Self defense on the trail

I was thinking about that last summer when we were riding at our property up north. We heard a shotgun and I started to worry because Hunter was about the color of a deer at that time.

Excellent vidoe :) I personally will not ride anywhere without a gun. I ride in deep woods, and its a good thing to have in case of bears, etc. I would ask my horse to go at a gallop, but she bucks a lot :)

Cool vidieo

Yeah I can't see it either, I am also on a mac :(

I am on a mac and I had no trouble seeing it

This is such good advice! I am pretty young and I go riding in the state forest a bunch with my friends as well as in the trails around my house and there are some pretty creepy people around me. Any other ideas of where to find more trail self defense things?

Thanks for the post. I ride in a large park and some pretty remote areas (usually not alone). I've never been approached by anyone, but we have come across some transients who were a little shady. One actually almost got my sister thrown, we were riding through & he came out of the brush. We were almost on top of him. Needless to say the horses spooked.
You have to be careful when your out, because you never know what you'll run into.
I don't like the idea of carrying a gun. Even though I've been trained to shoot, I don't think that would be my 1st instinct in an emergency.

I trail ride out on the national forest, mostly alone, all the time. I've never felt threatened by human or animal. Never felt the need to carry a gun. I wouldn't know how to use one anyway.

I do dress my horses (and myself) in hunter orange during hunting season because I ride through the woods and there are elk and deer hunts going on from late August through December.

I am a big believer in hunter orange.

But really, we have bears, cougars, etc. and I've never had an animal bother me. Luckily I don't encounter many humans out there. The humans worry me more. I do feel safer on horseback than on foot. I feel like as long as I stay on my horse I can escape anything that might threaten us.

When I used to ride my old horse alone, if I encountered strangers, no matter how nice they seemed, I told them my horse was unpredictable and they should steer clear. I told them he bit and kicked because he had a bad experience with a person on foot while we were riding.
That was a total lie, but it kept people FAR away from us.

It's sad things have to be like that, though.

I do not trail ride , by myself ever. If someone was walking there and I saw them then I would just trot off because even though he may seem nice and normal I would do it just for safety no matter if he was not attacking me or anything.