Mounted search and rescue

[Una Smith <una.smith@att.net>]

This thread touches on both unit regulations and safety practices.

Unit regulations should be complied with.  But unit regulations also
should be clearly defined and appropriate to the unit's membership,
normal area of operation, and usual mission.

A unit regulation that a hobble must be in your MSAR pack is easy
enough to comply with.  And, by itself, pointless.  If the horse is
not hobble-trained then using a hobble on a SAR mission would not
be appropriate.  In which case why pack it?  Why is this required?
As a first step, to make everyone buy a hobble?  Is the intention
to later upgrade to requiring everyone to hobble-train their MSAR
mount(s)?  Or is there an unwritten expectation that unit members
must know how to use a hobble, etc?  Or simply because the authors
copied some other unit's requirements?

Now on to safety.  When/where is it safe to hobble?  And when/where
is it safe to leave a horse unattended?  I simply would not worry
about cougars.  I would worry about bears only if in an area where
a known bear has become habituated to eating people food and/or
livestock.  In the case of such bears, or packs of feral or loose
yuppie dogs, I would under no circumstance leave a horse unattended
in the field (ie, not in incident base).  And in this case, unless
it would be a big political problem, many horsemen would want the
attendant(s) to have a gun and be prepared to shoot the bear/dogs.

Safety in the field is something you should discuss on a routine
basis (ie, not just during a mission) with your local SAR safety
officers.  

        Una Smith
        New Mexico