Mounted search and rescue

[Halla Kjartansdottir <halla_kja@yahoo.com>]

Hello

It has been very interresting to read your e-mails and gives a good insight 
in what is going on in the MSAR world. Hopefully we´ll be able to add 
experience stories some day.

We haven´t yet had courses nor started msar training here in Iceland but 
there are quite a few rescue team members that are also horse people that are 
very interested in using horses on some missions. Hopefully we´ll start next 
year. Our ICE-SAR Search and Rescue and Accident Prevention Association are 
interrested to work on this with us so hopefully we can get the first course 
next summer. Plus we´ve got strong, clever horses that are surely eager to 
work on this project with us:) 

Last summer our team had a (very) small practice on horses with different 
search tasks in variable landscape. It was very good experience, promising 
and we look forward to doing more. We even had our first rescue mission where 
we had to use horses last summer. Some farmers asked for our help to fetch 
some totally uncontrolable young cows. Some of our team members borrowed some 
good sheep gathering horses from next farm and managed to get the cows in a 
safe place. 

I have some questions regarding where to start. As I said it´s rather likely 
that we can get an instructor here next year, whoever that will be. Is there 
any books that we can get information from on basic training and basic 
technique so that we can do things right from the beginning? What are you 
looking for in a horse when looking for a scenting horse? And when do you 
start training scenting horses (icelandic horses are broken in 4-5 year old)?

Could you be so kind to change the e-mail address on the list from 
halla_kja@yahoo.com to: msar_iceland@yahoo.com

Best regards,
  Halla Kjartansdóttir
  Hvanneyri, Iceland


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3. árs nemi á Náttúru- og umhverfisbraut
Landbúnaðarháskóli Íslands
Hvanneyri