Horseback hunting - gear packing

[Pagosa]

If you have a good footed, hardy horse then go for it. Especially if your horses are mostly just being used for 1 day of game retrieval not day after day of riding to hunting spots. With this year’s weather, having horses shod with traction and snow pads has been unnecessary…but hopefully it’ll be necessary when the weather finally gets good for hunting. This fall has been very warm and dry in my neck of the woods. With those temperatures and hunting pressure the elk that I hunt have been in very difficult places to hunt and pretty much nocturnal. Barefoot horses don’t walk on ice safely

Thank you! I appreciate it.

 

[WanderWoman]

If you have a good footed, hardy horse then go for it. Especially if your horses are mostly just being used for 1 day of game retrieval not day after day of riding to hunting spots. With this year’s weather, having horses shod with traction and snow pads has been unnecessary…but hopefully it’ll be necessary when the weather finally gets good for hunting. This fall has been very warm and dry in my neck of the woods. With those temperatures and hunting pressure the elk that I hunt have been in very difficult places to hunt and pretty much nocturnal. Barefoot horses don’t walk on ice safely

I agree. My problem there is I get my farrier scheduled every 8 weeks and he’s so busy he can’t come out on a whim if the weather changes. I put pads and sharps on mine in anticipation of winter weather any time between late Oct and late Dec. So far, haven’t really needed them and as long as I’m cognizant of not stopping/turning too hard, they’re doing fine other than the extra $65/each. Would rather have and not need than need and not have I guess. My only point here is there’s some planning involved based on your shoeing schedule and when hunting season/mountain use falls into all that.

 

[Horseman]

I agree. My problem there is I get my farrier scheduled every 8 weeks and he’s so busy he can’t come out on a whim if the weather changes. I put pads and sharps on mine in anticipation of winter weather any time between late Oct and late Dec. So far, haven’t really needed them and as long as I’m cognizant of not stopping/turning too hard, they’re doing fine other than the extra $65/each. Would rather have and not need than need and not have I guess. My only point here is there’s some planning involved based on your shoeing schedule and when hunting season/mountain use falls into all that.

My thoughts exactly. The bottleneck is the availability and quality of your horseshoer. A horse shoer who does high quality work and is readily available is a unicorn. There are very few horseshoers (less than 5%) who I would trust to properly sharp shoe my horses. The ones that I would trust have the highest prices and are booked out. You can sort of get by with the cheap and available cold shoers during the summer months but when it comes to sharp shoeing, you need someone who lights up a forge and has great blacksmithing skills.

 

[MTTW]

My horse has sharps and pads in hunting season no exceptions. It wasn't always that way but after sliding back down an icy hill with a horse on his knees while trying to follow a sharp shod horse I figure better safe than sorry.
You never know, might need them tomorrow.