Mounted search and rescue (MSAR) is a specialty within
search and rescue
Search and rescue (SAR) is the search for and provision of aid to people who are in distress or imminent danger. The general field of search and rescue includes many specialty sub-fields, typically determined by the type of terrain the search ...
(SAR), using
horse
The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 mi ...
s as search partners and for transportation to search for
missing person
A missing person is a person who has disappeared and whose status as Life, alive or Death, dead cannot be confirmed as their location and condition are unknown. A person may go missing through a voluntary disappearance, or else due to an accide ...
s. SAR responders on horseback are primarily a search resource, but also can provide off-road logistics support and transportation. Mounted SAR responders can in some
terrain
Terrain (), alternatively relief or topographical relief, is the dimension and shape of a given surface of land. In physical geography, terrain is the lay of the land. This is usually expressed in terms of the elevation, slope, and orientati ...
s move faster on the ground than a human on foot, can transport more equipment, and may be physically less exhausted than a SAR responder performing the same task on foot. Mounted SAR responders typically have longer initial response times than ''groundpounder'' SAR resources, due to the time required to pick up trailer, horse(s), and perhaps also water, feed, and equipment.
Organization
Principally
volunteer units exist in the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
,
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
,
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
, and
Iceland
Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...
.
In the United States, many
counties
A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...
have specially
deputized, usually volunteer, mounted search and rescue groups. Some of these groups date from
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. Across the United States, SAR groups are in the process of organizing themselves into associations, usually within states. Formal guidelines for MSAR have been established in several states:
California
California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
,
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...
,
Maine
Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...
,
Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...
, and
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...
. International standards for the mounted searcher have been developed through the
ASTM
ASTM International, formerly known as American Society for Testing and Materials, is a standards organization that develops and publishes voluntary consensus technical international standards for a wide range of materials, products, systems and s ...
F32 committee for Search and Rescue.
In Germany, the
voluntary
Voluntary may refer to:
* Voluntary (music)
* Voluntary or volunteer, person participating via volunteering/volunteerism
* Voluntary muscle contraction
See also
* Voluntary action
* Voluntariness, in law and philosophy
* Voluntaryism
Volunt ...
humanitarian association
Johanniter-Unfall-Hilfe (JUH) recently begun establishing local and regional groups that provide
first responder
A first responder is a person with specialized training who is among the first to arrive and provide assistance or incident resolution at the scene of an emergency. First responders typically include Law enforcement, law enforcement officers (co ...
services on horseback. These are modeled after the road-based
first aid
First aid is the first and immediate assistance given to any person with a medical emergency, with care provided to preserve life, prevent the condition from worsening, or to promote recovery until medical services arrive. First aid is gener ...
service of the JUH, except that the horse provides for off-road travel. The first group, established in March 2001 in
Harburg, adopted standards of the
Deutsche Reiterliche Vereinigung
The German Equestrian Federation () is an umbrella organization in Germany for equestrian sports and breeding. It is the governing body for the majority of equestrian sports and their organization in Germany, including FEI-recognized discipline ...
(FN) for first responders at equestrian
field sporting events. In 2008, there were 8 groups. Around the same time the
German Red Cross briefly recognized a group with a similar function.
Search and rescue animals
A search and rescue horse is a horse trained and used to perform mounted search and rescue. In many cases, the horse is simply a means of transportation for a SAR responder. In other cases, the horse is a full member of the SAR field team. Like a SAR dog, a SAR horse can be trained to search for lost persons, using its keen senses of hearing, scenting, and vision. In addition, some mounted SAR responders work a SAR dog from horseback.
Search
The primary role of Mounted SAR is in the "search" capacity. Riders and horses are normally trained to safely and effectively perform the search function. Riders have training as searchers that includes the detection and protection of clues that may lead to locating the missing person. The mounts used are expected to be calm and reliable.
"Look where the horse looks"
A common training for searchers mounted on equine is "Look where the horse looks." While there is training available to have the horse or mule perform similarly to a SAR Dog, the majority of Mounted SAR equine and their riders do not have this training. However, the equine's natural senses and behavior are valuable during a search, without particular training, making that animal a viable search partner for clue detection.
The horse or mule exhibits behavior to indicate noting "something" as part of that animal's natural behavior, and the rider determines if the equine may have noted the presence of a person who may be the missing person, or a clue that might help lead to that person.
Tracking from the saddle
Some Mounted SAR riders have additional training specific to searching for clues from the saddle. This valuable skill allows the mounted searcher to move more quickly riding when the clues, such as shoe prints, are visible from the saddle. Riders dismount as needed when a closer view or tracking while walking is more advantageous.
Rescue
In a rescue situation today, horses have two main uses: rapid response and subject transport. Both uses occur primarily in areas inaccessible to road-based emergency vehicles: in coastal areas where heavier vehicles tend to become stuck in wet ground or deep sand, and in
wilderness area
Wilderness or wildlands (usually in the plural) are Earth's natural environments that have not been significantly modified by human activity, or any nonurbanized land not under extensive agricultural cultivation. The term has traditionally ...
s. In these areas, horses may be used to patrol and in some cases transport people needing assistance. Examples include a volunteer horse patrol at
Hampton Beach, New Hampshire.
