Ride 19: Gros Ventre Wildernes, Wyoming

Hunting day!

I like the way he carries his head.

Sara in tow.

Since I am not a Wyoming resident, I bought Robin a cow elk tag so we could do some hunting. Not really knowing the terrain or what we were doing, we loaded up Rocky, Smooch and Sara the mule and headed out early Saturday morning. Although we didn't get an elk, let alone see one, we had a great time! As usual, Robin was a good sport, although I would have liked to stay out later in the evening than she wanted for a better chance at seeing game. As it were, we were all tired enough when we got back to the trailer in the afternoon. I didn't want to push Smooch anyway. I could tell on the ride back that he was ready to go home.

All things considered, Smooch did great. Although he's been ponied around, he has never lead before. I was a little concerned there might be a wreck, but he was more than comfortable with his buddy Sara following behind. The trouble you can get into is when the lead rope gets caught under the lead horse's tail or tangled in his legs. I've done a lot of rope training and sacking out with Smooch, so when that time came, he was calm and collected.

I don't know how many miles we rode, but we rode a good ways into the wilderness. We saw two mule deer and four dead cows. That's about it. The country up there is beautiful and we took a nap in a meadow while the horses grazed and built back some energy for the ride home.

Back at the trail head we ran into a guy that had shot a 5x5 bull with a bow. He told us the elk were holed up in the timber on the ridges. They come out into the meadows later in the evening. I guess I'll know better next time.

Things I worked on while on the trail:

leading (getting Smooch used to leading a pack animal)

stream and ditch crossings (he has a tendency to want to jump them if he can)

speed control

confidence

working off of my legs

sacking out (they were tied for about an hour or so while we hunted by foot at one point)

probably a lot of other stuff I can't think about right now

I also discovered some weaknesses....it's back to ground school.