Hunting from horseback

[Adam Helmer]

sdkid,

You say, "my fil always told me the horses were used to being shot off of." I have to disagree. I have owned a dozen horses so far in my life and NONE would stand for a NUT shooting SURPRISINGLY from the saddle on their backs! A horse is an intelligent animal and understands input, EVEN from idiot riders! I communicated with my horses and always dismounted and stood in front of my horses BEFORE firing. The horse saw me holding the reins and the gun and THEN anticipated the muzzle blast.

I see hunting magazine photos of idiots putting the muzzle of a magnum rifle BETWEEN a horse's ears and firing away! WOW! What a surprise, even for a trusting horse! All my horses were steady for the shot ONCE they knew it was coming. Most horses are smarter than the hunters on their backs. Communicate with the horse: show them the narrow trail, the log across the trail and the rifle BEFORE you SURPRISE them with 180+ Decibles of Muzzle Blast. If that is asking too much from an obvious non-horse oriented person, then I suggest you hunt afoot

Adam.