As an example of a typical MSAR rapid response, a
deployment in
northern Germany
Northern Germany (, ) is a linguistic, geographic, socio-cultural and historic region in the northern part of Germany which includes the coastal states of Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Lower Saxony and the two city-states Hambur ...
proceeded as follows.
A deployment on the Lüneburg Heath: At noon on 16 August 2008, a Saturday, on the heath near Undeloh a female tourist experienced anaphylaxis, a life-threatening allergic reaction, due to several insect stings. The emergency dispatcher called the Johanniter horse team and the police in Undeloh, both of which patrol the heath regularly. The horse team galloped 5km to the subject's location. There, a Johanniter rescue assistant and police officers stabilized the unconscious subject well enough that, by the time the ambulance and rescue helicopter arrived, the subject was again conscious and could be transported.
In areas where ground-based transport is especially difficult or slow (both urban areas and wilderness), people in need of urgent medical care often are transported by helicopter. In these areas, MSAR teams train in working with helicopters. Training involves identification of suitable landing spots, accustoming horses to helicopters operating in close proximity, and helicopter safety.
Transport in the saddle is used, but has more limited application than a hand carried or animal mounted litter. In the United States transport in the saddle is a method taught and used within the
National Park Service
The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List ...
in
Yosemite National Park
Yosemite National Park ( ) is a List of national parks of the United States, national park of the United States in California. It is bordered on the southeast by Sierra National Forest and on the northwest by Stanislaus National Forest. The p ...
and some Mounted SAR personnel hav
this training
Mules for medical evacuationis also specialized training for combat soldiers in the Animal Packing Course at the Marine Corps
Mountain Warfare Training Center. "Mountain Medicine instructors have developed special saddles for transporting patients who can sit up and stretchers for patients lying down," and these "saddles" are created from materials readily available even in third world countries, according t
Olive-Drab Mounted SAR training uses a traditional saddle. A
western saddle is shown in the photo.
Equine used as
pack animal
A pack animal, also known as a sumpter animal or beast of burden, is a working animal used to transport goods or materials by carrying them, usually on its back.
Domestic animals of many species are used in this way, among them alpacas, Bact ...
s may also carry medical supplies to support a rescue. Some Mounted SAR units also have pack animals used as resources, but this is more common in more vast wilderness or mountain regions where it is more common to find riders experienced in the use of pack animals. In America, often those members are drawn from professional packers or members of a local unit o
Backcountry Horsemen
History
Historically, there were few alternatives to horses for subject transport. Several books and reports have been published, describing transport of sick or injured persons using horses.
The equipment described in these publications included a wide variety of special-purpose carts, wagons, and litters. Litters were used to carry passengers between two horses, or on the back of a
pack horse or mule (or camel; see
Light horse field ambulance).
(*) Note: The “litter” in the picture is not really a litter, designed to protect the patient and to be moved by horses, but a carriage used in
hippotherapy;
the patient, often multiple disabled, is positioned on a cloth over the back of the horses. The patient will feel all movements and warmth of the horses, which improves (amongst others) blood circulation and health in general.
Pack litter
In British India a suspended pack litter could be known as a ''dooly'' (, ).
[ In Europe, and sometimes in the United States, it was known as a ''cacolet''. The pack litter had two major variants: one carried a single person above the pack animal's back; the other carried two persons, one on each side. In the ]United States Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), which was formed in 1861 by states that had seceded ...
, horses were fitted with litters to transport wounded soldiers from the battlefield. Similar litters, and training manuals for using them, were produced for the United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...
circa World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
. These litters included the 2-person ''Carlisle cacolet'' and the 1-person ''1st Division cacolet''.[
]
Travois
The travois
A travois (; Canadian French, from French language, French ; also travoise or travoy) is an A-frame structure used to drag loads over land, most notably by the Plains Indians of North America.
Construction and use
The basic construction con ...
is very stable and difficult to capsize. Apparently not used in Europe, it was widely used in North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...
by Native Americans from before the Colonial period. After the 1877 Battle of the Clearwater in Idaho
Idaho ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain states, Mountain West subregions of the Western United States. It borders Montana and Wyoming to the east, Nevada and Utah to the south, and Washington (state), ...
, George Miller Sternberg used travois
A travois (; Canadian French, from French language, French ; also travoise or travoy) is an A-frame structure used to drag loads over land, most notably by the Plains Indians of North America.
Construction and use
The basic construction con ...
to move wounded soldiers from the battlefield to a hospital 25 miles away.[ In very rough field conditions, ]travois
A travois (; Canadian French, from French language, French ; also travoise or travoy) is an A-frame structure used to drag loads over land, most notably by the Plains Indians of North America.
Construction and use
The basic construction con ...
are sometimes used even today.
See also
*, usually career (paid) officers
*
*
*
*
*
References
*
External links
Mounted SAR community portal
hosted on ibiblio
MSAR standards task group
hosted by ASTM International
ASTM International, formerly known as American Society for Testing and Materials, is a standards organization that develops and publishes voluntary consensus technical international standards for a wide range of materials, products, systems and s ...
unde
Committee F32 on Search and Rescue
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mounted Search And Rescue
Working horses
Rescue