Mounted search and rescue

[Kinch <kinch@shaw.ca>]

Thanks for sending that on Una. I didn't know that the story made a major 
newspaper chain. The original article was 2 pages with photographs. Our 
group is really looking forward to Terry's clinic. Currently, in Arrowsmith 
Search & Rescue we have 12 members in our Equine Search Assistance Team (8 
trained Ground Search & Rescue Specialists and 4 who have completed our 
local Equine Search Assistance Course). Hopefully, with all this publicity 
more SAR groups on Vancouver Island will look at equine teams in the future.

In our SAR group, we just don't have mounted members. Our group currently 
consists of ground pounder teams, a rope rescue team, an avalanche rescue 
team, a water rescue team, a tracking team and a K9 team along with our 
equine team. Together, we have a great SAR group. Many of us are cross 
trained and are members of several teams. This makes for a great "working 
relationship".

I'll try and do up a small article after the clinic in April.

Joe Kinch
Arrowsmith Search & Rescue
Vancouver Island
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Una Smith" <una.smith@att.net>
To: <msar-riders@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Thursday, March 20, 2008 9:33 AM
Subject: [MSAR] Horse air-scent training, Vancouver Island, Canada


> Newspaper story "Horses get a chance to prove they're up to sniff":
>
> http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=0549ad60-10b0-4e5b-bba7-bb8aae68f268
>
> The trainer mentioned in the article, Terry Nowacki, has posted a
> wealth of information about air scenting horses on MSAR-Riders,
> all in our public web archive.  Try our Google search interface:
>
> http://www.ibiblio.org/msar/msar-riders.html
>
> In the Vancouver Sun article Terry is quoted "The rider needs more
> training than the horse."  In my experience that is true more often
> than not.  I have seen horses alert on a "subject" hiding in bushes,
> only to have their riders correct them for offering to depart from
> the assigned task of (ahem) finding the subject.
>
> An outfit in Vermont trains air scenting horses and holds clinics:
>
> Vermont Mounted Response Unit
> http://www.horsepatrol.org/
>
> Enjoy,
>
> Una Smith
> New Mexico
>
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