pheasant hunter: First Real Horseback Hunt

Beginning a month before the pheasant season started I took maybe five or six rides on each of my two horses to get them ready to hunt off of. However it just didn't work out that I could put the training to a good test until today.

My feeling has been that pheasant hunting on horseback is not very efficient, mainly due to pheasants propensity to run. It seems that more often then not that a dog will go on point, I dismount, ground tie my horse, and just when I get into position for the flush, the dog breaks point to moves up because the bird has run. This precess may repeat its self several times, then I look back, and my horse is 200 yards away nervously thinking I may be leaving him. I sometime use a horse just because it's good for everyone, but not so good for shooting birds. About the time I beside to go back for the horse, the bird flies out of range with my back to it, or the dogs follow me back, and give up the chase.
So when I decided to use a horse today I felt that I would probably be giving up shots. This turned out not to be the case. We got one pheasant, I missed one that should have been an easy shot, and the dogs did some great pointing. However the behavior of the horse was the most gratifying part of the whole experience. He stayed put every time I planted him. At one point I even shot at a bird that was flying back in his direction, the easy shot that I should have gotten. He just watched it all with some misgiving, but didn't move his feet. Maybe my thinking about him was my best excuse for missing. Every thing worked out great, and I am excited to go again soon. I am sure my younger, more nervous horse will not do as well, but he needs to take his turn even if it is just a careful training ride.

This was the view from up near the tree line. The white dot in the middle is my pickup, and horse trailer. We are looking north to Tekoa Mountain with the town of Tekoa at it's base.