Mounted search and rescue

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

Laurie,

Maybe you and your horse would benefit from some "trail trial" riding,
"extreme trail riding", eventing, or riding out with a fox hunting club.
Get some experience running off trail, and you and your horse will be
much safer.  And you will feel so much more confident too.

Scent training, in the sense you are asking about, is just despooking
or "bomb proofing".  A horse can learn not to spook and bolt at new
and scary stimuli, without you having to expose them to all possible
stimuli.  The stimuli can be visual, auditory, or olfactory.  If you
want to train using a real-life olfactory stimulus, a good one for
MSAR is cadaver scent, which can be bought in a bottle.  SAR K9 team
trainers will know where to get it and, more important, how to handle
it so you don't contaminate everything with it.

The scent of a bear or a mountain lion is not instinctively scary for
a horse.  I expect your horse not only scented but also saw the first
bear, and recognized the threat.  Realizing you are being stared at
by an animal or person hiding behind a tree usually *does* trigger an
instinctive fear response, in humans and horses both.  It is possible
to learn to control this response.  Mounted police training addresses
this.  Training to work cattle also addresses this.  Cattle can stare
hard, and spook a horse not experienced with them.

Hope this helps,

        Una Smith
        New Mexico