Mounted search and rescue

Mounted search and rescue (MSAR) is a specialty within search and rescue (SAR), using horses as search partners and for transportation to search for missing persons. 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 terrains 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.

Principally volunteer units exist in the United States, Canada, Australia, Germany, and Iceland.

In the United States, many counties have specially deputized, usually volunteer, mounted search and rescue groups. Some of these groups date from World War II. 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,New Mexico,Maine,Maryland, and Virginia. International standards for the mounted searcher have been developed through the ASTM F32 committee for Search and Rescue.

In Germany, the voluntary humanitarian association Johanniter-Unfall-Hilfe (JUH) recently has begun establishing local and regional groups that provide first responder services on horseback. These are modeled after the road-based first aid 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 e.V. (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.

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