Rider, horse safe after search

MINDEN, Nev. " Two dozen Douglas County Sheriff's Search and Rescue volunteers were called out late Wednesday afternoon to look for a horseback rider who turned up unharmed at her home in Johnson Lane.

The county's emergency dispatch center received a report at 4:30 p.m. of a riderless horse with a saddle that had run by the caller near Pinon Hills Elementary School.

The caller said he couldn't catch the horse, but was concerned because of the saddle that a rider may have fallen somewhere in the Hot Springs Mountain area.

"This was a high-priority call for DCSAR due to a rapidly approaching nightfall, and the potential of having a fallen horseback rider lying injured in the backcountry," said sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Jim Halsey.

Search and rescue responded with 24 volunteers to search the surrounding hills for the missing rider, and to canvass the neighborhood for the horse.

The owner of the horse, Colleen Evans, was located at her home on Kayne Avenue, unaware she was the subject of a search.

Evans said she had earlier been horseback riding in the Hot Springs Mountain area, and after she dismounted, the horse ran away.

She said she walked out of the area on foot, and she and her mother eventually retrieved the horse running loose in the neighborhood.

Halsey said the DCSAR deployed two all-terrain vehicle teams, a utility vehicle team, five vehicle search teams, and two K-9 tracker teams to search for the rider.

The Mobile Incident Command Post vehicle was staged in the area as a base of operations.

Also assisting in the operation were members of the Carson City Sheriff's Office Search and Rescue Team, the Douglas County Sheriff's Office Mounted Posse, and the Douglas County Animal Control Center.

Halsey said the search was the first performed by volunteers using their new ATVs, which were purchased with a $17,910 grant from the Nell J. Redfield Foundation.

"These ATVs greatly increased the mobility and effectiveness of the DCSAR team, and allowed members to search a larger area in less time than ordinarily required," he said.