Mules, Horses, And Gimpy Elk Hunters

Ryan Avery

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Shoot2HuntU
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Describing our group as a motley crew would be an understatement. As we began this hunt, we had three functioning legs and two working arms among us. Jim had undergone major foot surgery in the spring and had broken his humerus in August. I had dislocated my right shoulder just two weeks prior. I was already taking two mules that we could barely saddle, let alone lift meat onto their backs. The day before the hunt, my friend Jaxon asked if he could join us with his two horses. Of course, I said yes, not realizing that he would be spending time with two gimps.

To sum it up, Jim ended up shooting a great bull, we faced a few horse mishaps, and we had a loooong walk in the dark. The young buck, Jaxon, really helped us out. Despite the challenges, we learned a great deal about packing mules and horses, and ultimately, I had a fantastic time in the mountains with great people, hunting elk. @Jim Carr @ShootOkHuntWorse @robby denning

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Great bull. Looks like a fun trip.
Keep Notes on being a new mule owner. I may bug you for tips. I have a mule in my plans in the next 3 years. Wife and I want to do SAR when I retire. Figure it will take 2 years on one every weekend to get comfortable with it since I will predominantly be solo.
 
It’s kind of weird looking back. I thought I took a ton of photos and yet I only have a handful. Mostly just of Carrots ass. Tons of lessons learned, gear that needs replaced, and to put it simply dealing with horses and packing requires a ton of reps to retrain my mind on what gear goes in which pannier.
-Breaching, with dead weight my saddle slid forward on one animal. Had to stop and readjust.
-Better headlamp. My petzl put out good light but died extremely fast. I had my spare but… using a spare means my gear failed.
-Grazing hobbles. My short hobbles keep them close but with rough terrain they really can’t move enough to graze, let alone not fall over. My animals didn’t hop like some others.
-Ryans light rope was very nice to have in the tent
-tapaderos so I didn’t have to pack two pairs of boots.
-Breakaways, pack more than you think you need, then pack more than that.
-the electric fence works everytime you try to straddle it.

I’ll try to post more pictures shortly.IMG_5595.jpeg
 
-Grazing hobbles. My short hobbles keep them close but with rough terrain they really can’t move enough to graze, let alone not fall over. My animals didn’t hop like some others.
I'd be cautious of getting hobbles too loose. This year our stock learned from one of the older horses to run in em. Nightmare scenario. Horses broke out of the bowl with their heads set for home. They made it three miles back down the trial before my Father in law caught up. Thankfully we had one horse and he was able to catch up. (Dude is an animal for catching six runaway horses alone) Things could've gone really sideways if we didn't have one staked out. For the rest of the trip we just let em graze in two groups and always had one picketed. The moral of the story might be, that while they dont hop now they certainly can learn to! 1000005432.jpg
 
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