Mounted search and rescue

[Una Smith <una.smith@att.net>]

Dana,

Shawnee County Sheriff's Posse sounds like a solid mounted patrol
group.  Glad you made contact.  Such groups are the foundation of a
lot of the more specialized MSAR groups and usually there is more
mounted patrol work to do than SAR work.

Judging by the websites, it looks like the focus of volunteer search
and rescue in Kansas is the Kansas Search and Rescue Dog Association,
www.ksarda.org.  You might get in touch with them.  Most of their SAR
missions are in the Kansas City metro area.  MSAR and K9 SAR have a
lot in common, namely the animal factor.  Horses like dogs can learn
to airscent and probably also track scent.  Maybe also discriminate
scent.  Even if they don't scent, horses have acute senses, so one
of the things you can do with them is teach them to show you someone
hiding in the undergrowth.  You do that by having someone hide, who
has treats for the horse.  Then you teach the horse that by finding
someone, they get a treat from you.  That way, the horse looks for
a person, not just for a person who smells of horse treats.  Use a
verbal cue, so the horse knows when a treat is on offer.  This is a
really short summary of entire books on teaching dogs to search for
humans.

The hug-a-tree program teaches little kids to carry a whistle in the
woods and use it if they get lost.  You can teach a horse to home in
on a whistle to get a treat.  This may help you find a lost child
faster, because the horse may hear the whistle long before you do.

        Una Smith
        New Mexico