Mounted search and rescue

["T'mi Fi" <tfinkle@erols.com>]

   Courtesy of the National  FDA Consumer Magazine, July/Aug 2006 edition


   Search and Rescue From the Saddle

As a biologist in the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM), 
Michele McGuinness, Ph.D., spends much of her workweek evaluating new 
production drugs for poultry. But the weekends are spent with her 
horses, training to track down missing people.

McGuinness serves as assistant commander and team training officer for 
TROTSAR, a volunteer equine search and rescue (SAR) team that works with 
the Maryland State Police. McGuinness credits her 21-year-old equine 
partner, Tom, with saving a person's life. And she credits FDA-approved 
animal drugs with keeping her partner healthy enough to perform the rescue.

"We ride and train year-round, in all kinds of weather. We have to learn 
incident management standards, in addition to search and rescue skills, 
as part of the Department of Homeland Security mandate for search teams. 
We are trained in wilderness first aid and search techniques like clue 
awareness, crime scene preservation, and map and compass reading. If 
you're not properly skilled and trained, you become a liability on a 
search and rescue mission.

"You're supposed to be in good physical condition and so is your horse. 
If the lost person cannot be evacuated using your SAR horse and you 
can't get a vehicle in or land a helicopter, you may have to help carry 
somebody out on a stretcher. They say in Maryland, you're never more 
than five miles from a road. But five miles is a long way to carry somebody!

"Our team is called out between three and six times a year. We're 
supposed to be ready to deploy within an hour at any time of the day or 
night with our horses. We've already had three SAR missions this year. 
On the most recent one, a missing plane search, we worked with the 
Maryland State Police, Civil Air Patrol, and ground teams. The plane and 
deceased pilot were located by a ground team. Our TROTSAR mounted teams 
were working up the mountain toward the suspected crash site when we 
heard the find over the radio. We were happy to be part of a successful 
mission, although sad for the pilot's family.

"Horses provide us with a tremendous field of vision. If you're on the 
ground, you can't see anywhere near what we can see from the top of a 
horse. We can cover large distances without tiring because the horse is 
doing the walking. Having the horse doing the walking frees us up to 
look for clues or look for people. We don't have to watch where our feet 
are going--the horse is doing that. And they can carry a lot more gear 
than people can on their backs.

"When I met Tom, he was wild, sometimes dangerously ill-behaved, and 
nobody was willing to ride him. I heard Tom called 'useless,' but he was 
all I had to ride. It was an adventure, Tom and I working things out, 
but we did.

"Tom and I were out riding with my friend and his inexperienced horse 
when the accident happened. At one point, one of the reins got caught 
around the horse's right hind leg. He suddenly exploded into a fury of 
panicked bucking. I've never heard anything hit the ground so hard as my 
friend's body smashing onto that trail.

"My friend wasn't breathing. He looked pretty much dead, all crumpled up 
and with a bloodless white face. But there was a pulse, and I was able 
to restart the breathing. Eventually my friend regained consciousness, 
and I couldn't find any broken bones. We were several miles from a house 
or a road, and his horse was long gone. I had no cell phone service. My 
friend was lapsing in and out of consciousness and stopped breathing 
again. I had no choice but to load him onto Tom and take him with me.

"It took us nearly an hour to walk out of the forest. I then had cell 
phone service and called 911. Tom was fabulous, remained calm even when 
the LifeFlight helicopter landed in the field nearby.

"Tom is handicapped. He has arthritis and a heart murmur and when he 
pushes too hard, I can feel his heart doing the 'hokeypokey.' A CVM 
veterinarian was able to give Tom some mitigating drugs that help him 
keep going. Those equine drugs restored my partner's ability to perform, 
and that ability saved a person's life. It is ironic that an old, 
'useless,' disabled horse is my furry hero."

Congrats Michele!

Tomi`
Commander
TROTSAR Mounted Team