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In a couple weeks our lion season opens and this year im gonna try to hunt off horse till snow gets too deep. I useally hunt off sleds or a truck and look for tracks. Ive never hunted off a horse with hounds. You guys that have done this before what is the best way to go about. I live up in gods country (Cache Valley) And not quite sure where i should be ridin whether its on ridges or up the bottom of canyons. Any tips or help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for your help and input.

Dustin

My suggestion is to hunt some of those areas you can't hunt once the snow gets deep. The unit gets pounded in the easy to hunt areas, so any of the difficult to hunt places offer the best odds of success. Any of the face canyons north of Logan Canyon like Smithfield Dry, High Creek, Cherry Creek, etc. are wilderness areas that you can't hunt any other way. Also canyons like Cottonwood, Blind Hollow, and Dry Canyon are good horse trails and won't get any pressure once the snow flies. Rattlesnake Trail and Deep Canyon on the Wellsvilles would also be some early season places to try on horseback.

I wouldn't worry a whole lot about ridgeline or bottoms this time of year. The deer are still scattered so the lions will be too. You'd have to get awful lucky to get one going, so just go out and enjoy the ride.

Way to go Walkin. Wear out all the saddle leather you can

Good luck to you.

Excellent advice Kevin!

Kevin thanks for the advice Thats the direction i was thinkin of goin. last year i just hiked up the trails in some and got two cats goin but only treed one before the snow fell. My lead female comes from good dry ground stock and does fairly well without snow. Again thanks for the advice and your more than welcome to come along if you want.

Thanks dustin

Dustin,

I would take Kevin's advice one step further... he is right, don't worry about it and just go enjoy the ride. Also I'd add in to leave the ***** hounds at home and just go enjoy the riding!! Nothing worse than a barking dog to ruin a good day of horseback riding!!
It's a rookie mistake really. Any old time hound man will tell you that having to pack all the tracking equipment takes up valuable space where beer should be packed. And any of those old timers will tell you there is nothing worse than trying to get off the hill and to Hawn's for Happy Hour only to be missing a dog!

http://chat.waycoolkennels.com/phpBB/vi ... =11&t=2784

Have fun amigo! I'll be on top of the mountain this weekend on a pony! (My dogs will be home in the kennel) Go catch ya a critter!!

You and your damned beer Dawg. When are you going to own up to your Scottish heritage and start packing whiskey intead??

Kevin D wrote:You and your damned beer Dawg. When are you going to own up to your Scottish heritage and start packing whiskey instead??

Dustin,

Kevin brings up a good point, some more advice. On these rides make sure you pack only cheap beer. That way you'll only have to put up with guys like Kevin or Nolte fishin' for an invitation.

You start packing whiskey and all the black and tan guys will be showing up at the trail head. Throw in a bag of crystal meth and every Plott guy on the planet will show up to hunt with you.

So stick with the Pabst Blue Ribbon dude... and make sure you got enough for Nolte and Kevin (if they make bail).

Be careful up there amigo. A couple of years ago a lion hunter got killed up there riding his pony and hunting. Kevin knows more about it, but they found him dead, horse tipped over on him I think. Snow, frozen ground and steep is a bad combination for the brumbies. My buddies horse went down twice last weekend, it was SLICK!! Cuidado amigo!

Make damn good and sure your stirrups are big enough to jerk your boots out of when the horse goes down. Drug to death would be a hell of a way to go.

Also just a heads up ,2 of the canyons that kevin mentiond were getting trapped in hard on the north end. those cove boys set alot.

good luck on your horse ride let me know when you want to go catch some kitties cut 3 nice bob track this morning molly and bonez rigged one pretty good we were probably only 20 min behind it to bad cant run them until the 25th headed to navada the 28th to go catch a lion or two farmer been having a few runnin around his land dustin your welcome to come