Horses for Mounted Search and Rescue

I have received e-mails from mounted search and rescue organizations in four different states. Usually they are casting about for different opinions on what horsemanship skills are necessary to safely and successfully conduct search and rescue on horseback.

Most of these organizations are volunteer in nature sometimes affiliated with a County Sheriffs Office or associated with multiple Counties in rural areas where combining resources and skills are necessary. My hat is off to these people who volunteer to spend their own time and sometimes risk their own safety to search for and rescue those lost or injured. When I was involved in search and rescue missions as an Army Range Rider it was part of my job, so unlike these volunteer units I got paid to do it.  

I think the bottom line in mounted search and rescue (SAR) organizations are that the people and horses participating have to be competent enough out in the wilderness to minimize the risks of becoming an object of a rescue themselves.  This means pretty calm horses and fairly experienced riders. Horses who have problems with other horses being close to them, such as kicking, should probably not be part of a horseback SAR unit.

SAR horses should be accepting of new and various stimulus and this is usually accomplished through desensitizing exercises. You may not like the term "desensitizing", so just think of it as exposing the horse to new situations and stimulus where the horse learns to think before panicking. However, this takes a rider who is patient and does not push the horse before he is ready. The key point here is to get the horse to accepting.

The issue with the desensitizing on various objects is that the horse can become really good as recognizing and dismissing various stimulus (objects) at one place, but take him down the road and the same obstacles are different to him. Again, the whole idea in my way of thinking, is that the desensitizing is really getting your horse soft and accepting, and learning to think his way through problems.

I think it would be important to have routine or periodic training events, where the obstacles and rider/horse tasks are different. Some things that would be important to me are:

~ The horse leads up correctly; stops when asked and does not move forward unless cued.

~ The horse stands while mounting and does not move off unless cued.

~ The horse can back when asked, move his front end over and rear end over independent of each other, and both ways when asked.

~ Be able to turn in tight box- this is for dead end trails where you have little room to manuever.

~ The horse should be able to be ridden one handed, and while a reining prospect the horse need not be, being capable to be neck reined or ridden one handed is important, as the rider may have to use a radio or a flashlight, move low laying branches out of the way or do any other tasks with the other hand.

~ The horse should be okay with the rider putting on and taking off a coat or rain slicker. You should be able to spin a slicker around like you would a lariat as yellow slickers are also useful to get an over flying helicopter's attention.

~ Each horse should be broke to be ponied or to pony another horse in case you have to lead a horse out of the wilderness. Imagine one of your SAR team members hurt and having to be being MEDEVAC'ed - somebody will have to lead that horse out.

~ All the horses needs to load and transport in a trailer easily and calmly.   Train on using different trailers.   

~ Think of obstacles that the horses may encounter on a SAR mission: riding into a camp site with a smokey fire, seeing different colored sleeping bags laid out, maybe a tent with someone coming out of the tent as the horse approaches, riding through brush, mud, and water obstacles.

As you do obstacle training consider doing each obstacle as a group to ensure each horse and rider are going to be safe about it then work you way towards one horse and rider completing the obstacles with the rest of the group a significant distance away. For most horses, doing these by themselves, with their buddies not there with them, will be a whole different thing.

One time as an Army Range Rider I was riding in the rare instance where we rode as a team, this time there were three of us. A government agency was training Afghani pilots in large old Soviet Helicopters with flight routes in the remote areas we patrolled. The helicopter (an Mi-17 HIP - think school bus with rotors) spotted us and decided to fly and hover over the three of us. Two of our horses were initially spooked, spinning a circle before settling down,...completely understandable with a large, noisy object hovering 30 feet over our heads. However, the third horse bolted and ran through scrub creosote and uneven terrain. Everything worked out, no wrecks, except us getting on the radio and threatening to shoot down any more helicopters who did the same thing.

So if you could get a helicopter to fly over riders and their horses in a controlled manner that maybe be something to sack them out on especially if you face the possibility of MEDEVACing someone via helicopter. It would take several training passes, at decreasing altitudes, to get the horses understanding the helicopters are no threat.

Good luck and safe journey to all volunteer Mounted Search and Rescue Units.