Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Hunting boots & horse riding????

I am curious what people wear when riding horses in cold weather, especially when using a horse for transport while hunting?

Here in the UK, there are riding boots for cold weather - Mountain Wear or similar name brand. Basically, these are leather - rubber composite boots with long back zips. These are for horse riding alone as they do not have significant sole tread and have low heels. This is also a safety issue: if you slip from horse, you can get your foot / feet easily out of the stirrups and not be dragged by the horse.

I have seen pictures on the internet and hunting magazines of horseback hunting in the USA. They appear to be weathering some kind of Pac-Boot. Also, the stirrups look oversized to me, compared to standard riding stirrups.

None the less, the Pac-Boots I have seen advertised by boot manufacturers have 'aggressive' soles / lugs for traction - grip on the ground when working.

This would appear, to me at first thinking, to be a bit of a safety issue regarding stirrups and the possibility of boot jamming in stirrup, if the rider took a tumble.

U are correct.

No hunting boots I've ever had would fit stirrups. And they certainly wouldn't have been safe

That is what I thought too. So, need to take along two pairs of boots?

I have, no I think about it, seen over sized / outsized stirrups.

But these were with Gothic era European suits of armour for knights / war and jousting.

So, well before Health & Safety rules

I've got some oversized stirrups that I've used in cold weather riding.

I think several companies make hunting boots tailored to riding. I think most of them have a little extra heel height but I'm not sure of any other differences. Schnee's "Western" packers are an example:

https://schnees.com/western-packer-adv-14/

There are over sized stirrups, but I use breakaway STI's. They have an over sized one for hunting boots.

Pricey, but they saved my life once

https://www.breakawaystirrups.com/

I've got a pair of the Schnee's Western Packer boots above that I wore on a Wyoming horseback hunt 25 years ago. They were perfect! A week in the mountains and my feet never got cold. And, they were easy to slip in and out of the oversized stirrups the outfitter had on all of the saddles.

I wear whatever hiking boots I would have on if I wasn’t on a horse, to include packs if it is cold and snowy. The bulky packs could be an issue getting them into a stirrup but never getting out.

For what it is worth, I got hung up once when I was a kid with tennis shoes on.

You don't need 2 pr of boots...many makers of "packers" style boots...Whites (top of the line) Hathorn (my favorite), Schnees. If you anticipate cold weather, try them on with 2 pr socks...one light wicking and a wool over.

robthom;
Good afternoon your time or morning our time, I hope all is as well as can be in your part of England today.

With the understanding that I usually either hunted, chased rancher buddy's cattle or just rode on fairly local mountains and studiously avoided riding in snow, this is what we did.

As flintlocke mentioned I settled on a couple different brands of lace up "Packer Boots", I want to say Double H and one that completely slips my mind but were not as good a quality as the brands he mentioned. My rancher buddy had Whites or Hathorn and they were very, very well built.

Another thing I went to very early on was oxbow stirrups which allowed me to just push down on the "ejection button" which was a big old post roper horn with either arm and my feet were already clear of them. That wasn't ever the preferred method of unhorsing, but when we were chasing a recalcitrant cow/calf pair at breakneck speed through the Ponderosa pine and a low branch suddenly appeared, it was better to hit that ejection button and grab the branch than take other courses of action.

I mean if we had a horse that wouldn't chase cows underneath trees, that'd be dandy too for sure, but some good cow horses just get their radar locked onto them and will not quit regardless of trees, terrain, etc. Having not grown up riding in mountains, I recall being quite nonplussed by that the first few times it happened to me as you can well imagine!

Anyways as always there's lots of roads to Mecca and those who go on horseback will have arrived at different ways to do it, but for me it was packer boots and oxbow stirrups.

All the best.

Dwayne

I wear Sorell boots (pac boots). As already mentioned, there are oversized stirrups for winter boots. They work well. It also is helpful if the tred is leather-wrapped to further reduce anything “catching” a boot sole. As always, heels greatly reduce a foot sliding into/through the stirrup.

Nothing here to help the Englishman with his boot question...but a little story about old timer's ingenuity. At our County Historical Museum there are some blown up black and white photos circa 1915's and a pretty good write-up on one Ivar Henrikksen. He was a mailman, very light freightman, telephone lineman serving the Siskon Mine in those days. The mine was in the Coast Range/Klamath Mtns at an elevation of 6,500 ft. "Civilization" was Happy Camp at 1,600 ft. Weather and snow conditions permitting, Ivar would haul mail, medicine, and I suspect a little alcohol, on a pair of big Belgians up 5,000 ft above the Klamath R.to the mine. On the return trip down he would repair the single wire phone line as needed. It is mentioned he delivered a bride once.
Back to boots...in a couple of the photos, he appears to be wearing something like thigh high laced pucker toe moccasins or mukluks maybe. In one photo, the Belgians have several pairs of what appear to be round-ish snowshoes on the packs...did Ivar put snowshoes on the horses? Anybody?

All equines have the ability to buck, bite, kick, run off , pull back.

If U believe other wise…..Good 4 U.

Further more …..If u are askeered keep it under your hat

There is not a bullet proof/bomb proof deal out there.

Big stirrups help.

Experience helps more.

On greener ones……yes I change boots.

The thinsulate Hoffman’s fit a stirrup, as do their cowboy pacs. I’ve got a pair but I usually don’t have to hunt horseback in snow. If I’m hunting while riding I usually wear my hunting boots, Hanwags, and I always ride oxbows.

Use taps.

Taps are Tapaderos, which are leather coverings for the front of the stirrup which; 1. keep you foot from sliding through the front and 2. greatly decrease the wind chill in cold weather.
Lifetime horse guy; so as mentioned above there is no perfect solution. Cheapest and as good as any, is buy your own oversize stirrups that fit your hiking boots and put them on your provided horse/saddle when you get to the guides place. Keep the ball of your foot on the stirrup instead of sliding in to the heel and pay attention. Good advice on the eject button above, I will add simply getting off the horse is where most hang-ups occur. You have to have your feet free to step down to the ground. Kick the right one completely free before swinging it up and over and make sure the left is just enough toe to hold you up. If you can't do that, then kick them both free and slide down.

Adding on my "ride the most" saddle, I have steel Oxbows and Tapaderos. On almost all of my saddles, I have steel Oxbows. Not because of feet sticking but I just prefer them.

my days of riding a horse anymore is over had a horse all my life until a few years back , i would consider a short mule again. we used oversized stirrups with pack boots . now days i prefer the winter type Muck boots over pack boots . leather coverings over the front of the oversized stirrup is another good . good luck,Pete53

There are all sorts of solutions as to wearing hunting boots while riding a horse.
Orange Stirrups
What I have used

The oversized orange stirrups are what I use. Another option I have seen (If it would be available to you) is to have a set of bulldog taps built with a sheepskin lining. G-G saddles here in town has done that very thing for some of the cowboys that work in winter conditions.

Thank you for your thoughtful replies.

My guesses were along the lines of smooth over boots / bindings so the feet slip easily in / out of the stirrups plus oversized stirrups

Learnt to ride heel down and weight into heels with stirrups on ball of foot - rid by balance. This can get sporty though.

Have seen pictures and videos of villagers on Kazakhstan riding in work rubber Wellington boots. They have very good sense of balance and horse manship but all the same! Often they have rifles slung across their backs too.

No thanks.

I guess I have too much time on my hands and am able to ask questions about things which make me wonder.