Breaking Rules, Tack, and Everything Else: My DIY Horseback Hunting Chronicle

[yycyak]

To cut right to it: I’ve had a heck of time finding info on “How” to hunt off a horse. It seems that the majority out there learn this stuff either by being born into a ranch family, or working as a guide and learning that way.

I’m neither. So that sucks. And it’s bloody hard to find decent info on the actual “How the heck do I do this?” part of things.

So this thread will (1) Document all the dumb things I’ve done trying to figure this game out, and (2) Hopefully provide some helpful How-To for the people out there who want to give this a shot. I

Full disclosure: I’ve had a ton of help by reading posts and reaching out to roksliders like @Pony Soldier, @missjordan, @Travis Hobbs, @wymtnpounder edit: Can't believe I forgot @rayporter. There’s some really squared away people on this forum (I’m not one of them) and it’s worth asking them for help. @Chase0109 thread https://rokslide.com/forums/threads/how-to-hunt-with-horses.158633/#post-1503634 was a great resource too.

About Me:

I’m a late 30’s self-employed office weenie. I live in the suburbs, have young kids, a mortgage, a budget, and have time commitments that take me away from hunting. I juggle as much as I can. I’ve always wanted to horseback hunt the backcountry, and over the last 2 years started working towards that goal. I’m no expert – far from it. I don’t really have any friends who horseback hunt either.

Due to personal failings, my focus is always the 80/20 Rule: Give me something functional, that works 80% of the time, and be happy with that. Obsessing over the 20% is bad, and to be avoided at all costs.

My approach to horseback hunting follows this: Keep it functional, and make sure whatever you’re doing mostly works most of the time. No doubt there’s a bunch of fancier ways of doing things out there, but I’m limited in time/competence/money, or often a combination of all three.

Anyway, hopefully by posting all the dumb things I've done and continue to do here, it might help some people in the future who want to try their hand at this horseback hunting thing.

 

[yycyak]

ON HORSES

BLUF: Find someone who knows something about horses. Have them help you/find the horse for you. Don’t shoot yourself in the foot by thinking you know about stuff that you don’t have a clue about.

So this is a shocker. To hunt on horseback, you need a horse.

This means fire up the classifieds, read an ad about a wicked awesome amazing pony, and good to go right?

No. Don’t do this. (It’s what I did when I started, and it has sucked. Although there’s a silver lining at the end of that mess.)

Step 1. You don’t know anything about horses. So don’t even try.

There’s not enough books, youtube videos, whatever out there for you to become good at this game. Instead, you’re going to need to rely on actual horse people to help you out. This part sucks (I want to DIY this – what the heck), but trust me – try to not do that here.

Go through your social circle. Find someone, anyone, who knows horses. English, western, outfitter, whatever, doesn’t matter: They just need to know wtf they are doing.

Be friends with this person. Tell them what you’re trying to do. Ask if you can impose and have them look at ponies with you. This person is going to be your helpful guide. You’re putting a lot of trust in this person, but once found, it’s the secret to skipping a lot of the crap out there. And the horse world is loaded with crap I’m learning.

Step 2. Keywords: “Husband Horse” and “Kid Horse”

In a perfect world, your trusted person already knows someone who knows someone who has a good horse for sale. Usually that’s the best way to go. Failing that, there’s another route that seems pretty good.

The recreational horse world is mostly dominated by women. (I believe the stat is 90% of horse owners are women.) These ladies have this quirky term called “Husband Horse”. It’s a term that is supposed to mean a horse that would be good for a clueless husband to ride. The implication here being that the husband isn’t horse-savvy at all, and just needs a plug-and-play, non-fancy horse. Quirky, but also generally factually true.

“Kid’s Horse”, well that’s self-explanatory.

These keywords will help narrow down your search. It’s not perfect, but hey, 80/20.

These horses are usually calm-ish, and can mostly get down a trail without much drama. They also don’t do fancy stuff like jump, cut, rein, sliding stops, or whatever else is trendy on Yellowstone these days. They just kind of walk from A to B. Note: A younger Husband Horse will be expensive. Majority you will find out there are usually 18 years old+ - You need to decide what you want to do here.

Step 3. Go shopping.

