Mounted search and rescue

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

Susan Wright wrote:
>I'm going to suggest that the 'lost' subject at our next SAR training
>carry a video camera to show the horses' reaction!

I'd like to make this a standard part of mock search training.
If a video camera is not available, use a digital camera that
takes video clips.  Just prepare with fresh batteries and an
empty memory card (or several);  the video clips need not run
more than 10 or 20 seconds.

>                                       I'm sure that scent detection
>was involved here because the person filming was elbow-to-elbow in a
>crowd of several thousand.

Could be.  Does the video show clues to the wind direction:
flags, manes, tails etc?  Does the wind blow from behind the
camera toward the horse?

Here is why I say it is likely the horse saw the videotaper.
The video was trained on the horse, but most people in the
crowd would be looking at something else.  Many animals'
brains are hardwired to alert when a (potential) predator is
looking directly at them.  Hence the eyes painted on boats
and airplanes to "spook" animals out of the way.  Horses have
very limited binocular vision, but can make far more use of
their very wide visual field than most humans do.  Humans can
be trained to use their peripheral vision, and when they do,
they become far more alert to threats from multiple sources.
Which is why the security men who guard presidents and other
VIPs have such blank looks.  They are using unfocussed "soft"
eyes to watch everything in their peripheral vision at once.
To scan the surrounding they turn their bodies or heads, not
their eyes.

I learned this over 20 years ago in a wildlife tracking
clinic with renowned tracker Tom Brown, and I have put it to
good use many times since.

        Una Smith
        New Mexico