Horse wrecks and adventures

[Pony Soldier]

Horses don't take to towing right away and you should be carefull starting out. They tend to think initially that the drag is chasing them and if you don't have control it will get ugly. Try dragging things in a controlled environment if you aren't much of a gambler.

Part of our hunting pattern is usually a long recon of 20-25 square miles with 1000-2000 ft of elevation. This allows us to figure out where the elk are if there is some snow. They move a lot so you had better be mobil. We left the truck early and had made our sweep and were on the last leg late in the day. We usually try to save our horses knees and usually walk downhill. My partner said his butt was sore and he would rather run a sweep on the left side of the road where there were a number of finger ridges.

My son said he would sweep the right side where there were some high meadows to peek at. I was scheduled to lead the horses down the skid road to the truck. After about half a mile a shot was fired on the left side above me. My partner radioed he had a cow down. My son called and said he would start down to meet me. I found him on the road and we mounted up and started up an adjacent draw. Near the top, in a bowl, a herd of elk stepped out to look at the horses. My son got off while I held the stock. At the shot, one of them turned and ran straight at us. At the second shot, she fell about 30 yds from where I stood. The horses were a little startled at the shot but settled down quickly. I tied up the ponies to help my son get her cleaned and then everyone showed up. A women, two boys and grandpa suddenly appeared. After a bit I went up the hill to find my partner to help him. I ran into him shortly and we went back down to finish helping my son. He said the family felt this was a teaching moment for the boys and watched him till he finished.

We roped up the cow and headed down with me leading the ponies. It was a fairly easy drag and soon we were on the skid road. As the sun had gone down, we put on our lights, tied the horses and started back up the hill. Shortly we picked my tracks and headed back up the ridge to the other elk. She was on the edge of a cliff and the drag was going to suck. Over the bank she went and into the deadfall and brush. An hour later after towing her over and under logs we got back to the skid road - a little beat up but progressing.

We decided to hook each one up to a horse and lead them down to the truck. This worked well until we hit the junction of two drainages and the road went onto the sidehill. I should mention this road was a horse skid road with a sleigh from the 30s. Just a little off of a horse trail. Going down got tougher. Where it sloped into the hill, things were good but where it sloped out we had to put a tail rope on the elk and two of us kept each elk from going over the bank while the third kept the horse tightly under control.

When we hit the main road, we left the elk on a hill and unhitched the trailer. That way we could back up to the slope and slide them into the back of the truck. After we got them loaded we got the trailer on and loaded the horses and headed for home.

We still had to eat dinner and then hang the elk, skin them, clean them, quarter them, wrap them in sheets and hang them in the shop. It is a hard, time consuming endeaver that works best with 2 or 3 close friends. But can be done with one but you had better be tough and determined.

 

[Ouzel]

I’ve had my share of jackpots in the mountain, but will share a funny one that I rode up on.
It was mid September in the Wyoming range 40 years ago and We we’re at camp getting four head loaded with meat for the pack out to trailhead, when two guys came up the trail each dragging two well packed horses.
The lead guy had a 6 pt bull of maybe 320” with long tines, really pretty on his second horse. We just waved and said nice bull and on up the trail they went.

We finished getting things lashed down and headed out, as I was climbing to the pass I could see these guys not too far ahead . As I rode through the saddle, I now see we were just a couple minutes behind them as they disappeared into the timber. The side hill they were going to be going around was soft dirt with a bad soft edge.
Shortly after I entered the timber, I could see one rider tying up his pack animals and thought hmm wonder what’s up .
Got a little closer to where I could see down over the dirt side hill and about 80’ down on a little flat was the horse packing the done turned turtle with all four feet in the air and that elk rack buried in dirt clear to the beams and burls. Looking at the sign you could see where that horse stepped off and then must’ve hung back and broke the weaklink then started to roll, you could clearly see where that elk rack dug into the ground with every roll before finally completely embedding it in that little flat to stop the roll.
The rider was in a quandary of what to do and was going for his knife to dice the latigos when shouted at him to wait and got him shut down on that idea.
My lead horse and string were well seasoned and stood good. I hopped off and went down and explained all was ok, we just needed to work some slack and getting the lash rope off the lash cinch and then we could simply undue the latigos and roll the horse right out of the pack saddle, which we did.
That ol pony had only been turtled up for maybe ten minutes but between that and four rolls down the hill, he was sure a meek and happy pony when we got him back on all fours.
We got the packsaddle and panniers, separated from the rack and then two of us pulled it out of the dirt, with hunter expecting the worst, low and behold not a broken tine or busted skull cap, they had had it lashed down just perfect. tThe soft dirt hillside had cushioned and saved everything
As I headed back to my string, I fellas if’n I was you, I‘d load him exactly how you had him before because I had never seen a rolled pack animal come out of that kind of wreck 100% unscathed.
I was able to tell this tale and point out the torn up dirt to hunters all fall as we passed by going in and out of camp until the snows finally covered up the evidence

