the trailer or tie when I bought her. Now she loads in an instant, ties and has ground manners. She was a green bean in her teens and needed boundaries.” That was all a positive outcome. But then the mare
improved even further when the Spartanburg, South Carolina pair went through training for the Mounted Search and Rescue Unit of the Polk County Sheriff’s Department in Columbus, North Carolina. Even though a soundness issue has sidelined Nouri and they haven’t yet responded to the call to duty, the training turned her world around. Prior to the week-long course, they participated in
practices and worked at home with an air horn, umbrella, a wreath made with tin cans and a flag made out of broomstick and garbage bag. “Nouri was not the best student in the beginning of our sessions. By nature she is a little hot, and every practice when something new was introduced, she would snort, snort, snort…and back away and snort, snort, snort. Soon she gained confidence and was intrigued by it all. But my father was particularly embarrassed that the neighbors would drive by and think we had lost our marbles.” During the course, Nouri was a star as Amy mounted and dismounted on both her sides. Amy pulled a raincoat on and off without Nouri flinching. Not once did she snort. For the obstacle course, barrels were tied together to simulate people and cars, but looked more like something that the Flintstones would drive. That got her attention, not as a fear factor but as something that piqued her curiosity. She easily walked through a simulated pond covered with plastic. “The only part she didn’t like was when she had to
touch things, like the barrels. She’s a complete diva mare and the idea of rubbing up against the barrels to knock them over was outlandish,” recalls Amy. “She started out not liking other horses near her when we did the drill team type work and rode in pairs and threes. At first she had to wear a red ribbon in her tail. But after a while she was nearly docile.” The most challenging test for all the horses was the
“vehicle extraction.” In the arena, at night, with no lights, sirens blasting, and people shouting over the loud speaker, the horses escorted a vehicle from the scene where it was trapped by a crowd. The horses approached the car in columns of two. In unison they side passed down each side of the car, and turned around facing forward. The rider by the driver’s door knocked on the roof of the car to get the driver’s attention. “She told him to drive slowly, and to not hit our horses and we would get him out of there. This is used when a crowd is on either side of car and the driver cannot pass. “She was so good. We spent a lot of time in the saddle
26 March/April 2012
“In the arena, at night, with no lights, sirens blasting, and people shouting over the loud speaker, the horses escorted a vehicle from the scene where it was trapped by a crowd.”
and she really connected with me a lot,” says Amy, who is excited about their future. After Amy moves closer to the search and rescue unit and Nouri fully recovers from her injury, the pair will join the department at public relations events and for search and rescue calls. And they may even try their hand at herding cattle!
Amy Farrell and Nouri during their training sessions for Search and Rescue certification. Photos courtesy Amy Farrell
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