Mounted search and rescue

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

Joseph C. Huston wrote:
>My SAR horse Stormy died several months ago

My condolences.  I am so sorry.

>                                            and I am working with a horse I 
>recently brought in from West Texas. I would like some input on where to go 
>to find a list of suggestions to get this horse up to speed. He has great 
>ground manners, is easy to ride and I have already started sacking him out.

Well, make a check list of all the things you want your horse to do...
Is your question what to put on the checklist?  That depends on your
local requirements, surely?

My old mare Whitney, a SAR pro, died this spring too.  She was ailing
for months, and in the end we realized it was cancer.  Judging by her
teeth and history she was already 30+ when I got her and I had her 9
years.  Now I have a new old mare, a 20-something.  Like Whitney was,
she too is newly retired from playing polo and needs basic training
on and off trails.  I am doing a lot of long walks with her in hand.
I keep her on a high mesa with sheer cliffs, and the one trail down
off the mesa is on the side of the cliff.  So for my own safety while
she learns I walk.  :-)  She is learning to cross fallen tree trunks,
climb up and down trail stairs and rock faces and boulders, across
streams, etc.  Also to wear a one-leg hobble and be staked out, and
not panic when she gets tangled up in the rope.

She already is totally cool with emergency vehicles, bulldozers, etc.
coming "at" her.  Haven't checked her out with helicopters overhead
yet, but that is on my checklist.  I have not decided about air scent
training.  I will train her to alert on people, however she detects
them.

Then there's the basics, which she has down pat:  mount and dismount
on both sides, stand tied, allow me to put on and take of raincoat etc
while riding.  Neck rein.  I know she is a pro at ponying and being
ponied.  And that she goes well in company with any other horses.

Should we generate a collective check-list, from which each one of us
could extract the items we want on our own check-lists?

For instance, in many areas it doesn't matter much if the horse won't
drink except from a familiar bucket.  Eg in some parts of New Mexico
there is no other source of water, so we don't care.  In other parts,
and for searches that go many hours' ride away from roads, willingness
to drink from streams or puddles or strange contraptions called trick
tanks is important.

        Una Smith
        New Mexico