Mounted search and rescue

["Wright" <owright@internetpro.net>]

This time last year, my horse and I were working our first Mardi Gras
parade in Mobile.  I don't know how many on this list has ever been to a
Mardi Gras parade, but I can tell you it is extremely stressful to the
horses, even veterans.  
By the second block, we were both covered in beads and had stopped
trying to dodge anything, no point in it.  Unknown to me, another member
of our unit was standing in the crowd video-ing the parade as we went
by.  I never saw him even though my eyes were on the crowd the whole
way.
When we were able to watch the tape, I was amazed!  My horse, still
thirty feet from our friend, brought his head up, pricked his ears,
flared his nostrils and totally focussed on him.  He kept his head
trained on this guy until we were abreast and only then did he turn back
to watch the float in front of us.  It just brought home to me how much
ability a horse has not only to detect scents, but to discriminate among
them just like a dog.
Susan W