Mounted search and rescue

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

Hi Paul.  You are in Texas, so look into TUMPOT.  Also talk to other
MSAR units in the counties around you (some are represented here on
MSAR-Riders), and finally talk to other (non-horse) SAR units ditto.  
http://www.ibiblio.org/msar/units/#Texas has lots of links.

(I hope not too many links are dead.  I am not keeping up with link
checking like I used to, and this past year has been a really bad
one for domain name hijacking!)

The bottom line is you need to meet the requirements expected by the
organizations that will be calling you out.  If they have none, then
you are free to choose your own requirements.  You can borrow them
from other MSAR groups, and adapt as needed to your local situation.  
A starting point for that task would be to check our web archive and
gather some of the documents in it.  Browse and search links to the
archive are on http://www.ibiblio.org/msar/msar-riders.html

>From memory, I would say the most common "requirement" issues that
new units have to decide are:

* minimum age of member, human
* minimum age of member, equine
* stallions (out period, provisional, no mention)
* mount from the ground (one time only, one or two sides, no mention)
* minimum participation (% of meetings, trainings, callouts, service)
* who pays for equipment (team or member)
* file with the IRS or not (this *is* a choice, and many choose not)
* minimum training/equivalent before member eligible for callout
* kind and extent of non-SAR activities the group will perform

Who pays for equipment can be very problematic, starting out.  But
I think sheriff's posse groups have bigger problems, because they
have uniforms.  Someone joins, gets a badge and branded tack, then
quits.  Even if the group owns the gear, getting it back can be
hard.  Some units use a deposit scheme, but that requires a level
of financial sophistication that can be hard on the officers.

You can get training from many different organizations;  ask the
other SAR units in your area which ones have been the best value
for them.

Congratulations on coming so far!

        Una Smith
        New Mexico