PARKSVILLE, B.C. -- The warm afternoon sun beats down on Joe Kinch and his horse Max as they pick their way through a thick stand of Scotch broom in search of a mock victim hidden somewhere in the bushes.
Max blasts air out of his nostrils, tilts his head to catch a whiff of the breeze, then lowers his head and trots purposefully toward the planted victim, 40 metres away.
"You see, he's got it now, that's what they do," course facilitator Terry Nowacki whispers. "The first thing you have is a snort and a blow. They'll swing their head up to get a better scent, then they'll snake their head down and out, and their body frame will actually drop."
This is what Mr. Nowacki likes to call Equine Scenting 101, an instructional seminar he developed to train horses to sniff out missing persons. He's travelled to the Vancouver Island town of Parksville to spend three days teaching the obscure discipline to members of the local Arrowsmith Search and Rescue group.
"Horses can be trained to follow scent to its source. They do it naturally on their own in the wild," said Mr. Nowacki, a veteran horse trainer based in Argyle, Minn., who wrote what is believed to be the world's only instructional manual on the subject seven years ago. He has taught about two dozen groups over the past five years, but this is his first foray into Canada.
For volunteer groups such as Arrowsmith Search and Rescue, missing persons are serious business. Last year, the group took part in 22 searches. In an average year, the group may participate in about three dozen.
In February, 18 Arrowsmith volunteers aided in the unsuccessful search for seven-year-old William Pilkenton, a Washington State boy who disappeared off the coast of Tofino. More often, the group is called out to find missing hikers or "quad" riders whose machines have broken down in the rugged wilderness that stretches inland from Parksville toward Mount Arrowsmith and beyond.
Last month, volunteers from the group helped rescue an 80-year-old man whose ATV broke down late one afternoon, stranding him in the forest overnight.
Most of the 20 riders who took part in Mr. Nowacki's training came away convinced that rescue-sniffing horses are for real - and could one day help them save a life.
"It was an eye-opener, that's for sure," said Mr. Kinch, a 10-year veteran of the group. "I thought they could do it, but I never imagined they could figure out as fast as they did that we were looking for humans."
Expert search and rescue trackers draw a distinction between the ground scent of the person they are looking for, which can be hours or even days old, and airborne "scent cones" that can travel hundreds of yards and indicate a more recent presence.
Mr. Nowacki said horses are natural experts at picking up airborne human and animal scents. "Their noses and head and neck are built to form and function," he said.
Similar to most dog trainers, Mr. Nowacki uses a reward system to motivate the animals.
During the initial stages of training, horse treats are planted directly on the mock victims. As the course progresses, the riders keep the treats and reward their horses after each successful search.
The horses are also fitted with a "gentler" bit and muzzled with a modified kitchen strainer, which prevents them from grazing and lets them know it's time to go to work.
When the muzzle comes off after a search, the horse gets a treat and, as an added bonus, a chance to graze for a few minutes. "We're just trying to show them this is a little game so they know that afterwards, there's going to be a treat," Mr. Nowacki said.
However, the bulk of the course focuses on teaching riders how to interpret what their horses are trying to say.
"I'd say about 80 per cent of it is teaching the riders to be aware of what their horses are telling them," he said. "Very little of it is teaching the horse. They already know what to do."
Horse behaviour expert Suzanne Millman, an associate professor at Iowa State University, called Mr. Nowacki's teachings unusual, but did not discount his assertions.
Like dogs and cats, horses have a special organ in the brain that heightens their ability to pick up scents. However, Dr. Millman said there is no scientific literature on olfactory tracking skills in horses.
"But based on the biological and evolutionary history of the animal, I would say dogs would be better at it," she said.
Written accounts dating back to the early 1900s describe how native Americans and pioneers relied on the horse's keen sense of smell to find buffalo herds and other game. Mr. Nowacki said horse scenting is "probably as old as the relationship between men and horses," but could not cite any examples where a tracking horse has been credited with locating a missing person.
"Even though it's been used off and on for centuries, it isn't very well known and people have a hard time grasping it," he said.
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