I can’t really say much here, other than start searching. Once found, get the person to take a bunch of videos. If they won’t, red flag. Move on.

Here’s a smart cowboy talking about this:

Okay so you find a horse you like. Go see it in person. Bring your smart horse dude with you. Have your smart person check it out. This process can be an ordeal and take a bunch of time, but let’s assume the horse gets a green light from your Smart Person.

Step 4. Thou Shalt Always PPE

Repeat after me: You don’t know horses. And that’s fine. So you’re going to have Smart People look at the critter, and they are going to save you thousands of dollars and tons of emotional frustration.

A Pre-Purchase Exam is part of this process. A vet is going to check out the horse. It’s going to tell you a bunch of stuff, including how old the horse is.

Note to self: People lie about horse’s ages ALL. THE. TIME. The PPE solves this.

The PPE will also generally find foot problems.

Yes, this costs money. Yes, there’s a possibility that the PPE finds problems, you back out of the sale, and you’re out $300 (or whatever.) You need to get it through your head that this is money well spent.

The trick to this game is to not buy someone else’s headache. $300 is cheap insurance to avoid this trap.

Step 5. Repeat

Repeat 2, 3, and 4 until you find a keeper. Done

***

I didn’t follow this process for my first horse. I watched youtube videos for months, jumped into the classifieds, found a pony, skipped the PPE. Great hilarity ensued.

For my second horse, I had the good fortune to have a friend (who is also a squared horse guy) send me a text saying “There’s a horse for sale. You should buy it.” So I did. It was that fast, and didn’t require any energy on my part. PPE worked out. And that horse has generally been a beauty, but he's still young and learning the ropes.

Anyway, that’s about all I have on this. In summary, a backpack hunter with a full-time job doing not-horses/not-hunting, who decides on a whim to try this horse thing, is not going to have the skill-set needed to ID a decent horse. But there are ways to stack the odds in your favour.

Be ruthless in getting videos from sellers. Find someone who knows horses, and have them help you (read: take pity on you). And then, like they say: you roll the dice.

One last thing: Money solves a lot of Life's problems, and this applies to horses. If you have a large budget, you can skip a lot of problems. I don’t have a large budget, which is part of the motivation behind this thread. You can watch in real-time where going "Budget" does/doesn't work.

 

[Billy Goat]

Sorry, but this meme is too perfect not to use, some truth to it.




Trust absolutely nothing that someone selling a horse tells you, in my experience.

 

[missjordan]

Flattered i made the “list” of well respected horse people thank you!

Your post made me laugh because it’s 100% accurate. Glad your having tons of fun with this journey. Funny that the horse world in general is mostly female dominated but on this forum i think i might be the only one that regularly floats around these parts. I’m feeling a bit outnumbered right now haha.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Pony Soldier]

Very good! Just remember that some of your mistakes may evolve into something useful with use and further training. About 10% will give you extreme pleasure when you shoot your mistake after you get out of the hospital.

 

[rayporter]

Very good! Just remember that some of your mistakes may evolve into something useful with use and further training. About 10% will give you extreme pleasure when you shoot your mistake after you get out of the hospital.

i knew a trainer that did just this after one broke his leg.
he sat at the killer pen till it went through just to shoot it.

 

[Coues123]

Having owned a couple hundred horses, it's still a roll of the dice when you buy, trade, raise or get one for free.
My grandpa had a few sayings about horses that have proven true over the years.
You don't know anything about a horse until you've used it for 30 days.
They all have a few quirks, can you live with the quirks they have.
Papers don't mean squat in the mountains. Never trust a horse that was someone's pet and has no respect for you.
You can't lose them if you don't own them but if you own them your going to lose them.
There are to many good ones to keep a crazy one. (Which we've all done thinking we can train it)
Good luck on your adventure.

 

[450]

Thanks for starting this thread, I will be starting down this road before long. I have lived and hunted in Alaska for the last 30 years so I’m use to being out in the wilderness. I will be going down this road with mules instead of horses. Like you have suggested, I found a really nice guy that trains/sales mules near where I’m moving once I retire. He has been a wealth of knowledge and has helped me a lot. I’m also in the process of buying as much of the packing gear as I can while I’m still working so it’s not such a big cost once I retire and on a fixed income. Lord knows mules cost have went through the roof and they want be cheap. I do have an industrial sewing machine and have made a set of panniers and top pack. Thanks and I hope this thread continues.

