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msar-riders - Re: [MSAR] walking home?

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Subject: Mounted search and rescue

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  • From: "Jorene Downs" <Jorene@CEOates.com>
  • To: "'Mounted search and rescue'" <msar-riders@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [MSAR] walking home?
  • Date: Wed, 22 Jul 2009 19:25:24 -0700

It sounds like you’ve built a pretty good relationship with your horse. I’ve trusted many a horse in the backcountry over the years to carry me safely on trails I would have hesitated to try on foot without a safety line. I also understand that they need to trust me as herd boss. I’ve spent over 50 years with horses and there are currently 15 on the property.  I was building positive relationships with my horses long before “natural horsemanship” got that much more marketable name 15+ years ago.  (I recall buying a horse about 20 years ago and being warned by his 2 prior owners you couldn’t catch him without grain, yet 3 days later he was meeting me at the gate.)

 

Herd behavior, horse body language, quiet leadership in the herd, etc., has been a fascinating topic for me for decades – particularly since I can always learn more just looking out my window -  and very useful in building positive relationships with the many horses I’ve owned and known.  ;-)

 

Back in the 1990s I was active online on an equestrian discussion group and, by request,  some of the posts I made then are posted on my web site. One in particular relates to this discussion:

http://www.ceoates.com/info/herd_leadership.html

 

The one time I was bucked off – many years ago, my error -  the horse stayed within a few yards and I was back in the saddle a few minutes later, continuing down the trail. However, even those few yards may seem like miles if the person on the ground is injured and unable to stand to reach the first aid kit or survival supplies still attached to the saddle or buried in saddlebags, etc.  I know of other horses that eventually returned to the trailer, many miles away. Some were startled by a predator nearby and ran off – flight in survival mode. I’ve also been in camp and had tacked horses run through to join our own stock (herd instinct), then gone to find the dismounted riders.

 

We had a SAR a few years ago where the rider was down and injured in the backcountry – litter carry required – and his horse and pack mule remained with him. His first aid and survival gear was in his saddlebags. He couldn’t get to it other than the bandana around his neck. Luckily he was on a relatively main trail only about 5 miles from the closest trailhead, and  other riders came by a few hours later who then rode out to call 911.

 

The gear the rider invests in for survival isn’t very useful if you are down, incapacitated, and don’t have it within arm’s reach. This is why I am a proponent of keeping the survival gear on the rider.

 

If you spread out the bandages and such, and use some of the softer gear to pad from the body side anything more solid, you avoid having a larger bulge to land on and also soften and distribute potential problems to reduce possible impact.

 

- - - - - -

Jorene Downs

SAR & CERT

Mounted SAR

www.ceoates.com/msar

 

From: IRVIN LICHTENSTEIN

Maybe it is your horse.  Like they say there are two kinds of riders, those that have been throwed and those that will be.  I have been separated from my ride a few

times but neither ran home and left me stranded.  Generally they went less than a quarter mile, came back when called by name.  Part of the trust you build with your mount is that he doesn’t want to leave you alone.  And he does know when I am sick or injured and acts differently.  We went unexpectedly into a creek from the bank one day and when we got out he very carefully took me home on verbal command, using a route that avoided trail obstacles, steep grades, etc. Not the usual direct run home, but a walk trot without stopping to graze at the usual spots or being distracted by others in the park.  I have seen otherwise docile trail horses run miles after dumping a rider, so it is you and your horse relationship that make the difference.

 

Let the horse do the thinking—he is sometimes smarter.

Irv Lichtenstein




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