Encountering wildlife
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I used to ride out in Whiting Ranch in CA, and there are mountain lions and other wildlife there. We had volunteer park rangers that boarded at our stable and they said the best thing you can do is make noise on your ride. Talk to your horse, sing a tune, most importantly let the wildlife hear you coming and they will go away and hide from you. They want to NOT be seen by you a lot more than you not wanting to come across them.
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Darrin- I'm in Creswell, most people don't know where that is but if you lived in C. Grove then you've probably driven passed it a few times
Cinnys Whinny- I was making up songs and singing pretty terribly, I probably would have scared anything away
Cinnys Whinny- I was making up songs and singing pretty terribly, I probably would have scared anything away
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I cant say I have an out of the ordinary animals in my area. I live in PA (not that there isn't wildlife in PA) but where I am, I sometimes see a deer.
I do have a story about my OTTB. We were out for a hack and we turned a corn and what do you know! A horse eating Canadian goose was right there! Well my horse stopped dead in his tracks. I was going to just run over the thing, but it must have had a nest near by. It spread its wings, and came right for us, squaking the whole time. Needless to say, we went a different way home!
I do have a story about my OTTB. We were out for a hack and we turned a corn and what do you know! A horse eating Canadian goose was right there! Well my horse stopped dead in his tracks. I was going to just run over the thing, but it must have had a nest near by. It spread its wings, and came right for us, squaking the whole time. Needless to say, we went a different way home!
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Ha ha, I had almost the same exact experience with a couple of wild turkeys a few weeks ago. There were two of them with 5 chicks tagging behind them and they were ready to eat Cinny alive!!
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Go figure!:smile:
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Cinny, I know that park well. That is one of the few parks in the lower 48 where an actual human/mountain lion predation event has been documented. It happened about 6 years or so ago. First incident was a adult male mountain biker who was out (on Cactus Trail) at about 6AM. The lion took him apparently while he was crouched down fixing a broken chain. At about 2PM a group of bikers went by and the lion grabbed the woman who was in the back of the group. Luckily another rider saw her being dragged off the trail by her face and grabbed her legs. Eventually several other riders helped and they saved the woman. After that they found the man's body. While sherriff was there at the scene, the lion back tracked around and was stalking back into the area. Sherriff helicopter spotted it on infrared and the deputies on the ground shot it.
However, the advice you have given (make noise, make yourself big, don't run) is the right advice for avoiding these animals. Part of the problem in urban Orange County is that there hasn't been any hunting pressure and the young lions start to think of humans as potential food. I encountered a collared adult male near O'Neill Park about a year ago that simply stopped and watched me from about 10 feet.
However, the advice you have given (make noise, make yourself big, don't run) is the right advice for avoiding these animals. Part of the problem in urban Orange County is that there hasn't been any hunting pressure and the young lions start to think of humans as potential food. I encountered a collared adult male near O'Neill Park about a year ago that simply stopped and watched me from about 10 feet.
My real life experience,
1) on my dead broke, spook at nothing, very experienced trail horse
2) middle of nowhere on a mountain trail in Alaska...(bear country)
3) riding along singing a song
4) horse stops dead in its tracks
5) won't go forward or backwards
6) bear comes out of trees about 25 yards ahead of us
7) I say a few four letter expletives
8) grizzlies can outrun any horse, don't try
9) thank goodness its' a black bear, say thank you God for watching out for me today
10) bear looks at us with no interest in us today and runs off the trail
11) my mare, bless her little pointy head, travels on up the trail without incident
12) thinking on the way back to the trailer, what a great ride and how wonderful my horse took care of me and how glad I was I listened to her this time !!!!!!
13) I guess theres no moral to the story, just ride safe and use common sense. Never try to outrun a Griz, find a tree to climb, they don't climb trees. Black bears climb trees but will almost always run from you unless threatened in some way. Always make noise in the woods. Don't shoot at a grizzly bear unless you know what you're doing and have the fire power to back you up. I've never had to worry about cougars. Read up on your local wild life and try to know their frequented habitats, the local forest service can help you out there too. Good luck and be safe. Oh, I know some people don't like guns, but having one is a choice I would make.
1) on my dead broke, spook at nothing, very experienced trail horse
2) middle of nowhere on a mountain trail in Alaska...(bear country)
3) riding along singing a song
4) horse stops dead in its tracks
5) won't go forward or backwards
6) bear comes out of trees about 25 yards ahead of us
7) I say a few four letter expletives
8) grizzlies can outrun any horse, don't try
9) thank goodness its' a black bear, say thank you God for watching out for me today
10) bear looks at us with no interest in us today and runs off the trail
11) my mare, bless her little pointy head, travels on up the trail without incident
12) thinking on the way back to the trailer, what a great ride and how wonderful my horse took care of me and how glad I was I listened to her this time !!!!!!
13) I guess theres no moral to the story, just ride safe and use common sense. Never try to outrun a Griz, find a tree to climb, they don't climb trees. Black bears climb trees but will almost always run from you unless threatened in some way. Always make noise in the woods. Don't shoot at a grizzly bear unless you know what you're doing and have the fire power to back you up. I've never had to worry about cougars. Read up on your local wild life and try to know their frequented habitats, the local forest service can help you out there too. Good luck and be safe. Oh, I know some people don't like guns, but having one is a choice I would make.
