A little back country flying for your enjoyment.

http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/delivering-breakfast-runaway-horses-super-cub-aircraft

Nizina

So the horses are going to just stay there? What's going to happen when spring comes around and the water rises? I guess they (the horses) will figure it out.

From the article.... "I landed on this gravel bar in order to drop off a wrangler with a saddle and a coffee can full of grain."
I'd say he's gonna catch one, saddle up and ride them out.
John

58Skylane wrote:So the horses are going to just stay there? What's going to happen when spring comes around and the water rises? I guess they (the horses) will figure it out.

Here in the Wrangell Mountains the wranglers just let the horses forage for them selves in the wintertime. We have no fences here, so the horses will often wander 50 miles from their home range and the wranglers keep track of their whereabouts with airplanes. The country is so big that they can be rounded up in the spring time without too much hassle. There are a lot of grizzly bear out here, but the horses can stay away from them when there is no snow on the ground, and the bears den up in the winter time. Wolves can sometimes be a problem.

Nizina wrote:

58Skylane wrote:So the horses are going to just stay there? What's going to happen when spring comes around and the water rises? I guess they (the horses) will figure it out.

Here in the Wrangell Mountains the wranglers just let the horses forage for them selves in the wintertime. We have no fences here, so the horses will often wander 50 miles from their home range and the wranglers keep track of their whereabouts with airplanes. The country is so big that they can be rounded up in the spring time without too much hassle. There are a lot of grizzly bear out here, but the horses can stay away from them when there is no snow on the ground, and the bears den up in the winter time. Wolves can sometimes be a problem.

Funny you mentioned that. Today I went for a drive on my normal loop around the hills north of Emmett and came across a small group of horses. At first I thought they were wild. But, they just hung out along the road. One even came up to behind my truck probable thinking I was bringing them some feed. He ended up taking a big dump once he figured out I didn't bring him nothing



Somewhere I just read that some people are dumping their horses because they can't afford them anymore.

58

That's funny. I've had range horses approach my jeep in hopes of a hand out as well -- they're not dumb. And they do have a way of expressing their feelings based on the outcome of your meeting with them.

BTW, I used to own a 58-182 and loved that airplane.

Nizina

I was visiting with Darwin of Scoop Lake Outfitter, they have had about 60 head of horses south of Watson Lake since the 40's, As far as he could remember, they had lost none to bears or wolves, they had a few lost from thin ice, mostly 2-3 year olds that did not learn from the older horses?
I think he said last year the oldest horse out there was in his 30's
GT