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Subject: Mounted search and rescue

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  • From: Karen Nesbitt <spanishequines@yahoo.com>
  • To: "Mounted search and rescue in Illinois USA." <msar-il@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Cc: MSAR <msar-riders@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [MSAR] Una's Questions
  • Date: Fri, 5 Oct 2007 08:57:11 -0700 (PDT)

Una's questons have us going!
 
I am reeling in thoughts and dribbling in with thoughts here about the comments recently beign made on this site and when I step back and take a gooooood look at what is occuring here I see a TEAM becoming more and more divided when it should  getting its act together.
 
Being about an hour from the Saduros search and not being able to go TORE us up.
 
Just over 10 years ago, my first search, which in the end turned out to be a recovery on a high profile case 6 miles away from my former home.    What I saw on my first search was a desperate need for people and PEOPLE WITH HORSES. The call went out for community to pull together and get out there to help find a preteen boy.  In the MSAR group, there were ONLY 8 horses and 9 people and half of which were local FD.  Of the other half, it was myself and three other riders.  What occured at the site was a division of the FD going off into one group and the VOLUNTEERS going in another group. EIGHT horsemen came on this STATE and nationwide call....Good Lord, was there ever something wrong with that picture or what.  It did not matter the experience, it mattered most that PEOPLE got out
and simply looked, you needed no skill, just the time to do.
 
One of the gals there came came a great distance to be there.  She had no saddle, but could ride and search. Another fello volunteer was a horseman of obvious experience and good riding ability as well along with the third.  At the end of the ride I noticed the "good old boys club" FD folks were exhausted, their horses lacked tending and they were all wanting to crack open a beer while the others in the search were more interested in tending their mounts and making sure their equipment was in order along with their horses cooled. The volunteers were getting ready for the next ride.  The attitudes of the two groups were highly different.  And while I longed for that perverbial COLD one,  I have no stomach for beer, but man, what a cold glass of water on a 105 degree high humid day would not do  And it kind of corked me too, to see the so called pro's somewhat addicted to the a-hem "morning after" in what a brewski could do. 
 
When I look back and think of the number of horses in that county alone and ONLY 8 horses showed up from the entire state wide call, I become more appalled.  There are literally thousands of people with horses in the county no less the state and plenty of abled bodies, but no willing ones to do.  It was also not jsut a statewide call, it was nationwide.
 
Now, and after not being able to get to the Saduros search, at first I had feelings of great guilt.  I had horrendously difficult decisions to make this week, many of which were dealing with our own crisis.  But what this has got me thinking is that while I could not get to Saduros, I stayed home and began to center my thinking on the next crisis.  I
worked with unskilled horses to prepare them for their next ride, we did other things
voluntarily for our immediate community and well,  even though we did not get there, we continued to work on what we felt were efforts to go into the next crisis and it occured to me, all this just seemed to be the natural thing to do.  It got me thinking on things I could do when I cannot search for you.
 
 While some people and horses were being spent and exhausted in one way,. we were spending our even more depleted resources to become fresh and renewed in another.  My guilt of not being at the search so close to my home left when I thought of that.  (And Irv, if I rambled on about such feelings.. well, I thank you for listening and being a part of just that, I am sure you understand quite a bit of what we all go through!)
 
So now, here are other thoughts that have occured to me.  I am a volunteer.  I give freely of my time, my energy, my resources, my horses etc.  I do this willingly, and for the most part
cheerfully and I do not get up in the morning going , oh good Lord, I have to go to work and it its too much effort for me to rise out of bed to go search  or Jeez, I need a big raise to do this lousy job.  I do wonder though how many of you good old "boys and girls" do do exactly that because you are over spent in your relation with your job and your authority and how drained of inner spirit you can be.  So now here is another thought.....instead of us all bickering about not working together because one is a volunteer and the other a paid community member, how nice it would be to just simply become a better team and get with the program and work TOGETHER.
 
If an F-5 or worse  ripped through half the state, you paid folks  sure the hell would be thankful for any volunteer.  As would we sure the heck would also greatly  appreciate you.
 
Ok, well, there you go.  I feel better, my horses are a little bit more trained than they were the day before and well, you might not like the fact that I am lame and cannot pound ground and get off my horse in a search, but I can do more from the back of  a horse than some other folks can do just as they can do other things that I can't.  Perhaps I can ride to the local donut shop and be a service to you when you sit at the sign up doing what it is you do.  My horses are fresh when yours might be tired.  (And yeah, I am beign a little sarcastic here, but can you think of that F-5 without a volunteer?  I would hate to think of it without the pros either as when such a disaster like that hits, we all NEED TO BE A TEAM.
 
We  ALL ALSO  all LACK in things we need for our individual units, but together someone, somewhere has something in his or her pack that someone can benefit from.
 
Karen Nesbitt
VMSAR
Iroquois County
Illinois - USA
 


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