Horses, not dogs, may soon be used to track lost people

[Poll_Blind]

Horses, not dogs, may soon be used to track lost people

TERREBONNE — An Appaloosa gelding named Joker took 2 minutes and 20 seconds earlier this month to find a carefully hidden volunteer in a 13-acre, semi-wooded field near Terrebonne.

Jefferson County Sheriff Jim Adkins watched, astonished, as Joker and rider George Ehmer, 66, of Milton-Freewater nosed out the hidden volunteer.

It was a dramatic and spectacular demonstration of what practioners call “equine air-scenting.” The event was organized by a loosely knit central Oregon group that hopes to use horses in the role of bloodhounds during backcountry searches.

“They’ve definitely got my attention,” Adkins said. “That was a pretty difficult search because the wind kept changing on us. That horse just went right over there and zigged and zagged and zoomed right in.”

Much, much more at the link! Fascinating story, including breaking down the differences between how dogs and horses track. Wish I could excerpt more- very interesting stuff.

PB

[Warpy]

1. I think we're about the only critters who don't communicate chemically

except on a totally subconscious level. Other critters rely on it heavily and their well developed olfactory systems are proof of it.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. Back in the '70s I knew guys who tried to communicate chemically

using such scents as Hai Karate and Brut. Although there was an olfactory connection, it was not usually successful.

[Warpy]

4. Remember Jade East?

They used to bathe in the stuff and classes full of a bunch of guys sweating that stuff over their drafting boards were sheer torture. The only worse thing was getting on an elevator the first week in July and riding up 15 floors with a bunch of new interns in clashing colognes that mostly smelled like Eau de Bug.

The latter didn't last long. They ditched the cologne the first time a post op patient puked on them and that generally only took a few days.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

5. One of those smelled like Raid - it might have been Jade East.

Loved getting on elevators with some guy in a leisure suit, white belt and shoes, collars like sails, and a porn star mustache. He usually smelled like he'd bathed in a mixture of citronella, CCl4, and vanilla extract. Horrible.

[LiberalEsto]

7. Might have been "Trouble"

I got hired to promote it at a department store Way Back When. The stuff was awful.

[Nay]

10. Oh, shit, I remember that awful stuff. I worked in a drugstore while going to college and

whenever someone tried that scent, it made me sick all day. What an odor. I have no idea why these scents were considered attractive.

[dflprincess]

11. LOL!!

And don't forget English Leather. "All my men wear English leather - or they wear nothing at all."

http://www.bionicdisco.com/2013/02/15/daily-70s-spot-english-leather-cologne-all-my-men-commercial-1977/

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

12. I think Hai Karate was the worst one - Raid with overtones of patchouli.

[pinboy3niner]

13. All of my HS favorites have now been named in this thread, lol

Before a date, we'd pick one and drench ourselves in it. Apparently we operated on the theory that if a little smells good, a lot must be EXTRA seductive.

[auntsue]

15. The young ones these days

have a substance call AXE................it hovers in a cloud around them...

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. Fascinating - I had no idea.

[Generic Other]

6. That makes so much sense

Horse sense!

[kentauros]

8. Centaurs would work even better!

Thanks for the link and story! I know someone else to pass this to and he'll probably put it up on his equine-centric blog

[loli phabay]

9. will never work day to day, imagine having to cart around the horse in a k9 vehicle

I would hate to have to jold its leash when it gets on the trail and lifing it over fences etc would kkill the back

[Boudica the Lyoness]

14. Many years ago I owned a cutting horse

One day a herd of about 40-50 goats got out and we were the only ones on the place at the time. My horse had been trained to cut on those goats. We had hundreds of acres to search, most of it wooded and I thought it was a lost cause. This horse was determined to go a certain way through the woods and because I didn't have a better idea, I gave him his head, (let him find his own way/pace). I couldn't believe my eyes when we came across the goats deep in the woods.

I always wondered how he knew where they were and went straight to them. Now I know.