Hunting from horseback

[ksubuck]

Adam,

thanks for the welcome. I've posted here on and off for years. Depends on whether I have a functional internet connection and/or a functional love life.

I've learned lots of valuable life lessons from horses (spent four plus years on crutches mostly due to them). Used to be a hard headed trainer that thought you could make any horse do anything immediately. Now I'm just a wise old man that enjoys watching other hard headed trainers repeat my mistakes. Nothing beats a good rodeo.

I agree whole heartedly about letting the dogs and horses be the range manager. My current 23 year old hay burner has become my second best bird dog. While hunting pheasant out in the pastures, he follows along and observes over my shoulder. Almost got him to retrieve a bird once as he beat me to where it landed to check it out.

I think with enough effort and attention to detail, you can probably shoot off of any horse. But with such a specialty that I don't often need, I would rather find a few horses that are comfortable around gun shots before I start the training, and I might let someone else do the training.