Horses get a chance to prove they're up to sniff

[Daryl]

Horses get a chance to prove they're up to sniff Retrieved from http://www.canada.com/story.html?id=0549ad60-10b0-4e5b-bba7-bb8aae68f268

NANAIMO -- A Minnesota man is coming to Vancouver Island to demonstrate another potential tool for search and rescue crews: the equine equivalent of a bloodhound.

Equine detection trainer Terry Nowacki has been training horses for eight years in scent detection, and he says he has certified horses to detect drugs and bodies.

Nowacki said he is harnessing a horse's natural scenting ability and it's mostly a matter of being able to decipher "equine sign language" to train horses to follow an airborne scent to its source.

Oceanside -- the Parksville-Qualicum Beach area -- is home to Vancouver Island's only equine search team, a unit of Arrowsmith Search and Rescue.

Nowacki said an air-scenting horse would complement rather than replace a tracking dog, but he believes the animals' scenting abilities are comparable.

Horses and dogs are suited to search different types of terrain, but horses can cover more ground than dogs and can detect airborne scents as they rise, he said.

Joe Kinch, a Silver Spurs riding club and Arrowsmith SAR member, who helped create the equine unit two years ago, says the unit's horses are now used only to provide transportation for searchers.

Out of 26 searches last year, Kinch said, dogs were called out 16 times and the horses once.

Kinch said he was skeptical at first, but he and other mounted SAR members have long thought their horses were trying to tell them things before anyone could see or hear anything.

"I don't believe it's as crazy as it sounds," said Kinch. "We just don't know how to get [horses] to tell us."

Fellow SAR and Silver Spurs member Cecil Mercer agrees, adding that horses' signals are so subtle humans may not recognize them.

Nowacki said people have used horses' natural scenting ability "since the pioneer days." He uses a positive-reinforcement system to encourage the horses.

"[Horses] can learn it extremely fast because it's completely natural," said Nowacki.

"The rider needs more training than the horse."

He said he welcomes skeptics at demonstrations. They think it's all "smoke and mirrors," Nowacki said. "You should see the looks on their faces."

During demonstrations, he sets a horse loose so he can't be accused of guiding it to a scent source. Sometimes the horses are blindfolded. Under ideal wind conditions in open territory, the horses can detect a scent up to a quarter-mile away, he said.

Next month, he's leading an equine scenting clinic, which he believes will be the first in Canada.

Oceanside horse veterinarian Doug Quesnel said a horse's sense of smell is "not as keen" as that of a search dog.

"[Horses] do distinguish things," said Quesnel. "Whether you could train them [to that degree], I wouldn't be able to say."

Also a trainer of search dogs, Nowacki began training his horses after a tiring winter search following a dog in two-foot snow drifts.

Kinch said he is optimistic now that pairing horses and searchers will become more common. "All it takes is to find one person," he said, "and it's worth it."

[Pete]

To any SARDA handlers:

I definately think you should try this one, just to see the face of the 'Loadie' when you get to the helicopter.

Pete.

[Mojo]

ROFLOL

Mojo & Joe (Terrible Twin's together once again!)