Mounted search and rescue

[Amy Ray c/o MSAR Maintainer <msar@ibiblio.org>]

[The post below is from Amy Ray;  it was bounced to me because it
included a digest of yesterday's posts (which I deleted).  - Una] 


I am with an all volunteer unit, affiliated with the County Sheriff's
Dept.  We are either mounted, ground and ATV.  We do a lot of PR for
the Sheriff's Dept. as well as assist the dept, with search and rescue
and assist with crowd control situations for the community.  We have
a strict qualifications test, and we have ~8-10 SAR TECH III certified
people.  I found out about MSAR on NASAR web site.

Our test must be redone for every horse-rider team every two years,
and it includes desensitization to fireworks, sirens, tarps, other
animals (pigs, emus, etc), and lateral movement, driving courses, and
trailer loading.  We look for anything that "spooks" our horse then
we work to overcome that spookiness.  Our entire team loves to try
new things with our horses.  That makes us a great team that works
together very well and a great team with our horses.  We have a bylaws
and policy and procedures established.  I hope that we can learn from
others doing similar activities and establish a MSAR national
organization standerd.

Thanks
Amy Ray