Search and Rescue

Our Officers and Our Team

2009 Officers
Commander - Tomi` Finkle
Assistant Commander - Tim Black
Treasurer - Jacquie Cowan
Secretary - Pete Fields
Board Member - Juanita Hayes

TROT-SAR Yahoo Group
Click for a map showing TROT-SAR member locations.

Our SAR Team

Tomi` Finkle (TROT-2), hails from a small farm in Charles County, Maryland. Tomi` is a certified SARTECH-III (a nationally recognized certification) and was elected as the Team’s Commander on January 1, 2006. She is no stranger to the First Responder Community and is a retired federal law enforcement officer (25+ years of service) and a certified emergency manager; she’s an incident management preparedness and response subject matter expert for the government. Tomi` has an extensive background in emergency preparedness, disaster recovery, preservation of evidence and wilderness first aid. She is also certified by the Department of Homeland Security’s Center for Domestic Preparedness to teach all levels of (FEMA) Incident Command System (ICS) courses.

Tomi` enjoys competing in judged trail ride events and has received numerous ribbons and awards in that riding discipline. She rides western on a 16-hand tall, Quarter Horse gelding named Copper. This red sorrel gelding has a white blaze, snip and star has a very quiet disposition and thinks that pockets on a person is a source where treats come from. Copper was first deployed for a search in August of 2003 and has been on several incidents and events that span from the Allegany Mountains to the tidal flats of the southern eastern shore of Maryland. Tomi` also has a 15.1 hand tall, black bay Racking Horse named Magnum that she is also training as a public service equine. Magnum’s first search deployment was in September of 2006.

Jacquie Cowan, TROT-13, and Gatsby. "Gatsby and I have been a team for 12 years. I have done all his training for show, trail, parades and demonstrations. We have been an ambassador for the TWH and Racking Horse for many years appearing at the Washington International Horse Show, Maryland and Pennsylvania Horse World Expos, Baltimore's Preakness Day (on the race track), Maryland State Fair, and many more educational opportunities for children and adults."

Gatsby is a registered Racking Horse and Tennessee Walking Horse, which means he is bred and trained not to trot-instead he does a 4-beat rack and running walk that are ideal for covering long distances quickly and very comfortably with-out tiring either horse or rider. He can also canter, gallop, and jump like all other horses.

Trail riding and camping are our passion, but we also hold many show titles including National Reserve Racking Champion and Mid-Atlantic Versatility Champion. It has been our honor to present the American Flag in numerous opening ceremonies for horse shows, exhibitions and historical military functions. To date, it is our greatest honor to be a member of the TROT-SAR team.

Larry Raskin and Captain Larry Raskin, TROT-10, and Star. Every team should have a resident amateur radio enthusiast, and Larry is ours. WB3DAJ is active in local county RACES groups (Carroll, Howard, and Montgomery Counties), and will soon have all of us wearing antenna mounts on the back of our helmets, as shown here. Larry is the team's Communications Supervisor. and also maintains our aging cache of VHF radios.

Larry is also an active member of a Civil War living-history cavalry unit, demonstrating at federal parks the uniforms, equipment, and use of the horse. Star also participates in the CW demonstrations. Larry is an active mountain bike enthusiast and often uses his bicycle at SAR events in and around base camp.

Juanita Hayes and Knight Juanita Hayes, TROT-12, and Knight. Juanita Hayes is a Technical Specialist for a major company in Maryland. She has lived in Eldersburg for 25 yrs, and worked at the TB race tracks and breeding farms for much of that time. Juanita currently serves as a Director for the search team and holds NASAR SAR Tech-III certification. She was a Girl Scout for 13 yrs, and has owned many trail horses over the years. She currently has 2 horses qualified for SAR work with Knight being her primary mount.

Steven Pelham, TROT-22, and Capt’n joined the unit in May 2006 after completing Kenny Harlow’s 3 week horsemanship apprenticeship training course and he became an operational member in April 2008. He is a qualified Search Team Member under the Maryland Natural Resources Police, Special Operations Division training and certification program as well as a certified SARTECH II responder under the National Association for Search and Rescue (NASAR). In addition to these state and national SAR qualifications, Steven completed the Technical Large Animal Emergency Rescue course, developed by TLAER, Inc and sponsored by the Baltimore County Fire Department, in June 2008 thus being certified in directing Large Animal Rescues.

Steven enjoys riding Capt’n, his trusty Spotted Saddle Horse gelding. Capt’n is a gaited horse and can go for hours. Steven and Capt’n have ridden trails on Graves Mountain, VA, Fort Valley, VA, and various other state and local parks in VA and MD. They have also participated in several mock and actual searches since joining the team.

