Mounted search and rescue

["IRVIN LICHTENSTEIN" <ilichten1@verizon.net>]

Several friends rode Icelandics on public trails in this area. They were
somewhat short, mostly around what we in the US would call ponies, and
gaited. I will have to try and find a picture of one next to my Percheron.
Very rugged animal with a great carrying capacity.  

What Una refers to as air scent is not the same as most air scent search
dogs in my experience. Dogs tend to use their nose as the primary sensor
where horses tend to fuse their nose, eyes, ears, and maybe a sense of being
hunted.  This survival instinct is in most horses or other prey animals.
The herd teaches them how to interpret the sense message as threat or not.
How comfortable a horse is in its surroundings will have some affect on the
attentiveness.  A horse that is in a stall with solid walls and never sees a
predator or any threat probably will not react as well as one that knows
what is going on.  This is sometimes called street smart.

A MSAR mount must be able to trust you as far as the terrain and the route,
you must trust the mount to indicate when something is different in the
environment.  You help by identifying new or strange sounds and sights to
you horse as non-threatening.  Some things will always get his attention
until they can be identified, such as engines, the whir of a bicycle, canoes
in a creek, other horses.

Irv Lichtenstein 

-----Original Message-----
From: msar-riders-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:msar-riders-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Una Smith
Sent: Wednesday, November 12, 2008 4:49 PM
To: Mounted search and rescue
Subject: Re: [MSAR] Change of e-mails and some news from Iceland

Greetings, Halla!

Halla Kjartansdottir wrote:
>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?