 

[450]

A couple of pictures of my homemade stuff.

 

[pbroski]

ON HORSES

BLUF: Find someone who knows something about horses. Have them help you/find the horse for you. Don’t shoot yourself in the foot by thinking you know about stuff that you don’t have a clue about.

So this is a shocker. To hunt on horseback, you need a horse.

This means fire up the classifieds, read an ad about a wicked awesome amazing pony, and good to go right?

No. Don’t do this. (It’s what I did when I started, and it has sucked. Although there’s a silver lining at the end of that mess.)

Step 1. You don’t know anything about horses. So don’t even try.

There’s not enough books, youtube videos, whatever out there for you to become good at this game. Instead, you’re going to need to rely on actual horse people to help you out. This part sucks (I want to DIY this – what the heck), but trust me – try to not do that here.

Go through your social circle. Find someone, anyone, who knows horses. English, western, outfitter, whatever, doesn’t matter: They just need to know wtf they are doing.

Be friends with this person. Tell them what you’re trying to do. Ask if you can impose and have them look at ponies with you. This person is going to be your helpful guide. You’re putting a lot of trust in this person, but once found, it’s the secret to skipping a lot of the crap out there. And the horse world is loaded with crap I’m learning.

Step 2. Keywords: “Husband Horse” and “Kid Horse”

In a perfect world, your trusted person already knows someone who knows someone who has a good horse for sale. Usually that’s the best way to go. Failing that, there’s another route that seems pretty good.

The recreational horse world is mostly dominated by women. (I believe the stat is 90% of horse owners are women.) These ladies have this quirky term called “Husband Horse”. It’s a term that is supposed to mean a horse that would be good for a clueless husband to ride. The implication here being that the husband isn’t horse-savvy at all, and just needs a plug-and-play, non-fancy horse. Quirky, but also generally factually true.

“Kid’s Horse”, well that’s self-explanatory.

These keywords will help narrow down your search. It’s not perfect, but hey, 80/20.

These horses are usually calm-ish, and can mostly get down a trail without much drama. They also don’t do fancy stuff like jump, cut, rein, sliding stops, or whatever else is trendy on Yellowstone these days. They just kind of walk from A to B. Note: A younger Husband Horse will be expensive. Majority you will find out there are usually 18 years old+ - You need to decide what you want to do here.

Step 3. Go shopping.

I can’t really say much here, other than start searching. Once found, get the person to take a bunch of videos. If they won’t, red flag. Move on.

Here’s a smart cowboy talking about this:

Okay so you find a horse you like. Go see it in person. Bring your smart horse dude with you. Have your smart person check it out. This process can be an ordeal and take a bunch of time, but let’s assume the horse gets a green light from your Smart Person.

Step 4. Thou Shalt Always PPE

Repeat after me: You don’t know horses. And that’s fine. So you’re going to have Smart People look at the critter, and they are going to save you thousands of dollars and tons of emotional frustration.

A Pre-Purchase Exam is part of this process. A vet is going to check out the horse. It’s going to tell you a bunch of stuff, including how old the horse is.

Note to self: People lie about horse’s ages ALL. THE. TIME. The PPE solves this.

The PPE will also generally find foot problems.

Yes, this costs money. Yes, there’s a possibility that the PPE finds problems, you back out of the sale, and you’re out $300 (or whatever.) You need to get it through your head that this is money well spent.

The trick to this game is to not buy someone else’s headache. $300 is cheap insurance to avoid this trap.

Step 5. Repeat

Repeat 2, 3, and 4 until you find a keeper. Done

***

I didn’t follow this process for my first horse. I watched youtube videos for months, jumped into the classifieds, found a pony, skipped the PPE. Great hilarity ensued.

For my second horse, I had the good fortune to have a friend (who is also a squared horse guy) send me a text saying “There’s a horse for sale. You should buy it.” So I did. It was that fast, and didn’t require any energy on my part. PPE worked out. And that horse has been a beauty.

