Book: Hunting & Horse Trails - from Mongolia to the Yukon
Chapter 20
Looking Up At Horse Bellies

There are different ways of covering ground when hunting. From riding around in a pickup with a radio blaring out a polka and the heater going full blast because the busted window doesn’t crank up anymore, to floating down a stream in a rubber raft which varies between sweet moments of pure luxuriant laziness to frantic stabbings of the paddle at swirling water and looming rock boulders.

The most common way to hunt, of course, is by foot power. Step after delightful step in easy country to step after bloody step in tough going. It is probably the most fruitful way.

However, the way that I love to hunt the most is from the deck of a horse. You can cover ground so much easier and faster than on foot. You are elevated so that you have a better view and your horse is watching where he is placing his feet while your feet are in the stirrups and your eye time is spent looking for game. You can also hang rain gear and coats on his hind quarters and load your saddle bags with goodies to eat and let him carry your rifle with no sweat on your part. And, if you can’t find your way back to camp in the dark of night, just give him his head and he will unfailingly bring you back. You also get a lot of self-satisfaction when the going is tough and you notice that your horse is doing all the sweating!

The downside with hunting on horses is every once in awhile your horse will blow his belly when cinching up and if you forgot to tighten it, you’re on the bottom looking up at the horse’s belly.