Since moving to the Peace River Region of BC I have been interested in horses, especially pack horses. I love to head into the bush to explore but I'm not always excited about carrying that gear on my own back and none of my fellow Rangers have ever offered to carry it for me. Having a horse do this for me could, I reasoned, allow me to extend my wanderings. Other rangers were curious about the possible benefits of horses as means of transport as well, so when Ranger King offered his horses to be used for some training our Exercise was planned.
While horse familiarization was a key feature of our Ex a fair bit of time was also spent on
navigation and communication. WO Hryhoryshen had brought along new antennae for the TK190's and while wandering about the excellent orienteering course Ranger King had set up we practiced our radio etiquette and experimented with the two different antennae.While we were recording the GR's of the various points and entering them into our GPS units another valuable lesson was learned. The maps, which were made for the area, were using WGS 84 datum instead of NAD 27, which is what all our units were set for. This created some confusion at first but when the difference was discovered we quickly learned to use the GPS units to convert the datum. I love technology (When it works). In the end it was a valuable lesson learned so be sure to check the datum on any maps you may find yourself using. While we all faced some challenges on the course, we were ultimately successful in following our routes, despite the objections of some upset Mulies. The results of our communication tests
were inconclusive but I must admit my preference is the lighter weight FRS.Our navigating continued after dark as we broke into teams to find our way around a marked course. Here our pacing was especially important as we used the GPS units at a minimal level. After getting a directional bearing to the next coordinate we were expected to travel to that point without referring to the GPS. We simply picked a reference and headed to it. Reference points are not as readily available in the dark but by using the darker shadows of trees against the sky can serve well enough, if you are crossing more open areas. Pacing was essential to determine distance if we hoped to find the posted marker. A little more challenging than in daylight but we were all successful in the end.
The next day while doing some local reconnaissance, as most of us were new to the area we did had another surprise lesson thrown on us after the loss of one of our FRS radios. Sgt Barnes will be relieved to know we put the "Track Back" feature of our GPS to good use and recovered
the wayward radio. Thank God! No Lost/Damaged Report to fill out.Sunday began
sunny and warm and we began our horse training. Ranger's King and Kyllo are old hands with horses. Sorry. "Experienced" hands with horses and taught us, especially me; things I didn't even know had to be learned. From hoof care to tying pack horses together with a, "tail knot" to keep them in a string (Never saw that one in any of the knot books I own) to placing your hand under the saddle blanket so it doesn't put undue pressure on the horses withers once the saddle is placed. It was an information rich morning with a short (though my butt said long) trail ride in the afternoon that included a fording of the Halfway River.
In all, it was a great Exercise. We all learned a lot that we hope to tie together in a future Ex. I learned that the horse that snores its' way through a pedicure is my kind of horse and that if saddles don't come more padded I'll be content to let the horse carry my gear while I walk along side.
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