Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Here in the Pacific Northwest (Washington) my horses and I have run into multitudes of deer, best story was spotting a deer  for a bowhunter, Julie Fuller and I were riding up to them, talking of course, with our dog, asked how the hunting was going. They hadn't seen anything all morning - I look over and say, "why, there's one right there!!" Not sure if they were impressed or embarrassed. Then we encouraged him to go try and get it. (I don't think he really wanted to, as he ended up missing right in front of us!) My horse has spotted deer, I've had my dog chase a bear or two off the trail, we've run around a corner to see a porquipine waddling down the road, (the quills rattling can startle your horse) lots of coyotes, a bobcat or two, cougar tracks and one time my horse froze, looked over at a clearcut and 13 elk stood up and trotted off! Now that was an awesome day! It's the 2-legged animals I worry about! The 4-legged ones usually just want to get away from us!

 

heidi

RDCARRIE@xxxxxxx wrote:

Love reading everyone's widlife encounters. :) I've encountered more deer than I can count here in East Texas. A couple of encounters have been rather startling, but I stayed on. We see feral hogs sometimes, but they are more nocturnal. Once I was galloping down a road on my mare, came around a curve, and there was a sow and a bunch of baby pigs all over the road. The pigs scattered, and my mare sat back on her haunches and did a sliding stop that would have made any QH reiner proud. I ended up on her neck looking down between her ears. She straightened up, snorted, and off we went. :)

I've gotten great looks at coyotes and gray foxes while riding, and saw a bobcat dart into the brush once as I came around a curve. Lots of armadillos, a couple of which nearly landed me in the dirt as they bolted noisily off through the underbrush. During one 50 a couple of years ago, my horse was trotting along on the last loop...I saw a 'dillo come bursting out of the grass from the left, and before I could react (read: make frantic grab for mane/breast collar strap), the 'dillo ran smack dab into my gelding's left front leg, bounced off, and kept going. Chivas snorted, did a hop-step, and kept on trotting. Lucky for me, he never saw the dillo coming.

At one ride, a friend and I were trotting on a single track trail through a patch of woods, and came upon a very large skunk ambling down the trail ahead of us. No way to go around it (woods too thick), so we followed it at a safe distance. I "pushed" it as hard as I dared (paying close attention to its body language ), till it finally turned off the trail and we went on.

Most "exciting" deer encounter was a couple of weeks ago. Hubby and I were riding on some private property (one of his clients), and were riding separately. General was really moving out, we came flying around a curve in a dirt road, and about 40 axis deer (large spotted deer native to Asia) were in the middle of the road right in front of us. The deer bolted en masse, General hit the brakes and did a hard 90 degree turn to the left into the woods, and I was swearing and hanging off the side, grabbing for anything I could find. Managed to stay on, but it wasn't pretty. This landowner has a high fence around their 5600 acres, and has about 350-400 axis deer, as well as some sika deer. The sikas are generally solitary, but the #$%@ axis are more herd animals, and can be "exciting" when encountered unexpectedly. LOL

Dawn in East Texas

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