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Wow, that is ignorance at it's finest. I wonder how a mountain lion eats? Certainly a deer or elk will smell them before a person could see them. :lol:
A couple years ago a guy was attacked while riding his horse in the high uintahs by a mt lion. As people, we have been given a brain and part of using it means we can prepare. Carry a gun to defend yourself and then go have fun. No point in living scared. The most basic of human rights is the right to defend oneself and their property.
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Gorgeous pictures!!! I have been to Oregon on business in '96 and it was stunningly beautiful. I stayed one night at a B & B on the MacKenzie River in Vida, one night in Florence on the coast and one night in Portland. I would love to have rode around Vida. It was GORGEOUS - I was there in October so I got to see beautiful fall colors.
We have seen different kinds of wildlife and we listen to the horses - they certainly can hear/see them before we do. Hogs with piglets and alligators are the ones here locally that get our attention!!!! Alligators can run fast but generally they will slither away into the water.
We have seen different kinds of wildlife and we listen to the horses - they certainly can hear/see them before we do. Hogs with piglets and alligators are the ones here locally that get our attention!!!! Alligators can run fast but generally they will slither away into the water.
Our larger wildlife includes moose, deer and black bear altho the cougar is making a comeback. Thankfully it is more the size of a linx or bobcat. The black bears are fairly timid and with poor eyesight have to rely on their sense of smell. Moose seem to upset a horse more than the others, especially a bull with a large rack. Our wolves have increased greatly because of being overrun with deer. I've been thinking of packing a rifle mainly because of the wolves.
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WELL yesterday out on trail we were attacked by a horse-eating BRANCH!!!!!!! It grazed my mare's belly as we walked by and she acted like a gun went off on her butt, lurched forward and bucked hahaha!! Luckily I'm always on guard so I stayed on her back even in my launching-pad of an English saddle
We saw deer of course as always (they are all OVER the place here in northeast Ohio), and we occassionally see coyotes but they just look like mangey little dogs to me and always run away tail tucked. My horse who has been fox hunting with 25 hounds doesn't regard them as any kind of threat, she's actually more nervous around the deer because they look like some strange version of her and usually wait until you get 4 feet away and then BOLT which always scares her half to death!
I have heard that black bears are slowly coming back to the area from PA, but I have yet to see one and I don't think anyone's sighted one for a looooooong time anyway. Bobcats are around but I've only ever seen 1 in my entire life so they're also pretty rare.
Supposedly we have rattle snakes, but I've never seen one! Deer jumping out in front of us and scaring the wits out of my horse are always my main concern!
We saw deer of course as always (they are all OVER the place here in northeast Ohio), and we occassionally see coyotes but they just look like mangey little dogs to me and always run away tail tucked. My horse who has been fox hunting with 25 hounds doesn't regard them as any kind of threat, she's actually more nervous around the deer because they look like some strange version of her and usually wait until you get 4 feet away and then BOLT which always scares her half to death!
I have heard that black bears are slowly coming back to the area from PA, but I have yet to see one and I don't think anyone's sighted one for a looooooong time anyway. Bobcats are around but I've only ever seen 1 in my entire life so they're also pretty rare.
Supposedly we have rattle snakes, but I've never seen one! Deer jumping out in front of us and scaring the wits out of my horse are always my main concern!
Rattle snakes are hard to see, but you can hear them if you are too close. A friend of mine horse was snake bit on a trail in AZ, the cure for the bite killed the horse, it was very sad. Rattle snakes give you lots of warning, Just have to keep your ears open. I run up on bear all the time, we don't have anything bigger than a bob cat here as far as cat predators go, we have moose but in 10 years haven't encountered one yet. In the back country, packing a weapon is a good plan, ya never know what lurks behind the bushes. We have active wolf packs.WELL yesterday out on trail we were attacked by a horse-eating BRANCH!!!!!!! It grazed my mare's belly as we walked by and she acted like a gun went off on her butt, lurched forward and bucked hahaha!! Luckily I'm always on guard so I stayed on her back even in my launching-pad of an English saddle
We saw deer of course as always (they are all OVER the place here in northeast Ohio), and we occassionally see coyotes but they just look like mangey little dogs to me and always run away tail tucked. My horse who has been fox hunting with 25 hounds doesn't regard them as any kind of threat, she's actually more nervous around the deer because they look like some strange version of her and usually wait until you get 4 feet away and then BOLT which always scares her half to death!
I have heard that black bears are slowly coming back to the area from PA, but I have yet to see one and I don't think anyone's sighted one for a looooooong time anyway. Bobcats are around but I've only ever seen 1 in my entire life so they're also pretty rare.
Supposedly we have rattle snakes, but I've never seen one! Deer jumping out in front of us and scaring the wits out of my horse are always my main concern!
LOL, that too.
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Actually, the worse animal scare that we had was a poodle. It weighed about 6 pounds. It hid in ambush and jumped out at the horses. Had it been a real dog, they would have been fine./QUOTE]
Interestingly enough, we have several poodles who hang out
at our barn
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