Mounted search and rescue

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

Susan Wright wrote:
[...]
>                                           Unknown to me, another member
>of our unit was standing in the crowd video-ing the parade as we went
>by.
[...]
>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.

That is exactly what a hiding "search subject" sees, when the
horse blows his cover.  The rider often has no clue, but the
horse has blown the subject's cover and the subject *knows*
it.  A subject with a video camera can easily demonstrate this
for all to see.

I would not assume a horse always *scents* the hidden subject;
horses also have acute hearing and vision.  But they certainly
are able to discriminate among individual people, using any of
their senses.

North American Trail Ride Conference (NATRC), which organizes
judged trail rides (not speed events, unlike endurance rides),
sometimes has a judge hide along the trail to observe horse
and rider when the rider does not know judging is underway. 
NATRC's introductory membership video even shows this from a
judge's point of view.  The horse pricks its ears, flares its
nostrils, and stares into the camera.  In every mock search
in which I have participated that involved a hidden subject,
if the subject saw the horse then with rare exceptions the
horse detected the subject.  But, most riders were oblivious.
This is normal!  We need to train MSAR riders to be far more
aware of their mount as a search *partner*.

        Una Smith
        New Mexico