The Rider is Part of the Evidence Problem
Suppose a rider has been told that a missing person may be near an abandoned structure. As the team approaches it, the rider begins looking hard into the brush. The reins shorten. The rider’s body tightens. A moment later, the horse raises its head and slows.
What changed first?
That’s an uncomfortable question, and it’s one a mounted searcher needs to ask. Horses respond to the people handling them. The rider is part of the environment the horse is experiencing.
If I’m expecting something totally scary, my breathing, posture, hands, definitely my heart rate, and pace may change. The horse may respond to those changes. That doesn’t make the horse’s behavior unimportant. It means I need to account for my own behavior before I tell anyone what I think the horse noticed. Horses need time to process information. People do too, but very much horses do.
This is familiar territory in an investigation. People can influence what they observe, how they remember it, and what they report. Once someone offers a compelling explanation, other people may begin viewing later events through it. A mounted team is not exempt because one member has four legs!
Imagine that I see disturbed vegetation ahead and turn my horse toward it. The horse becomes alert. Did the horse draw my attention to the vegetation, or did my change in direction draw the horse’s attention there? If I report only the horse’s reaction, I’ve left out part of the sequence.
A useful account includes both of us: what I saw, what I did, what the horse did, and the order in which those things occurred.
This doesn’t require a rider to be detached or perfect. It requires honesty. If I was nervous, I should say so. I am nervous a lot, so this would be a normal thing for me to say actually. If I tightened the reins because I spotted something, that belongs in my notes. If the horse reacted before I noticed anything, I should record that sequence just as carefully. As we say in death investigation and as they say in law enforcement, “If it ain’t written down it didn’t happen.”
Our goal is to identify observations another person can assess. The rider may have made a valuable discovery. The horse may have noticed a change in the surroundings. The team may need to investigate the location. We can pursue all of that without pretending the rider had no influence.
When I teach people to examine a homicide scene, I ask them to account for how the scene was found and what happened after people entered it. On a mounted search, I am now teaching the same skill to the rider. Most search and rescue units in the United States are civilian. While we have lots of mounted police agencies around the country, they are not experts in search and rescue either most often: they are police assigned to the mounted division of their policing agency. They are taught to ride, but the majority are not lifelong horse men and women.
Always remember as a mounted searcher: You are present. You are acting. You are part of the timeline.
Write yourself into the documentation because you are a member of the investigative team, sworn or civilian.
Series Note: This article is part of The Horse Knows Something, our fall 2026 blog series leading up to our inaugural NASAR Academy in part of Laura Pettler & Associates International Forensics Institute’s new Mounted Forensic Operations Program. The NASAR Academy will be held November 15-22, 2026 at Crossroads Ranch. Register now for our spring or fall 2027 NASAR SARTECH II + Wilderness First Aid academy today at LPAIFI.com.
