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Carroll County emergency workers have another search and rescue tool in their belt after teaming up this month with the West Georgia Mounted Search & Rescue crew. Carroll County Fire Chief Tracy Smith says the trained volunteers on horseback have access to places a person may not have the stamina to get to…or vehicle may not be able to access. “Many times on horseback, you’re sitting five or six feet above everybody else and you can see a further distance through woods and foliage,” he says.
Seven teams of three riders and their horses have been in training for a year with the primary focus of serving eight west Georgia counties that include Carroll, Haralson, Heard and Paulding. Smith says the group has pledged to help in eastern Alabama whenever possible.
“Most of the teams have someone in law enforcement,” Smith says. “They have actually been doing a lot of training here in Carroll County at McIntosh and the Moore’s Bridge property. They’ve also done some training with law enforcement; getting horses used to the flashing lights and sirens of emergency vehicles they may be working around.”
The mounted searchers are a tool that Smith likens to trained search and rescue dog. “They did a mock search and rescue in Cobb County and with the humidity that day it was 106 degrees,” says Smith. “The dogs lasted about 45 minutes… the humans alone lasted about 45 minutes… and those on horseback lasted about 4 ½ hours.”
The West Georgia Mounted Search & Rescue team is run by Norman Brazel out of Douglasville and assists west Georgia emergency crews and law enforcement as a non-profit corporation.