You are moving down a trail at the walk. the scenery is drawing your attention away from the trail, but your mount is paying attention to everything around him. You feel it as he starts to tense up-his head turns, his ears are up, and he is exploring, sensing something that you weren't initially aware of. Now, you see what has attracted your horse's attention, as do your teammates a hundred yards to either side. Their mounts have keyed in on the same item.
As you dismount to verify your find, you reach for a radio, a map, and a first aid kit. After several hours in the saddle, and perhaps several days of effort, your horse has found the object of your search, a person alone in the woods, at risk of hypothermia, dehydration, or worse.
This may be a once-in-a-lifetime event, but as a mounted search and rescue rider, you will likely invest years of training to accomplish your goal of finding someone who needs your help. The key to your success? Your equine partner, with his acute senses, speed, and maneuverability.
The Right Horse
Becoming an effective searcher starts when you select a sensible horse to become your partner. Perhaps it's his conformation that attracts you. To be sure, you'll need a horse who is sturdy, just the right size and stride for you, and one who is capable of handling the local terrain. But you'll need something more. There should be something in his eye, his movement, his wariness that says he's smart, that he can take care of himself. He'll need to be bold but not reckless.
You and your horse will learn each other's habits, reactions and moods. This is not training. This is partnering. The purpose of your relationship is to develop communication with your mount-not to have his absolute obedience. This may be very different from your previous concept of training a trail horse. In the world of the mounted searcher, the horse's inherent intelligence is a key factor, and you have to accept his input.
Since the early 1980s, reports about horses who have actually found people have circulated. It's interesting to consider, especially in light of the fact that air-scent search dogs had been introduced into wilderness searches just 20 years before. The idea that another animal could play an essential role was met with skepticism.
However, by 1986 there were enough reports and observations by people in the field that supported the idea that a horse's preservation instincts could be put to good use. Some believe the detection capabilities of prey animals are superior even to a predator's detection capabilities. Horses were already proven as patrol animals, so it was hypothesized that horses could be equally effective as search partners, as their senses to detect predators sufficiently far away to escape would be valuable in a rescue situation as well.
But using these skills means that a horse cannot be bombproof. He has to remain aware of his environment and not be trained out of his basic sense of self-preservation. To be effective, the horse must communicate his view of the world to his rider. This can be very subtle movements of the head or ears, or even just muscle tension.
All horses can be search horses if their owners will accept the fact that search horses are cultivated, not trained. And the result is not only a horse that is more useful to the community, but may be a better trail horse.
Searching by Air Scent
Bloodhounds and other tracking or trailing dogs have long been used to find people. These dogs require a sample of the target's scent to be provided. When they hit a trail left by the subject, the tracking/trailing dog follows it to the subject, usually at high speed. The dog may cut corners, but often follows the scent step by step.
In the 1980s, the concept of using "air-scent" dogs was imported into the United States from Europe. Unlike a bloodhound, the air-scent dog does not use a sample or a track. It detects the scent of a person blowing on the wind or hanging in the air, thus the term "air scent." Initially, Schutzhund-certified dogs were used as the basis for air-scent training.
Many of these dogs initially could not discriminate between scents and merely detected "person," rather than "specific person." This required the dog and handler to work alone in a cleared area. The dog would free range and return to the handler with evidence of a find, such as a piece of clothing or a barked alert.
The best feature of a horse, at least from the rider's point of view, is that he does the walking and carries all the gear. And-unlike a dog that often appears as a threatening, barking monster that chases after the search subject-horses are attractive and, while huge, aren't usually seen as threatening. After almost 20 years of slow-but-sure effort, the mounted search community is beginning to accept the air-scenting horse as a fact, too.
Horses have as good or better olfactory equipment as most dogs. Unlike a dog, the horse has the added advantage of being able to vary his sensing level from the ground to as much as seven feet high or more. He can also aim his nose over a greater angle than a dog can without moving his body. And a horse has at least one more great advantage over a dog: He can learn which scents are what, and will ignore scents identified as not of interest. Thus a horse will ignore other horses known to him and their riders if so instructed.
