Heise RR Grade

Spud is a 10 year old quarter horse. He is a good trail horse, and I also use him as my pack horse. I think I will start riding him and packing Junior, because Spud walks so much faster.

They went on point, but by the time I was ready to take a picture they had decided that the bird had moved on, but I made them stay. You can see their hearts are really not into it.


Lilly is honoring Juneau's point. Juneau is just barely visible straight ahead of her.

This is the whole gang, athough the dogs are hard to see below Spud's nose.

Trying out my camera's delayed shooting mode. I have the reading glasses on because that's the only way I could see to push the right buttons.

This is my AM activity nowdays; hanging nets for next summer.

I trailered the horse a couple of miles to an abandon RR grade that would be easy to ride, and might have some pheasants. It was a pleasant day with sunshine and a slight breeze from the east.

This was Spud's first time out in about 3 months. I have not put shoes on either horse yet, so the gravel roadbed was a concern for me. Spud handled it well, but that's something I need to get done soon. Shoes are not good in snow. However, it looks like the chance for much snow this winter may be over.

I would like to find birds so I can try to get some pictures of the dogs doing their thing. It's going to take some practice for both myself and the dogs to get used to the horse and the camera.

We saw five birds, three of them were roosters, so we had some action. The problem was that the dogs were ranging out often twice as far as they would be if I had been walking with a gun. It's hard to think about dogs and the horse at the same time, so they often got out there because I wasn't paying attention to them. When they get out that far they tend to forget they are hunting and start chasing birds. A couple of times they went on point and I fumbled with the camera too long. By the time I was ready they had figured out that the bird had moved on.

Right near the end they got on a good trail. They ran hard for about 1/2 mile, and I had to stop them several times so I could catch up. I could have pushed the horse into a fast trot, but I'm afraid it would have degenerated into a fox hunt reminiscent of old England. They finally slowed down at a little cut bank, then two roosters flushed without a point. The dogs were near being out of control, and were not wary enough.

Earlier they stopped on a couple of nice solid points with Juneau in the lead. On one of them, as I moved in with the camera, Juneau decided she had waited long enough. She pounded down with her front legs, knees locked, like a lot of animals do when they are being aggressive. Lilly does the same thing.

This is not good pointer behavior, but I hunt a lot by myself, so there are times that I am glad they do it. There are times when I can't get to them, or if I did do the flushing, I wouldn't be in a position to shoot. Today was not one of those times.

I have two saddles, so if anyone wants to join me, give me a call. There is not much riding experience needed. The second horse will just follow me.