Mounted search and rescue

[Yvette Rollins <hoosierhorsemen@yahoo.com>]

I believe you are all right. Each horse and rider has to get to know each's personality and how each react to different situations.  Each person reacts differently and will cause a horse to react accordingly. Lots of time working together and paying attention will result in the type of partnership you want with your horse. Not every rider will work with every horse and not every horse will work with a rider. Each person has to find what works for them and their comfort level.  I have 9 horses and have had over the years many more, some would work for SAR and some would never be comfortable and I would not trust them in different situations.  I have a horse I rescued as a 3 year old, the people could not handle this horse. He tried to kick my head off I don't know how many times and he tried to dump me equally but I knew this horse from birth and figured something had gone wrong during their 3 years with him.  I found out plenty and had to work with him to overcome much of things that he had encountered during those 3 short years of his life, not a positive experience. It is really amazing what you can find out when you start talking to the kids in the family and I had my suspicions when the owners told me they were taking him to the killers because he just wasn't working out. I concentrated on him for more than a year, lots of ground work and riding, riding and more riding. He is 22 years old now and I trust him with my life, my children and now my grandchildren and many others that come to ride. He has seen me through just about every experience you can imagine.  But, don't put him in a roping chute, he will herd cattle all day out in the open but will tremble if you try to rope off him in an enclosed environment and has never gotten over it, part of his earlier past that he just could not overcome, they would put him in a stall, tie him up so he couldn't move and beat him with a 2x4, if they couldn't ride him they were going to kill him. I can hunt off him, drag deer and sleds, pole bend, barrels, trails, SAR, ridden the streets of Indianapolis, chased motorcycles, etc.. He runs great in an indoor arena with cattle, for team penning and sorting.  I know what his buttons are and that came from working with him. You can call it desensitizing, experience, time in the saddle or on the ground. I do believe they have to be safe on the ground before you can trust them under saddle.  So, we do what we think it right and hope for the best.  I am sure most of you are not in it for the money but for the satisfaction of a positive outcome and the hope that everyone is found safe and sound but if not that they are found for closure for the family. 

 

Happy Trails!

Yvette

‘Tread Lightly upon the Land and Leave No Trace!’

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From: IRVIN LICHTENSTEIN <ilichten1@verizon.net>
To: Mounted search and rescue <msar-riders@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Mon, January 24, 2011 9:52:19 PM
Subject: Re: [MSAR] Hello, MSAR bombproofing

These clinics are sold as bombproofing or desensitizing or sometimes even “mounted training”.  What a MSAR rider has to have is a concept of partnership with the horse.

My mount of over 20 years still doesn’t like certain sights on the trail- plastic stackable lawn chairs (white against black) came up once.  Dead bodies, even deer, get him upset.  But it doesn’t stop the mission.  Your job is to detect clues—whether the subject went that way or proof that he didn’t.  It also requires you to get back alive to report in detail what you found or didn’t find.

A horse whose first reaction is to run/spook/spin/ buck when he sees something new is not useful on the real deal.  There may be some things you want him to be afraid of: shotgun blasts for instance, and others he should tolerate but be alert for: bicycles, vehicles, aircraft.  And lastly there should be those things that should scare both of you: men with guns pointed at you, loose dogs/wolves/coyotes, normally nocturnal animals about during the day.

This will vary with the horse and rider but you must be able to communicate with your mount, there should be mutual trust, and you mount should have enough brains left to protect himself and you.  Too many times owners want their horse despooked for a nice pleasant ride in the park.  Buy an experienced hack horse, they even know when to turn around and come home.  Do this to your own bright, alert mount and you teach him that it is all right to be eaten by that loose dog coming up behind.

 

Most of the clinicians who work this area are ex-mounted city police desensers who think the best horse is one that will look down the muzzle of a gun and charge.  Personally, there is one thing I am afraid of, poachers.  They shoot deer for meat and sale and face some really stiff penalties for getting caught.  If I am in a park after dark and guns start going off, I am out of there as fast as my mount can carry me. 

 

Read the concept papers concerning partnering with your mount in the archives.

 

Irv Lichtenstein

SE PA SAR

 

 

 

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From: msar-riders-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:msar-riders-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of T'mi Finkle
Sent: Monday, January 24, 2011 9:20 PM
To: 'Mounted search and rescue'
Subject: Re: [MSAR] Hello, MSAR

 

Chris, I agree 100% with you about the terminology. Words such as bomb proofing and desensitizing are used by equine clinicians to promote their clinics, which can be confusing and/or sometimes misleading to the average rider.

 

T’mi    

TROTSAR

 

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From: msar-riders-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:msar-riders-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of pennbo@verizon.net
Sent: Monday, January 24, 2011 9:09 PM
To: msar-riders@lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [MSAR] Hello, MSAR

 

Interesting discussion. However I wouldn't call it desensitized- as that usually means doesn't react at all. Instead I think a better terminology would be to say they are experienced or trained to accept varying situations. Mine aren't desensitized-  they DO react to different stimuli- but in an acceptable manner as reinforced by me during their training. :-)

Chris