Mounted search and rescue

["Joan Pottinger" <j.pottinger@insightbb.com>]

I agree that probably alot of this is subjective and that's why when I 
present this to my group they have a clear picture, like when I say 'well 
mannered' horse they have a picture in their mind and it has to be the same 
picture of what a well mannered horse is.

Una, I like your bit about 'you work as you train and you train for the 
conditions in you intend to work'.

The area I live in except for Louisville is basically all hills.  Some high 
some not, but the terrain is basically hilly and rocky.  The further East 
you go of Louisville you will start to find more houses, building, etc are 
built on hills because the town is nothing but hills.  You're either going 
up a hill or coming down a hill and I don't guess they wanted to use a 
bulldozer and level out places.  They wanted to leave things natural.  Ummm 
what a novel idea!!!

There a couple of us that use borium on every shoeing because we usually at 
some point ride on pavement and alot on rocks and across creeks.  We think 
level ground is a luxury!!  Most of our riding are in Forest such as Daniel 
Boone National Forest and Hoosier National Forest and Mammoth Cave.  Yes we 
have gone into a cave before.  Some horses would after another horse went. 
Some wouldn't go period.  I believe what you say your horse has to trust 
you.  I took my horse and with just a little prodding he just went right on 
in and didn't seem to be the least bit scared once he got in there.  With 
that said, we were in the Pegasus Parade and we were stopped underneath a 
major overpass and it was dark.  He wasn't real sure about that and I could 
feel it.  I just made him do a couple of turns and back up a few times, just 
to take his mind off the situation and make him do something he was used to. 
When we stopped he just stood there.  No more spookiness and he is not one 
to spook at anything but spray or a flag.  Oh yeah, if there is orange 
fluorescent on the ground we check it out very carefully!!!  After all ya 
never know whenever one of those fluorescent numbers might chase ya:-)


----- Original Message ----- 
From: <una.smith@att.net>
To: "Mounted search and rescue" <msar-riders@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Tuesday, October 09, 2007 12:54 PM
Subject: Re: [MSAR] Training


> Joan Pottinger wrote:
> > > What type of conditions will you not ride in?
>
> Una Smith wrote:
> > When it is dangerous.  I have put the horse back in the trailer when
> > faced with really bad ice balls.
>
> I want to add that "dangerous" is very subjective.  For responders
> with no experience riding at night, riding at night in on a SAR
> mission may be dangerous.  For others, it may be routine. What
> matters is that you work as you train and you train for the conditions
> in which you intend to work.  So if you intend to respond for SAR
> missions in places where you have never trained, then you probably
> need to train at least some of the time by going riding somewhere you
> have not scouted out in advance.  That is a high barrier for some
> units, and for many riders!  "But, but where are we going to park?
> Wah!  Is there any water for the horses?  Wah!  What about toilets?
> Wah!  How do I get there?  I don't think I can do this..."
>
>   Una
>
>
>
>
>
> > >
> > >
> > >> How far do you go for a rescue?
> > >
> > > I have trailered to destinations over 200 miles away for some searches,
> > > and
> > > farther for many trainings.  Our normal response area is 100 miles or 
> > > so;
> > > that covers enough missions to keep us busy.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >> Do you search rural, urban, city?
> > >
> > > Wilderness and rural.
> > >
> > >
> > >> If a person is lost in the city would you join in the search?
> > >
> > > Yes.  However it is unlikely that we would be called.  Cities have
> > > municipal
> > > police and most of them seem to think New Mexico state SAR resources 
> > > are
> > > for
> > > use only in wilderness.  Also, searches in populated places more often
> > > than
> > > not involve crimes, and police are better prepared than most SAR
> > > volunteers
> > > for those missions.  Etc.  SAR gets called more often for suburban and
> > > urban
> > > searches when the subject is a small child.
> > >
> > >   Una Smith
> > >   New Mexico
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