Gunnison area horse rental

[LostArra]

If you’re not a horseman and know how to ride and handle a horse you are probably better off leaving the horses to an outfitter.

This 100% ^^^^^

 

[Verne]

Brooks said:
If you’re not a horseman and know how to ride and handle a horse you are probably better off leaving the horses to an outfitter.

Totally correct. One of our group members and I have owned, ridden, and been around horses most of our lives. We'd even been on guided hunts where we utilized horses to ride and pack in. And we still weren't prepared.

 

[mt terry d]

Brooks said:
If you’re not a horseman and know how to ride and handle a horse you are probably better off leaving the horses to an outfitter.

Totally correct. One of our group members and I have owned, ridden, and been around horses most of our lives. We'd even been on guided hunts where we utilized horses to ride and pack in. And we still weren't prepared.

You will be tested.
It's what horses do.

 

[hubbs77]

We've used Bar Diamond outfitters several times in unit 53 of the West Elk Wilderness and it's been great. Last time was 2019 and, I'm not sure if they're still in business.

I will warn you, though. If you're not a real horse guy and a little tougher than most, this isn't for you. Hunting with horses is dangerous and EXTREMELY hard work. You'll spend at least 50% of your time on the mountain taking care of them and 95% of your time worrying about them. Are they secured so they'll be there when you return? Have they had enough to eat and drink? Are they going to get hurt? Are they going to hurt me? And don't even get me started on learning how to actually secure your gear on them so you aren't dropping stuff on the trail every 50 yards. It's a lot.

That being said, I don't know that I'd ever choose to hunt without them. You can take more comforts in with you (not many more, but more than a backpacker), you can cover more ground, and there's really nothing that compares to riding a horse in the wilderness.

It took us 2 trips to finally get good at it and we're still learning as we go. That first trip was an absolute nightmare and I was convinced one of us would die by the end of day one. The second trip found us more prepared and things were much better, but by no means perfect. After that, everything really began to gel, but keep in mind that you'll never remove the danger factor. So far, almost everyone in our group has been thrown at least once (I'm probably next) and those wrecks have caused 2 of our guys to require reconstructive shoulder surgery. Again....you'd better be tough if you're gonna do this.

You're guaranteed to hate almost every minute of your hunt with horses with maybe 10-15 minutes a day (if you're lucky) of pure bliss. Every single trip leaves me saying that I'll never do it again by the last day, but a few hours into the drive home I'm already planning the next one.

One last thing...the guy above who wrote about having bad horses that didn't want to be separated. Dude, that's ALL horses. To them, everything out there wants to eat them and there's safety in numbers. You NEVER leave a horse alone. Hunt in pairs so you can tie the horses together. You can walk off in opposite directions if you want. Don't leave your pack horse alone while you ride out to hunt on the other 2. Take him with you. If you don't have at least 2 horses you're leaving alone while you hunt, you're asking for trouble. Just my 2 cents.

 

[hubbs77]

@Mobowhunter

 

[Chris B]

The guys I know that take horses have a dedicated " wrangler " friend that does nothing but take care of them 24/7 . The " hunters " can then actually enjoy the hunt .

 

[Verne]

Now that would be the way to go and it's something we've talked about doing for years now. You'd basically need to cover all the expenses for that guy, but splitting that between 3 or 4 guys would definitely make sense. It would still be a lot cheaper than a drop camp, and this way, you still have the horses in camp to use when you need them.