Mounted search and rescue

[<mikerobin@colton.com>]

Greetings to all, and especially to Una, whom I haven’t conversed with in a long time.  The State of Oregon vests control of all SAR missions with the Sheriff of whatever county the mission is in. I hate to see any mounted unit get disbanded, especially a certified SAR unit.

Having first becoming involved with SAR in 1978 (as a full time Deputy Sheriff), it seems like the past couple of years has seen a change in response.  With the electronic technology that is moving faster than some of us are,,,  including the cell phone pinging/coordinates available to 911 centers and such, the ground response is quicker and missions shorter.

Along with that, our Sheriff’s Posse has not had a SAR callout all year, and only 2 last year and I doubt that the other Posse’s in our state that do SAR have any more than that.  With this, comes the difficult task of keeping members involved in the continuing training that is required.  As Marie said, discouraged members, with no call outs, don’t stay with the program. So you wonder, with less missions, are people getting smarter or technology better??????

Ok, enough for me.   by the way our annual SAR conference is next month here is the site  www.nwsarcon.com

Mike Hattan

Clackamas County Sheriff’s Posse (Oregon)

 

From: Marie Lester

Sent: Saturday, August 15, 2015 7:02 AM

To: Mounted search and rescue

Subject: Re: [MSAR] Mounted SAR news in your area?

 

Central Ohio Mounted Search Unit also disbanded, Una.   There are some states in which motorized vehicles are more efficient than mounted units, and the terrain can accommodate them.  Infrequent call outs eventually discourage members who do a great deal of training, but are never given the opportunity to use their skills.  

 

 

 

On Sat, Aug 15, 2015 at 5:24 AM, Mary Lou Johnson <nox2663@blackfoot.net> wrote:

I’m sorry to say that our local SAR, Sanders County Search & Rescue mounted team was disassembled.  I never got a written notice, but heard through the grapevine.  I had been on the reserve list for a while due to a lack of mount.  The vet said my old horse could not participate any more.  Then I purchased two horses to ready and heard the bad news.  I was very disappointed, to say the least.

 

From: Una Smith

Sent: Friday, August 14, 2015 2:26 PM

To: msar-riders@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: [MSAR] Mounted SAR news in your area?

 

How have you been?  I'd like to hear!

Here in northern New Mexico USA all the mounted SAR teams have been busy.
Several of our state police districts have been running far above average
in number of SAR missions.  We even have a new team over in Farmington.

Mounted teams are so valuable for the greater distance and speed they can
travel compared to a searcher on foot, potential for the rider to focus
on detecting clues while the horse negotiates the terrain, and potential
for the horse to detect (air scent) the subject.  It helps that our state
SAR Resource Officer is a former mounted SAR responder.

Una Smith
Los Alamos, New Mexico
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