Mounted search and rescue

[Una Smith <una@lanl.gov>]

Lauri Struve wrote:
>[...]  and what is stressed everytime we get a new member is that 
>first, and foremost we are ground pounders...  we have ground 
>training, and the apply that to the specialty. I've had friends show 
>interest in SAR, but lose it quick when I tell them that. :-)

This point cannot be stressed enough.  If you mean to be a
mounted SAR team, as opposed to a riding club pretending to
be a SAR team, then it is misleading and perhaps unfair to
your prospective/new recruits to "show them a good time" on
horseback.  If they do not understand at the start that SAR
involves work, much of it nothing to do with horses, then
eventually most of them will feel disappointed and the unit
will have major internal struggles over its purpose.  "Are
we a SAR unit or a riding club or a social club, or what?"

        Una Smith
        Santa Fe County Sheriff's Posse, in New Mexico