Anyway, that’s about all I have on this. In summary, a backpack hunter with a full-time job doing not-horses/not-hunting, who decides on a whim to try this horse thing, is not going to have the skill-set needed to ID a decent horse. But there are ways to stack the odds in your favour.

Be ruthless in getting videos from sellers. Find someone who knows horses, and have them help you (read: take pity on you). And then, like they say: you roll the dice.

One last thing: Money solves a lot of Life's problems, and this applies to horses. If you have a large budget, you can skip a lot of problems. I don’t have a large budget, which is part of the motivation behind this thread. You can watch in real-time where going "Budget" does/doesn't work.

My hunting-with-horses journey is similar to yours. I knew I liked remote do-it-yourself hunts and always thought getting there with horses was the ultimate. I used my own floatplane for a number of years to get into the backcountry, but really wanted to do it with horses.

So I bought a decent property with 35 acres and slowly started the journey. Like you, I was not raised around horses and knew basically nothing about them. I'm guilty of step 1 because I never really found anybody who I could learn from. I ended up doing it all myself, learning from books and videos.

I bought my first horse from a breeder who was selling off his whole heard because of age and health reasons. I explained to him I was a complete novice and was looking for a calm, safe horse. So out of about 60 head, he recommended Dusty Hawk, an 11 year old registered Morgan gelding. I immediately started searching for a companion for the first horse, and a week later I had a 6 month old Fresien/Quarter Horse colt. I new it was going to be a few years before I would actually be hunting with the horses, so I didn't mind starting a colt. A few years later when I was getting ready to use them for hunting I saw a 2 year old Percheron/QH mare for sale. She seemed pretty good, so I bought her.

In the mean time I learned about what tack to use and how to fit saddles, by trial and error. I learned how to handle and train horses from books and videos by doing, and seeing what seemed to work best. I learned to ride by getting on and riding. The same thing with packing. I put the packs on, and lead them around. The horses got comfortable with everything.

What interesting is how they have progressed on the trails. In the beginning, it was a chore to get them to do certain things. For example when I came to a log across the trail, they didn't want to step over it, or cross a small creek, or go through a small muddy section. All this stuff was foreign to them because their pasture at home never had anything like those sorts of obstacles. I just kept working the horses on the trails, and they got better and better. There's a night and day difference now. They've been up and down very steep, rough trails, through lots of deep muskeg, through thick bush with no trail, and across deep, fast flowing rivers. They've been in some pretty hairy situations and have kept their cool. They're seasoned pro's now. I'm very pleased with their progress.

They're the only 3 horses I've ever had, and they seem to be working out well. I'm not sure how that happened but I think there are a few contributing factors to their success. I believe a horse has to have so much respect for you that it will never harm you willingly, and at the same time it has to actually like you so that it will want to do work for you and want to be around you. Even more important though is that it has to trust you. A pack horse knows it was you that put that stuff on it's back. If it goes into a trot and the stuff inside the boxes starts to make noise, it won't freak out and start bucking because it trusts you. Real trust is the hardest thing to gain, I think. It takes lots of time working with the horse in different situations to achieve. My advice to go slow and don't rush when it comes to working with horses for hunting, and things should work out okay.

 

[pacoalcracker]

Owning and riding a horse isn't cheap, but the reward is so worth it. I grew up on a horse farm until I was 17, but had been away from it for 45 years so a lot was lost. I retired 5 years ago and had thought of getting another horse. I bought a 7 year old Walker with good ground manners and ride/cart trained almost 3 years ago. I hooked up with a great trainer a few months after getting him and arranged for 1 hr of training per week for me and then after a few months also arranged for 1 hr of training per week for my horse. This has made me a better rider and my horse a much better horse. He is really well trained now. I paid 6K for him but he is now easily worth 5x that. We both still get our 1 hr/week training because I'm a believer in continuous improvement and enjoy seeing that in my horse moreso than in myself. I bought a Walker by choice since they have a reputation for intelligence and easily trained, docile temperament, their easy gait for older riders and can keep a good gaited pace for many miles whether with a rider or pulling a cart. He will gait as slow or as fast as you ask and has a wonderful canter. I'm now 64 and he will soon be 10 so we are set to grow old together. It's so worth it. BTW, my trainer loves him and wishes he were hers. Oh, and there are around 40 horses at the barn with around 25 owners of them, with just me and another 84 yo guy that each have 1 horse. Yes, very female dominated but they are nice to us.

