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msar-riders - Re: [MSAR] MSAR Rider 10 Essentials List--Brains are required too

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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] MSAR Rider 10 Essentials List--Brains are required too
  • Date: Tue, 04 Jun 2013 14:30:56 -0400


"This list of 10 is not about what you carry on the horse, or your normal
SAR gear or individual specific items such as glasses and meds while
deployed. It is a basic (minimum) list (to be carried on a person) of
resources to be draw from should a rider become alone and without SAR Gear.
It is also a list that an AHJ can reference and provide to spontaneous
mounted volunteers that have zero SAR training. How many times have you
seen photos of someone mounted on horseback (during MSAR training or on a
search) with nothing more than a ball cap? "

One of the essentials for both field personnel and command staff is to use
their brains and find the subject with the minimum risk to all parties and
with minimum resources expended. There are never enough "trained SAR
resources" available for a mission, mostly because everybody trains to
different home terrain and circumstances. The locals know where the dangers
are, they know where you should not ride, and where people get in trouble.
Further, by partnering a person who knows the terrain and other local
conditions with a supposedly trained person multiplies the efficiency of the
operation. This usually comes under intelligence. Those who think that what
we usually refer to as spontaneous volunteers are useless are not only
biased and prejudiced but throwing away serious resources, a bad command
move that some judge and jury may get to question later on. And how many SAR
personnel can function in the field without a GPS or similar electronics?
How many can still read a map and know how to describe terrain so they can
be located? How many can read only one type of map? I have worked with GPS
since the smallest units barely fit on an aircraft carrier, it is not the be
all to navigation. And how many skilled navigators have run aground, or hit
mountains, even with calibrated electronics? How many realize that a cell
phone, especially a PCS unit, traffic radar, RF tags, and other aids to
navigation operate on the same frequencies as GPS?

When I started riding there were no ASTM specification helmets. There were
hunt caps and racing helmets.
For over 4 years I rode bareheaded, as did everybody else. I know older
wranglers who believe that their real Stetson is safer and more useful than
a helmet (it does carry water). The dressage community just started
mandating helmets in competition this year. Those who question whether a
person is suitable for field work without seeing them perform are throwing
away resources and exposing themselves to litigation.

There is an interesting sidelight to this discussion in PA where fire chiefs
are often the IC or represent the largest pool of manpower-- The fire chief
can commandeer anything and anyone's services to mitigate the emergency
without legal consequences, including ordering the destruction of private
property. Since the advent of workers' comp and PSODB programs we try to
limit the exposure to "enrolled members" because the township pays the
benefits whether the insurance company limits coverage to members or not.
Irv Lichtenstein




  • Re: [MSAR] MSAR Rider 10 Essentials List--Brains are required too, irvin lichtenstein, 06/04/2013

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