what kind of equine do you use

[Nora Cook]

Very true Josh,

The Foundation QH is breed for ( At least the people that are in the Foundation Reg.) phisycal, and mental traits. We do not show them in halter class or have any class like that. We only classes we have are true working classes. Roping,cutting and reining and alot of trail ridding stuff. It is fun, and brings back some old bull dog looking horses.

I have some people that live next to us that have the Walker/QH X's and those are some NICE pack horses. They have been breeding them for years. They have there own nice straine of horses.

Glad your horses are doing well for you Mike. I wish I could keep most of the horses in a Bosel for ever. Better minded ( it seems) then in a shank bit.

[Cold Track]

I use quarter horses and paints(same thing) for my ranch work, roping , hunting or anything. I have used mules and half drafts while guideing for some outfitters. The half drafts take a little more time to get in shape, but once they are they sure will do a lot of work for ya during the long fall and don't seem to wear as hard through the long hunting season. I've been around some good mules, and been around a lot of dink mules. You always here "I can take my mule where a horse can't go", which is what most mule owners will say. That's fine, but a horse can go anywhere you can until you have to start crawlin. I like a mule to pack, but that's it. Guess I'm either too ignorant , vain, or too much cowboy to ride one. JMO!

[cecil j.]

Well I have ridden just about every type you can imagine, and I will say just about all of them are better than walking but there has been a few exceptions.

My two worst days I ever spent lion hunting were caused by two different mules hundreds of miles apart.The first was a big jenny mule called Sweet Pea who I later found out her real name was Madame X.The other was a big app John mule and when I came in from that hunt I looked like I had been put thru a salad shooter.This is not a general condemnation for mules because I also have ridden some very good ones. In fact one of the best hunting mounts I ever rode, was a little black mule out of Oklahoma. He was a climbing, crawling, packing little dude with a good handle on him and a running walk that was fast and smooth as silk. If I could find another one like that I would likely ride him a bunch.

Those two mule incident both happened when I was invited on hunting trips, and furnished a mount when I got there. I could bore you with details but the facts were evident after the first hour I was hunting with these folks. They didn't know much about riding, lion hunting, mule training or anything else that I was interested in they just like to talk about it.

I hear a lot of folks say I ride mules cuz they will go places a horse can't . Be very careful saying that becasue that just goes to show you have never really been in the rough stuff with good horses. A lot of people thinking riding them in the mountains makes them a good lion hunting mount. Maybe , maybe not. It is about the same difference as herding cattle on the plains to a corral, or crashing over brush thru thickets and off mountain sides trying to rope a bovine critter that is wild as an elk. It takes a whole different set of standards.

Mules have the advantage of highbred sense. What I mean bu that is that all the selective breeding that has been done to many of todays horses for a certain event or task is not influencing the mule. The mule is a one time shot, can't reproduce he has terminal genes. But where a fired up horse can be driven to exaustion, ridden off a place they can't get back up , and into dangerous situation where a horse would go trusting in it's rider the mule will stop. It's not that he is stubborn he is just cautious about getting himself in a bind. To me this is a real plus for mules especially where novice riders are concerned. One guy asked one of the mule guides at the top of the North rim of the Grand Canyon one time. I guess you put the tourists on mules because the canyon is just to steep for a horse to go up and down. He said no it's not that I ride my horse up and down that trail all the time. We use mules becasue we condition them to follow and where to put there feet before we ever put ourselves in a position of liability, and we know the mule will do what he has become comfortable with and won't do anything wrong even if the tourist tries to guide him this way or that. If he tries too hard the mule just stops and the wrangler can get the situation straight before it makes a mess.

So I like good mules,I beleive we have some fellow hunters on this and other hound forums that have some truely great ones. But like Bluegirl you are mostly likely to see that old cowboy lion hunter from northern New Mexico setting on a foundation bred quarter horse with a bunch of flop eared potlickers running around him. LOL!

LOL I`m a mule man, but had an adopted familys and a wife that was horse folks and we had a guest ranch up in Yosemmittee National Forest at the 5,500 ft elev. named Soquell Meadows Ranch/ we drove a hurd of about 50 horses each spring up from The Sky Ranch on Oakhurst rd. too Yosemmittee National Park and trailed em up some 20 miles rideing em and hurding em too the ranch meadows. We had wranglers and a hores barn and it was fenced and very senic/ my hores time was not much but it sure was for allmy falmily and extended falmily.My fun was going up a little futher too Johnnys Packe Train Camp and being around mules ! I just don`t,rather havent seen a hores as sure footed,nor as smart nor as game savy too handle aboud bear & lion as does a mule/ seen some horsesdid ok, but a good white mule,or a good black mule will walk places in the rocks and shale sides of a mtn. that horses start bocken or bunchen up under saddle and eyes getten big a sauscers! In my humble opennion ! My dad,his brother,my gd pappy would switch me for tellen that and I`d just have too take it out of respect and love/ butI`m a mule man and they are even better looken too me/ hahahaha

[R Severe]

I'm pretty much a Quarter Horse person, although I do have a good mule.

