Mounted search and rescue

["irvin lichtenstein" <ilichten1@verizon.net>]

You want your mount to be stable and sensible but not oblivious to his
surroundings. The ability of a horse to detect subjects is dependent on his
being aware of his surroundings and using his senses to convey alerts to his
rider. The experienced horse trusts his rider not to allow the whatever it
is to eat him and therefore stays put while expressing unease. If a horse
with extensive trail experience wants to leave an area it is probably a good
idea to back off and then find out why. The last two times I had that
experience involved very suspicious and unusual circumstances. The first was
a white plastic chair sitting on a wooded trail which created about a 6 foot
zone (where was the person who was supposed to be in the chair?) and the
other was a dead deer left out in the middle of a field, predators don't
leave dead prey around in these parts. That created about a 30 foot zone.

Using a horse as a weapon can be a double edged sword. I usually advocate
just running when somebody is threatening. You cannot outrun a bullet but
most other things can't keep up with even a lame horse. The parks in
Pennsylvania are not patrolled on horse back but with boats, cars, and
bicycles for the most part. Some jurisdictions don't even have park police
or rangers. The basic rule is don't let anyone near you feel the slightest
bit uneasy about, and be ready to run. Several teenagers tried to jump a
single rider on a sore horse one night. They couldn't keep up on their
bicycles as she outran them back to the barn where a ranger in a car met
her.

Regardless of the circumstance I cannot sanction training a horse to accept
commands that involve him bumping or running over potential attackers, let
alone striking out. The amount of damage a horse can do, without even being
serious about it, is excessive, particularly if you can leave the scene at
over 20 MPH on his back.  And big horses should never be trained to
aggressively contact humans.  He is frightening enough just standing there,
looking you in the eye.

Irv Lichtenstein