Attributes of a Tracking Horse

David wrote to ask "What attributes would you choose in a horse that you are going to be tracking off of? If I get called out on a rescue, I know I maybe out over night, so hobble training is a no brainer. What else would you suggest I think about?"



Hey David, tracking or searching can be a slow and multi-day process. so I'd look for a horse with stamina that can be ridden all day for a couple days in a row. He would have to have sound feet and be a good trail horse. You don't want a anxious horse, a horse that is easily spooked.   Tracking exercises and search and rescue training and rehearsals would be a good place to train a horse like this.

If you are tracking or searching with a team on horseback you may need to ride away and follow a different track or jump ahead and look at a sign cut area so you don't need a buddy sour horse, who is always looking for the other horses and calling to them. But a good rule is the two person (or two horse) rule where no searchers go out by themselves is at all possible.  I was an Army Range Rider, where there was only six of us to cover 1.3 million acres, so sometimes on routine patrols, and in particular searches for missing or lost people, we often had to ride alone.  You may as well, so radios and cell phones, scheduled communications checks, as well as a search command center knowing your planned route or search area will be your lifeline.

You want your horse comfortable by himself just with you. A comfortable horse will often alert on things he can hear, smell or see where you may not. This is what the FBI calls a clue and can help draw something to your attention.

The picture at right shows the head set and ears forwarding facing when a horse alerts on something. A horse will do this quite often just checking things out.  Usually, if the alert posture just lasts a second or two, the horse was just assuring himself that there was no threat. If the horse sees or hears something then that alert posture will last longer.  When I was a Range Rider, my horse's ability to alert on moving objects came in handy when riding out to locate trespass cattle as well as people.  

You are right that having a horse that can be safely hobbled, for longer periods when you are out of the saddle or camping over night, is necessary. You may also need to dismount from time to time, to read sign or look at something more closely or carefully, where putting hobbles on and off are impractical, so your horse needs to ground tie or otherwise stay put with you on the ground moving around. 

I work with my horses to stand on a loose lead while I'm moving around on the ground and when the slack is taken out of the lead they move forward and lead up. This is also good for going through gates, especially wire gates. I saw a gent open a wire gate once and his horse moved forward before the gate was open enough and he stuck his foot over the bottom strand of barb wire on that gate. It startled the horse and luckily he did not panic so a bad wreck did not ensure,...but it could have.

Being able to direct your horse while on the ground and you are staying in place, such as backing him up or moving his front end over one way or the other, can be useful if his shadow crosses the sign you are looking at and you need to move him so you can see it better.

I hope this helps a little.  About anything you can do to expose your horse and get him comfortable to new situations and environments make your horse better for your search missions.  Good luck and thanks for serving in search and rescue.

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.