NetPosse.com provided this image of one of the missing horses, named Pie. Four horses were reported missing from Mt. Airy June 29. NetPosse is a website that posts information about missing horses. One of the volunteers helping in the search sent out a drone to aid in the hunt for the horses. (Courtesy NetPosse.com)

WASHINGTON – In the old days, when horses went missing, a posse might be formed to search for the missing animals. Nowadays, high tech is part of the search process.

In the case of four horses that went missing from a Mt. Airy pasture last week, the search effort included an online tool that helps organize quick-turnaround search parties and even a drone.

Geoffrey Green of VSI Aerial says he volunteered in the search for the horses that disappeared on June 29. Green drove from Quantico, Virginia, on Sunday and sent a drone into the skies above Mt. Airy while the search on the ground continued. So far, the location of the four horses remains a mystery.

“They’re pretty frustrated, because they obviously want to find and return their horses to their pasture,” Green said of the horses’ owners.

Valerie Vollmers, the owner of one of the horses, named Pie, said she contacted police in Montgomery and Frederick counties because the property is close to the border of both. She also posted an online “missing flyer” with NetPosse.com, a website that posts information about missing horses and promises to “round up a modern day version of a posse within minutes of filing a report.”

Vollmers said she believes the horses might have escaped after a group of teens entered the property and left the gate open. That’s happened in the past, she said.

So far, the whereabouts of the four horses, including one that belongs to a 6-year-old boy, is unknown.

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Original news article from WTOP can be found here: http://wtop.com/maryland/2016/07/drone-helps-hunt-missing-horses/