I hunt on what we have here for other things. My bride trains horses so I'm mostly on something young.

Nora, My wife hauled a mare of a client's around the country to Foundation shows. She ended up 1st in the nation in the novice versatility. That was two or three years ago. I drove her to a show in Vernal Utah, nice folks at those foundation shows.

[Mt Goat]

I've Hunted and Field Trialed my dogs on Gaited horses, Walkers and Fox Trotters mostly. The two I have now are very good Walkers. These guys can ride all day up and down Mt's, and in the Desert. They have a real nice fast walk, that most QH cant keep up with, without going into a trot.

Personally I've ridden my share of QH over the years, when your in the saddle all day a Gaited horse is a much better ride. Then when you add in trying to keep up somewhat with dogs Gaited horses are much faster. I havent ridden Mules but they are Gaited too so they wouldnt be a bad choice either.

Larry Lowell

[houndsnmules]

I prefer mules myself. I have ridden some mustangs in the mountains that didn't have to take a back seat to any horse or mule

[bluedog4]

I have seen good and bad mules as well, I worked for an outfitter that had a big team of half draft mules, he had to put a running "W" on one of them because every now and again he would just lose it. Gary would just tighten the "W" and down he would go, then get up as if nothing had happen and be good for a couple of days.
I ride a 6 year old Appendix Mare, This is not a two hill horse like so many Quarter horses I have hunted off of.

[pete richardson]

dont have any horses or mules now--had 7 at one time - raised a few morgans - one was worth his feed -

-im no cowboy , way below average rider - - have ridden mules some crazy places- i used to trust my best mule 100% , never got that feeling on a horse -


ive seen the bad side of a few mules but the good ones were really good


looked at a pair at sale barn once- one bit my shoulder and the other kicked me at same time- faster than you can think it --

[Dan V]

The best thing you could do for any horse you plan on using for hunting or doing any work on outside, is to find the steepest rock and brush infested horse pasture and turn them loose in it.

The colts I've started out of those kind of pastures were hands down better at getting around and being sure footed then one that has only lived its life on flat ground. Also the older horses that I've bought that have only lived on flat ground and been rode in an arena, were not fit to be hunted off of or to cowboy on until they had been turned out in a really rough horse pasture for 6 months to a year.

I remember when I was a kid and was riding horses with a friend of mine from school. He steered his horse around every badger hole and prarie dog hole we came to. I asked him why he was doing that. He told me he was scared his "arena" horse would step in a hole. I told him if he stopped doing that, his horse would step in a few and then start looking at the holes and avoid them on his own. He watched my horse walk through without me lifting a rien. He tried it and before long his horse was paying more attention where he put his feet, this of course after he stepped in a few and almost fell down.

The benefit of turning them loose in a big steep nasty pasture is that they have to pay attention 24 hours a day or gravity and poor footing will get them.

[zwilso56]

I have a Sorrel Quarter Horse she's 5 and My Mom has a 13 yr old Tennessee Walker

[Travis Stirek]

Until about four years ago when my father-in-law passed away we had 250 brood mares(bucking horses) and all our saddle horses are either appendix bred quarter horses or half quarter and half thoro.I agree with Dan V on the raising them in steep pastures.They learn from babies how to walk cut trails instead of roads.Can't tell ya how many times I've had to bail off some flatland dink and let him roll down a hill cause he got claustrophobic walking the cut trails in the steep stuff as your watching a dust cloud of forty or fifty head hit the bottom and cause your not there to turn them watch the cloud head back to the top. Seems the hot blood helps with endurance.When your trying to run horses in the steep stuff it sure makes it nice to be able to make three or four laps in a 10,000 acre pasture than having a horse standing there legs shaking cause he can't go anymore after one or maybe two laps up and down.We also like the running blood cause it brings out a longer pastern therefore a smoother ride.Gathering horses is a once in a lifetime experience and the running blood also takes away some of the quarter horse brains,cause sometimes brains are overrated when gathering horses.

[catdogger]

Mule's and Mammoth Donkey's work for me.but they can be a pain in the but.

sunny

[Machias]

Nice looking longears there, you mean pain in the half @$$ right

[catdogger]

Yea thats right.i didnt get all my letters in there LOL