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msar-riders - Re: [MSAR] training priorities--MSAR--tracking OJT

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Subject: Mounted search and rescue

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  • From: "Irvin Lichtenstein " <ilichten1@verizon.net>
  • To: "'Mounted search and rescue'" <msar-riders@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [MSAR] training priorities--MSAR--tracking OJT
  • Date: Fri, 12 Mar 2010 00:49:48 -0500

On the Job training is important for certain skills. Classroom presentation,
exercises, simulations may work for some skills but some things have to be
done in conjunction with other activities.

Tracking requires you to actually track something. The easiest way to get
tracking time (dirt time is what most trackers call it) is to track yourself
and your companions while riding. Start with something simple, one set of
hoof prints or boot prints in soft ground. If you ride a loop you can see
the same prints again, some time later and observe how they have changed.
This also applies to manure. You should know when horse put it there and
what it looked like then, and again later. Later you can pick up other
tracks, such as bicycle tires, other people, and follow them for a while.
Eventually you should be able to pick a print out of a trampled scene and
follow it out of "mess" to determine a direction of travel.

Every time you get on your horse is training time. You can compare the
trail you are on with the trail on the map using a compass or a GPS and
compare features on the map with the real world. A cartographer calls this
ground checking and it is rarely done today, but you get hours of training
in navigation, note taking, and reporting while doing something useful as
well.

Make training fun, a part of your routine. The great thing about mounted is
that you can become a partner with your horse just by being there and
watching your mount react.

Irv Lichtenstein

-----Original Message-----
From: msar-riders-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:msar-riders-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Una Smith
Sent: Thursday, March 11, 2010 5:15 PM
To: Mounted search and rescue
Subject: Re: [MSAR] training priorities--MSAR

Irv wrote:
>Tracking is very important but OJT every time you ride is fine.

OJT?

Una Smith
New Mexico
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