Mounted search and rescue

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

The quoted text below is from Mary Lou Johnson, a long-time member of
MSAR-Riders, reporting on the current status of her MSAR unit in Sanders
County, Montana.  Like some other MSAR units, hers was founded within
an established saddle club but now is in transition to a specialty unit
within an established SAR team.  You can find her old posts in our web
archive.  

Congratulations, Mary Lou!

        Una Smith


Mary Lou Johnson wrote:
>The name of our group is "Sanders County Search & Rescue Mounted Unit" 
>www.sanderscountysar.org .  All call outs are made by the Sanders County 
>Sheriffs Dept. under the command of Sheriff Gene Arnold.
>We started to organize under the Sanders County Rocky Ridge Saddle Club 
>www.saddleclub.org at least five years ago, but for insurance reasons and 
>the sheriff, we had to take a different route, even though the saddle club 
>supports the group wherever possible.   We are just now starting to 
>organize and have about 10 members.  We must first become a member of the 
>Sanders County Search & Rescue, which we have all done and we are a team 
>within that group.  Patrick Hatler is the team leader for the mounted unit. 
>We held our first couple of meetings in the last several months.  The last 
>meet was with horses.  We have a very knowledgeable couple who were  
>involved in a mounted unit in California before moving to Montana willing 
>to work with our group and help set up our SOPS, etc.  We will get started 
>tp certify the group with their horses as soon as the weather permits.
>Thank you for your interest.
>Mary Lou Johnson
>Secretary, SCSAR