 

[Pony Soldier]

Outstanding! Very few of those turn out without nitemares for a while afterwards.

 

[rayporter]

i had one fall on a big slick rock in a switch back once. i am pretty sure if he had had the rack on her it would have gutted her.

 

[Pony Soldier]

I have been very fortunate to have had very few wrecks with antlers and none with antlers in a complete roll over. However sawing your way into the kill for the horses and then widening it on the way out is a challenge to say the least. I haven't packed a big set of antlers in over 30 years. The smaller ones fit over the rib cages of the elk usually to protect the horse.

 

[Pony Soldier]

I just love horse stories so here is another one. I was hunting south of Alder in sw Montana. The south slopes are usually sagebrush and junipers while the north slopes are covered with old growth red fir. The other drawback is that there are a number of springs near the heads of the drainages and some along the slopes. During the summer they are easy to pick out from the vegetation but with 18" of snow, things just look the same. The other problem is that as the water oozes out of the slope it freezes forming glaze ice under the snow. Some of these ice pans can go for hundreds of feet.

I had dropped my partner off on one ridge while I led the horses down the next ridge. About halfway down the ridge I cut to the north side and started towards the bottom to avoid a patch of willows. About the time I felt the ice under my feet, both horses hit the ground, picked me up and I got to ride a hair tobogan a couple hundred yards to the creek bottom. The trip is exilerating but at the bottom it's a scramble to get clear of the flailing legs. It's an experience you will never forget.

 

[Zaccav505]

This one wasn't while hunting but sure was a rodeo. I bought a little Red Angus heifer calf and was told that she was wild... ...As soon as I got her home she stayed on my property for all of about five minutes before heading for the bush. I saddled up and lit after her. The neighbors were saddled up and trying to help me. This was one of the feistiest calves I've ever seen. She charged our horses several times, ran clear under my horse twice, vaulted through 7 fences and we finally had to slip up on her and dart her to get her loaded back up. She is in a pipe pen right now till I can get her calmed down a little bit...

 

[Pony Soldier]

Just had the neighbor stop by. Said he hadn't been up all summer because his wife got into a disagreement with her mule. 8 broken ribs and a broken thigh bone give or take a few odds and ends. Said two weeks in the hospital and a month and a half in bed accounted for his summer. Be careful out there folks. Some round corral time beats the hell out hospital time.

 

[yfarm]

Friend had a close friend in Boerne Tx get into a conflict with his mule while loading in a trailer with no escape door, broken pelvis,ribs and left leg in the 2 legged mule, 4 legged was unhurt.

 

[Coues123]

