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Subject: Mounted search and rescue

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  • From: Terry Nowacki <wwfarm@wiktel.com>
  • To: Mounted search and rescue <msar-riders@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [MSAR] Horsemanship
  • Date: Sun, 13 Aug 2006 13:15:31 -0400

[Deleted HTML duplicate. -Una]


Horsemanship, Body Control and Safety

Lately on this list there has been a lot discussion on how to safely maneuver
horses around in tight situations, some one even mentioned safety in traffic
conditions.

The key to success in the above for the most part lies in basic
horsemanship. For the above topics, the horsemanship skills needed
is total horse body control by installing buttons for independent body part
lateral movements. If your horses do not side pass, half pass,
pivot on their hind or front quarters, you are not in total control of
your mount while you are doing SAR, crowd control, or riding in
a parade. If you do not have total control of your horse you could
very well be jeopardizing your mission and the safety of yourself or others.
Many times by using lateral movement buttons correctly you can even
change or lesson your horses mind from worrying about a potential threat on
one side of the horse by getting the horses brain to concentrate more on the
opposite, non threating side, simple by using a lateral leg cue.

Riding a horse with lateral control buttons would be like riding a air boat
down a
river. This air boat would have a lateral adjustable fan that could take you
either
to the left, right, back or forward while going down that river. Now riding a
horse that
does not know how to use total body control lateral movements could be
compared
to riding a log down a river. Both may eventually get you where you want to
go, but for
the most part the log will take you where it wants to go, while the air boat
on the other
hand will allow you to adjust your position with close to exact precision at
any particular
moment during your ride.

After visiting with many MSAR across the US, I can tell you that there is a
good number
of people that are not for MSAR testing obstacles like opening gates, lateral
movements,
etc. I belive they mistakenly view these test/ obstacles as non important to
MSAR. Test such
as opening gates, using lateral control, turning in a small boxs with out
touching the sides
are all horsemanship test designed to see if total body control can be
achieved. The nation
wide 4-H program uses tests or obstacles such as these to test basic
horsemanship skills of
children in the first or second grade and up. These same test can serve an
important purpose
in MSAR. They could help to improve the safety of the riders, their horses,
others and can
even improve the searching position/ability of the rider.

Examples - The 360 degree turn in a small box with out touching the sides is
representative of skills needed to do a turn on a narrow mountain ledge.
Opening and
closing a gate could represent showing one handed riding ability when using
the other hand
for radio, GPS, etc.. The lateral movements used in many of these
horsemanship test obstacles
are representative of positioning your horse in a ideal searching position
or moving your
horse laterally to insure safety of your horse or others. If you have lateral
control you can
reposition your horse to the right or left without turning the horses head
which in many
cases turning the horse head can temporally block the view of the searcher.

Just maybe, the recent discussions about the MSAR tragedy and controlling
horses in traffic conditions are a wake up call for more MSAR groups to look
seriously in to the benefits of testing or training for more traditional
horsemanship skills.

Food for thought.

TER
http://equinedetectionservices.com/clinics_&_training.htm





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