I have hunted on horses and mules, off and on, for the last 40 years or so. At this point in my life, if mountains are involved, it's mules only for me. I have had to good fortune to have some really good rock-footed horses and have ridden them places that it would have been difficult to walk, but in hind sight, I should never have asked the horses to go there.
Among my friends are a bunch of old cowmen, most older than me, who have ridden horses in the rough country of southern Colorado, New Mexico and west Texas all their lives. They all have at least two or three gripping stories of horse wrecks and accidents in the mountains which could have ended up with them and their horses dead. We have friends who are not alive to tell these tales, because their wrecks and accidents didn't end the same way.
My friend Warner Glenn has hunted and guided hunters for lions and deer all of his life (he is still active in his 70s). He will not hunt off of a horse nor will he let his clients ride a horse. He works his cattle off his mules and ropes off of them. I learned how to really use mules working and hunting with him, and I will not go back to hunting from horses.
JMHO
Last edited by mudhen; 09/16/09.
