horses can be trained to deal with quite severe
issues. However, the average trail rider does not have the same amount
of time to train and work with a horse that a Mounted Police Unit does.

However, if you visit my site at www.horsethink.com you can see a clip
of a video that I made using police techniques to deal with an attacker.
The complete video tape deals with various stages of attack as well as
how to stay in the saddle.
For those of you who ride in an area where you are having this type of
problem viewing the tape would give you some ideas on how to keep
yourself safe by using your horse much the same way Mounted Police
Officers do.


Scot Hansen
www.horsethink.com

-----Original Message-----
From: msar-riders-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:msar-riders-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Jorene Downs
Sent: Monday, September 05, 2005 6:07 PM
To: Mounted search and rescue
Subject: Re: [MSAR] Horsemanship and such / Mounted SAR to include ATV?


----- Original Message -----
From: "irvin lichtenstein" <ilichten1@verizon.net>
> The accident investigator was an NPS parkmedic, not me. When he says
the
> jogger was at fault I believe him. We often have idiots running down
the
> trail waving t-shirts, yelling and screaming, and hitting horses as
well
> as
> pushing at riders or trying to blindside the horse.

It sounds like the park law enforcement needs to be making some arrests
to
get the message across and restore a safe riding environment.

> You cannot desensitize a mount to being hit, or bitten by a dog, or
having
> his rider grabbed so as to pull from the saddle. These are assaults
and
> require evasion and active defense. The horsemanship aspect is not
> avoiding
> some idiot striking out at you, it is recovering afterward.

Actually, there is training very well suited for the kind of environment
you
apparently ride in. For example, someone attempting to attack the rider
or
horse is likely to back off if the horse is - under the direction of the

rider - moving into the space of the nearby attacker. (Sidepass, pivot
on
the fore or hind, etc.) The attacker must retreat or get stepped on /
knocked over by the horse. With your size XL horse you have an even
better
advantage if you know how to perform the maneuvers, because sheer size
will
intimidate. And if someone appears to be intent on pulling a rider from
the
saddle there are defensive maneuvers from the saddle to repel the
attacker.

Ask any experienced Mounted Police officer with mounted riot control
training about defensive riding techniques, then find a local source for

training. Also learn the legal aspects of self defense while mounted.
This
does require additional training for both horse and rider.
Desensitization
and better horsemanship skills are required - more than what you'd
normally
find in MSAR.

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


_______________________________________________
MSAR-Riders mailing list
MSAR-Riders@lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/msar-riders





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page