I have thought about hunting with him but around where I live there are too many knuckleheads and if someone shot my horse I would end up in prison.

 

[Pony Soldier]

I think the most important part of horse work is the trust that develops between the rider and the horse. They aren't a quad or sxs. The more miles you spend on them, the calmer they are. You have think for them and they have to allow you to do so.

A lot like raising kids, consistancy is a critical part of the relationship. If you have emotional explosions expect the same out of them.

Trail miles become a critical component of the relationship. They will remember the trails and will almost become a self driving unit which will allow you to watch for game and obsticals that you need to work around. Paying attention to the horse is a critical component of the relationship. They can be your woods dog as they have better ears and eyes than you and at times I think - radar.

 

[wyosteve]

After my 40+ years with horses and mules, I've come to the conclusion there is one truism--"Expect the unexpected"!

 

[Pony Soldier]

May I add to that- anticipate the unexpected and deal with it before it occurs.

 

[TxxAgg]

This is a good thread. I'm not a horse person but enjoy reading it. You have a good attitude about it.

 

[rayporter]

May I add to that- anticipate the unexpected and deal with it before it occurs.

this is so true.

how ever you must also have enough experience to know what to anticipate.

it takes a few decades to just begin to grasp the equine mind.

 

[pacoalcracker]

Working with a seasoned horse trainer gets you to that point much quicker than going it alone and finding things out for yourself, sometimes the hard and dangerous way, plus you get to learn about the horses complicated physical systems and help with health matters to compliment what you read. Sometimes they can save you an expensive vet visit. Their experiences often times gets across to you better than reading about it. If nothing else, it gives you greater confidence. Of course, it comes at a cost, so you need to weigh out the benefits. To me it's worth it.

 

[codym]

I started into horses 15 years ago running bird dogs. I don’t field trial much anymore but still will train off horseback a little. I love walking horses. They have been pretty level headed and flat move down the trail. One thing I will add is if possible try to find a horse from your area that does what you’re planning to do. I pack into the Gila and both my mares are from there, both off outfitters strings. I did polish work getting them to stake out and ground work but the things they already know and are cool with is invaluable. No problem with deer, elk, bears, turkey, mearns quail busting out under their bellies. They know to suck water out of a seep and follow a faint broken trail. Several times this elk season I rode back in the dark, just gave her the reins and they get back to camp. High lining, standing tied for hours and eating out of feed bags, little things but make life so much easier especially if your like me and hunt solo and are handling multiple horses.

 

[Coues123]

A quick example from two weeks ago to illustrate what it means to anticipate the unexpected.
A guy I had met once stopped by my house in the evening and related the following story.

On day 3 of his pack trip in the wilderness he stepped off to cut a log out of the trail so he could get down the trail. Got his ax off his pack horse and got started. Half way through the log, something spooked his horses and they took off. It's about 2p and he finds himself with no coat, a pocket knife and a lighter in his pocket, 24 miles from any trailhead. Headlamp is in the saddle bags.
He looked for 3 hours and they were still moving farther from the trailhead. He was in an area where there was a good possibility no one else would be in between hunts.
Around 5p he decided to walk out. Spent the night under a tree with a fire. The trail went up and down over several big ridges to get out. He was wishing he didn't have loose boots on before long.
When he got to my house that evening, he asked if I could go look for his horses.
To make a long story short. I found them on the afternoon of day 5 since they'd run off, hung up in a canyon. They hadn't had water in a while.
I got them to water and let them have a little water at a time. I had to dally them up to get them off the water the first 3 times.
I spent the next two days following their tracks back to find saddles and gear they'd rolled off along the way.
The horses were able to rehydrate and get some feed in them for two days. I put a hind shoe on one and got them out in realative good health.

 

[450]

I have a question and remember I haven’t started down this road yet but I will be. For a solo hunter, how many pack mules would be needed for an elk hunt? That’s bringing camp/elk out in one trip? I know a lot depends on your camp and I’m use to doing Super Cub fly-in hunts where you are limited to 50 lbs total for everything (food, tent, sleeping bag, clothes). Thanks in advance for info.