Steven holds a BS degree from Texas A&M University and a MS degree from Johns Hopkins University. Steven is a career 30 year federal civil servant, currently working for the Food and Drug Administration as a senior software engineer. He also served 10 years in the US Navy as an officer. He currently lives on a small farm in Baltimore County where he raises goats, sheep, and chickens. Besides the farm, MSAR, and work, Steve umpires baseball at the high school level.

Pete Fields, Trot-27 has been with the Team since 2003 and got his start with mounted search and rescue over 25 years ago. Pete is a retired rocket propulsion engineer and is one of the team officers, currently serving in the position of team Secretary. He and his wife own and operate a beautiful equestrian facility (El Ammal Farm) in Charles County, Maryland specializing in Eventing and Dressage training.

Pete has a passion for long distance riding and is a two-time winner of the Old Dominion 100 Mile Endurance Ride Cavalry Award, and has won the Best Conditioned Award at that competition. Pete has over 1100 competition miles in ECTRA and AERC distance riding competitions.

Pete’s horse of choice is an Arab. He is pictured with his 14-year-old half-Arabian horse Mr. Beythoven. Mr. Beythoven is a tireless athlete with 3 50 mile endurance ride finishes to his credit. When not competing or serving on SAR missions he is a spirited school horse for the students at El Ammal Farm. Pete also started the Team’s “Heart of a Volunteer” program, which has been very successful with our recent recruitment drives.

Laurie Hanahan, TROT-28, and Mia. Laurie has been a Virginia resident for almost 10 years and currently lives in Orange County. Laurie joined the team in 2008 and has recently obtained her SAR Tech II certification from the National Association of Search and Rescue. Her past volunteer efforts have included leadership in girl scouts, pet assisted therapy visits in hospitals and nursing homes with two of her Doberman pinschers as well as pet education visits to elementary schools, extensive participation with and founding a local Doberman rescue group. She is certification as an emergency animal rescue volunteer for disaster situations. Laurie is experienced will coordinating public trail riding event with a local trail riding club.

Laurie’s favorite hobby is weekend camping/trail riding in the mountains with her Mountain Pleasure Horse/Kentucky Mountain Saddle Horse “Bella Mia”. Mia is a 7 year old chestnut mare who has been Laurie’s riding buddy for the past 5 years with extensive trail miles behind her, judged pleasure ride experience, as well as a foundation in natural horsemanship training. Mia is smart and sensible, always willing to head out for a day on the trails. Laurie always looks forward to participating in team trainings and community service events, which she says helps her better prepare for her the next search callout.

John Proudman, Trot-18 has a long history of volunteer public service. He was a volunteer fireman in Amherst, Massachusetts, Fitchburg, Wisconsin and Verona, Wisconsin, and served as Chief of the University of Massachusetts Volunteer Fire Department. While at UMass, he earned his Ph.D. in Animal Science and subsequently served 30 years as a USDA scientist in Beltsville, Maryland. He now is retired and lives on a lovely farm in Fort Valley, VA. He has been with the team since 2003 and serves as TROTSAR's search and rescue operations team leader for the Commonwealth of Virginia. He is also a member of the Montgomery County (Maryland)Citizens Emergency Response Team (CERT), and is an Amateur Radio operator. Dr. Proudman brings a wealth of experience to the Team.

John has been riding horses for about 11 years. He loves long distance endurance riding and is a member of the American Endurance Ride Conference and the Old Dominion Endurance Ride. He is trained in the construction and maintenance of trails, and often serves as Trailmaster for the Old Dominion 100-Mile Ride. He and his search horse, Dancer, have completed over 1000 miles in endurance competition. John is a NASAR SAR Tech II, is trained in advanced wilderness first aid, and is always ready to respond to a search.

John rides Silver Dancer, a 23-year-old Arabian gelding, and Silver Ash, an 11-year-old Arabian gelding. .

Michele McGuinness, Ph.D., (Trot-23) is an operational member who joined the team in May 2003. In 2006 and 2007 she served as the Team’s Assistant Commander and Training Officer. Michele is partnered with two certified mounts, Cavalier, an Arabian gelding, and Thomas J. (Tom), a racking horse. Her equestrian background includes trail riding, Saddle Gals and Guys Drill Team, and limited distance endurance riding. Michele's wilderness experience ranges from vertical caving to extensive wilderness backpacking, and she also enjoys hiking, flat water kayaking, and cycling.

