Mounted search and rescue

["Jorene Downs" <Jorene@CEOates.com>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Terry Nowacki" <wwfarm@wiktel.com>
> [...] Cadaver Horse Demonstration on a very cold
> November 21 Minnesota morning. Temperatures were well below freezing
> plus wind chill factors. [...] I believe a quote
> from an out-of-state SAR professional who witnessed this demonstration
> says it all: "I expected to see success and I saw it."

I was there. I said that. ;)

Yep, it was below freezing - I suspect high 20s - plus a stout cold wind. 
Knowing from the herd that a horse can both air scent and scent 
discriminate, my concern regarding cadaver scent was related to the very 
cold weather and the very small mildly scented material hidden for the horse 
and mini to locate. What surprised me was the yearling miniature horse 
obviously staying focused - searching for the scent on command, following 
the drift to the scented material - for over 20 minutes. Youngsters tend to 
have shorter attention spans, but the young mini appeared to stay focused 
just as well as the 12 yo gelding.

What Terry didn't share was the artificial scent used to train cadaver K9 
states it isn't effective in temperatures below freezing. Yet both horses 
located it in difficult conditions, within the time frame allotted for the 
NASAR K9s. And Terry shared with me later that the following day, when that 
human cadaver scented material was under 8-9 inches of snow, the riding 
horse and the mini again located that material.

I consider this confirmation that horses can be successfully trained for 
cadaver searching. I don't know how well they'd do with older, more deeply 
buried human remains detection, but if the body is on the surface of the 
ground I suspect the horse could perform as well as the dog in similar 
circumstances. In the warmer weather when scent tends to rise, the horse may 
have an advantage over the dog simply by starting with the nose higher off 
the ground so the horse can "test" a larger drift area for scent..

~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Jorene Downs
Tulare SAR - Hasty Team ICP Team
www.ceoates.com/sar
Tulare-Kings CERT
www.tk-cert.org