Mounted search and rescue

["fred graupmann" <fredgraupmann1636@msn.com>]

I've been reading with extream interest the emails going through - guess I'll jump in. I've been doing mounted S&R for 15 years or so. I belong in a county posse, MN Sheriff's mounted, and the new Search, Rescue & Recovery Resourses of MN. and was part of a Mounted Training team. The longer I'm in this the more I'm convinced there is so much to learn.

  Air scenting is real. I have witnessed it in two cases, a drowing victim and a murder victim. This also occurred as a added point during training sessions a few times. A friend of mine's posse found a elderly person under a river bank wash out that wasn't visable. Alive!! All due to horse reaction.

 Try this. Have a "victim" hide off the trail. Use a group of about 5 riders ride the trail with a person inback of the group that knowing where the victim is hiding. It is important that the group not know so as not to send signals to their mount. The person in the rear will also watch the horses. Not all horses will sign but not all dogs are SAR dogs. Signs may be an ear twitch or turning, head toss. tail pumping this is learning the animal. In the case of death my horse froze refusing to move and in another case all this including a horse rearing. In this last case the cadver dogs on the river had made two hits. We now try to combine, when possible, training dogs & horses.