Mounted search and rescue

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

Hi Lana,

You've had great input already, but here is some more, from another
mountain dweller.

Does your MSAR unit really need to require SAR horses wear shoes?
Or is the requirement "cruft" added to your SOPs after someone who
was supposed to be in charge let someone else use a horse barefoot
that did need shoes?  I've been on a ride where another rider's
horse lost several shoes.  The shoes were very thin resets, and the
nail holes had worn so much that the shoes simply fell off, leaving
the nails behind.  That kind of problem can be addressed in many
ways, but one bad way would be to write a blanket requirement that
MSAR horses must be shod only with new shoes.

As far as I know, none of the New Mexico MSAR teams require shoes.
Some horses here wear shoes year round, most wear shoes only in the
summer when the ground is very dry and hooves wear down too fast,
and some never wear shoes.

I know from experience that I can ride my barefoot mare only one
day on the dirt roads in the Valles Caldera;  after that, she will
need boots or shoes, because that one day of riding on extremely
abrasive volcanic grit takes off so much hoof.  (I wonder how the
first Spanish Conquistadors managed to ride for weeks across some
of New Mexico's vast volcanic fields?)

Does keeping the horse barefoot save any money?  In my experience,
no shoes involve far more work than shoes, because the hoof may
still need regular trimming and definitely needs rasping between
trims.  I tried doing it all myself for a couple of years while I
was "between" farriers and now I gladly pay a farrier to trim.  It
costs almost as much as a trim plus shoes.  I would not make a
blanket requirement that all horses used for MSAR be shod, but on
the other hand I likely would not put in the field a horse that
had hooves, shod or not, in a condition not suitable for riding.
That might mean the volunteer goes home, or leaves the horse tied
at the trailer for the day.

        Una