As an operational member of the Search Team, Michele has participated in search and rescue missions in Maryland and Virginia. She has represented the Search Team at the Virginia Search and Rescue Council and at the Maryland Search Team Task Force Command Staff meetings and has participated in numerous multi-jurisdictional, multi-discipline SAREX training events in Maryland, Delaware and Virginia. Michele holds a National Association of Search & Rescue (NASAR) SAR Tech III certification, Wilderness First Aid certification and is a member of specialty teams with the Montgomery County Fire & Rescue Service CERT program.

TIM BLACK (Trot-30) and Champ. Tim applied with the team in the spring of 2008 and became an operational SAR responder after completing the Virginia Department of Emergency Management (VDEM) Field Team Member Program in February of 2009. Tim's inspiration to join the Team came after personally working with and observing TROTSAR in action during a couple of search and rescue operations in Howard County, MD, where he holds the rank of lieutenant with the Howard County Police Department. Tim currently serves the mounted team as Assistant Commander.

Being a former K-9 handler, and conducting frequent ground searches, it was a natural transition for him to want to do the same job on his horse. Tim has owned horses since 1996, but has only recently tried advancing his horsemanship skills through participating in Team Penning, local schooling shows, mounted drill team, mounted cowboy action shooting, and of course trail riding. Tim's current horse, Champ, is a registered red roan Quarter Horse.

John Marsh III (Trot-31) and Cherry Soda. John has lived in Virginia for 30 years, but originally is from a small town in Ohio. He attended Ohio State University and Virginia Tech, with degrees in engineering, health administration and information technology.

He joined TROTSAR in early 2008, and became an operational SAR responder in March of 2009 after passing his VDEM-FTM and also passing the NASAR SAR Tech-III test. John is actively involved with the Old Dominion Endurance Rides Inc. and he enjoys pleasant rides as often as he can with (Cherry Soda) his 8 year old Missouri Fox Trotter.

John and his wife enjoy mountain trail riding, camping with their horses and occasionally an AERC endurance riding event.

Suzanne Anderson, TROT-3 (RETIRED) and Bos Bask, was the last active duty founding member that was part of the original Search Team, which formed in 1992. During her career with the mounted team she held the positions of team commander, team manager, field team leader and mounted searcher. Suzanne's SAR horse during her 14 years of service was Bos Bask a half-registered arabian gelding, standing 14.3 hands tall. When Suzanne's gave presentations about mounted search and spoke about how the horses lent their strength, speed, and endurance to their riders, she was talking from personal experience of her years of partnership with Bos.

To help folks understand just how much she loved serving as a volunteer public service equestrian, and what epitomizes the feelings of our group, here is one of Suzanne's quotes; "Joining the Search Team also means joining an entire community of interesting people committed to searching for lost persons. We take pride in our skills, and identify ourselves as a group, as it takes the entire group with its variety of talents to successfully find a lost person. I'm excited to be a part of such a community, and especially to be able to do it on horseback."

We thank Suzanne for her valued service.

Laurie Platt, TROT-15 (retired), and Solar Flare. Laurie grew up in Iowa riding horses and competing at local gymkhana horse shows and at 4-H events. She attended William Woods College where her second major was equestrian science. After a 4-year stint in Army, Laurie moved to Maryland where she was employed by the Department of Defense as a research analyst. Laurie joined the team in the spring of 2003. She served numerous positions within the team and was an operational mounted responder, Membership Director and holding the rank of Captain was the team’s Assistant Commander. Due to an illness that prevented her from riding, she retired from the team May 13, 2009 and returned to her family’s farm in northeast Iowa.

Her SAR horse Solar Flare was a homebred Swedish Warmblood/Quarter Horse cross gelding and was bred to be a dressage horse. In additional to SAR duties, they both could be seen competing in several regional breed shows. The officers and members of the TROTSAR Mounted Team thank Laurie for her years of dedication and loyal service.

A SAR 'training' search.

The Horses

The TROT Search & Rescue Team horses are privately owned by Team members. Before becoming operational, each horse is evaluated for a basically safe disposition in the presence of people and other animals. Team members do additional training to prepare their mounts for many circumstances, including but not limited to traffic, different types of terrain, startling objects, and crowds of people, in order to ensure each horse performs safely and efficiently in a search incident.

The primary value of horses in search is the enhanced strength and endurance they provide the trained searcher riding them. The horses enable the TROT Search & Rescue Team to move themselves and their equipment over a variety of terrain and distances with minimal effort.

The horses on the Team are of different ages and many breeds, but the individual animal's temperament is the deciding factor in its suitability for Search work.