Great stories.
A couple of years ago my friends wife had killed a nice bull and we hung it in a tree to get the next day. Only a couple hour ride in and out. We take two mules and 3 horses. We are about 2 miles from the truck on the way back when we see an outfitter coming up the trail with a big string. We have a place to get off the trail uphill and watch about 20 head go by. The last wrangler to go by was young man about 18 on a young horse with two young looking pack horses.
When you've seen enough packs and strings you know what a wreck waiting to happen looks like. As they went by I told my friend that last string will never make it to their camp.
I'm on a young mule that likes to spook from everything and riding him up front just to get him over it. He's tried to jump out from under me about 20 times already that day. I have an old mule with the front quarters and antlers behind me. My friend is on a older horse with a great big half draft mare behind him packing the hinds. His wife is in the back just enjoying the scenery.
We rode about 10 minutes after the outfitter passed and got to a really steep, cliff like spot in the trail about 400 yards long and the trail has a pretty good downhill grade to it. It's about 500 feet off to the bottom and the trail is really narrow.
All of a sudden she lets out this scream that raises the hair on the back of my neck. I'm thinking she went off the trail. However, when I look back, I can see behind her about 25 yards coming down the trail at full speed, the kids saddle horse with the two pack horses still dallied on, both packs rolled underneath and they are not slowing down. Knowing I was not going to out run them on my mule, I stepped off up hill and let him go. No place to try to hold a spooked mule. I'm trying to get two steps up hill when he spins on a dime in the trail and faces up hill to see the the show himself. My friend is looking back at his wife but no time to say anything. Her horse jumps like a sheep up hill and forward and bounes once off the side of the hill and comes down between my friend and the draft mare.
The first horse weighing about half the draft slams into the draft at full speed which sends it off the edge and knocks the draft off balance. The first pack horse goes on the uphill side of the draft still dallied to the saddle horse which pushes the draft off the edge and both pack horses follow. We're watching 4 horses go off knowing they are not stopping until the bottom. Somehow, they all went off going straight downhill and made it to the bottom on their feet.
The draft was still in sight so we knew she was ok. The other 3 we couldn't see in the trees.
We were making a plan to go get them when the kid comes running down the trail. That poor kid got the tounge lashing of his life from his wife. A trucker would have turned red from what was said. We figured we would let her vent at him and not us.
It took us about an hour to get things sorted out and back on the trail.
Nothing was skinned up that bad.
I felt so bad for the kid, I apologized to him for his tounge lashing.
Anybody who goes enough is going to have a wreck. You just hope nobody sees it.

 

[Coues123]

I'll try an adventure. About 15 years ago, the kids had killed 4 bulls and gone home. I had a couple extra days left to look for some mule deer. I was on a big 3 yo gelding that could cover the country when opened up. I'd used him a couple of times to help some neighbors gather cattle out of the mountains. He knew how to track a cow wide open and how to get around them. It was about 15 degrees when I left camp and the last meadow I crossed the ground was frozen solid.
As I got to towards the top of the next ridge, a bull on the other side of the ridge bugled. I guessed it to be about 80 yards away. It was just getting light enough to see. A couple days earlier the kids had missed a real nice 6x7, 360 ish bull in the same area. I decided to get a good look at what sounded like him over the ridge. Since the gelding was warmed up good, I put a spur to him.
We were full out as we got to the top of the ridge. As we came around this small fir tree, the bull was starting to bugle about 20 yards away. He had moved up the ridge als and way closer than expected. He was facing straight at me, antlers laid back and a mist rolling out of his mouth. My first thought was, this can go wrong fast. I ride a saddle my grandpa broke horses for the army with in 1917. It has great big swells and a deep seat. I was starting to lean back, get my legs up tight on the swells.
The bull was starlted just as much as I was. As the bull started to back up, he stumbled which caused him to basically sit down. He was trying to get his front end around to get away but his back end was definitely not responding like he wanted. He was pivoting around on his butt with his front feet going like crazy. I was trying to get stopped but there was not going to any reining futurity won that morning with a slide stop. I felt a lot better as his antlers started turning away from us. I was trying to veer off and stop as we were getting right up on top of him.
As the bull came on a fours, he was going pretty much straight away. He was only about 4 feet in front of us and starting to move out.
With everything going in the right direction, I figured what the heck, let's do this. Knowing a big meadow was about 200 yards down the ridge and it was all downhill. It was on. I didn't do a thing but give him his head back. That bull never got more than about 10 feet from us down to the meadow. To be honest, it was more of a horse race. I knew the meadow was basically dry and frozen with no big holes and maybe 150 yards across. We held our own for the first 50 yards across the meadow, then the bull started to pull away. About 25 yards from the other side, I started to pull my horse up and the bull was about 15 yards in front of us.
Going out of the meadow for about 80 yards the trees were not all that thick. I got stopped just out of the meadow. The bull stops about 50 yards beyond me and turns around and screams at me and just stands there. We look at each other for about 15 seconds before he turns and walks up the ridge as if it never happened. I stayed there until he was out of sight.
I wouldn't do it again but it was quite a ride while it lasted.
In today's world, I'll probably get some tree hugging peta jackwagon telling me how unethical that was.