The thread on the elk hunting forum about packing and safety with kids got me thinking. I'm a doctor in a small town, ED and clinic both, and I see lots of horse wreck victims. I've always wanted to use pack stock, but I'm in my 50s, have little experience with horses or mules, and I really don't want to spend a season or the rest of my life laid up. So, I've been using llamas for the last several years. My question: is there a safe way to get started with horses or mules?
Last weekend we were on the trail with the llamas in Rocky Mountain National Park and ran into some horse riders, one of whom turned out to be a long lost cousin. Their horses were the best I've seen on the trail regarding llamas. No bucking, snorting, thrashing, bolting, etc. These turned out to be Missouri Foxtrotters. I commented on this, and their owners opined that a gaited Missouri mule might be a good choce for a novice packer like me. Rather than try to get through all the smoke on the internet I thought perhaps Saddlesore and others might offer well reasoned opinion.
These Missouri Foxtrotters seemed unusually well behaved. Maybe it is just my luck or maybe there is an unusual preponderance of rough, ill tempered broncs around here but whenever I see or hear horses coming I try to get my llamas as far off the trail as I can. These experiecnes plus my observations in the ED make me want to steer well clear of horses and stick with my llamas. I'm not trying to be critical or to start a fight, jsut thinking out loud about the wisdom of starting a pack string at my age.
