Mounted search and rescue

["IRVIN LICHTENSTEIN" <ilichten1@verizon.net>]

Safety is everybody's job.  Being aware of danger and the ways to avoid it
or minimize its impact on getting the job done is every searcher's
responsibility. A safety officer is supposed to stop unsafe acts and to
coach those in the field in how to avoid making mistakes. A manager's
responsibility is to constantly weight eh risk and the benefit of any task
and determine if the benefit justifies the risk.  

Since each task team varies in experience, capabilities, and judgment, the
assignment must be examined by the members assigned and they then make an
assessment of their skills and experience against the task to decide whether
they can do the job.  Their ability to perform is monitored by both the
search manager who wants the task completed and the safety officer who wants
the task completed safely.  

The benefit in training is confidence building.  Knowing you can do a
difficult job under fairly easy circumstances and little downside to
failure. However, getting beat up or worse during training is not required.
Stretching endurance, moving to a tougher level of terrain, etc. can be
training objectives.  But there is no benefit to getting hurt or losing a
mount in a training accident that could have been prevented by merely
staying home that morning.  

Irv Lichtenstein