My favourite memories of our recent trip to the Northwest Territories are mostly of the horses that packed us and our gear for the 2 weeks through the mountains. Of the group of 32, there were horses meant for packing, hunters to ride or some in-between that the guides and myself got stuck with. The romantic notion of hunting with horses was not lost with me, even after seeing how much work it was. To experience a hunt in a traditional way, using the same method that was utilized 100 years ago was a big thrill and I’m glad I got to see it first hand. I’ve always been torn on the idea of helicopter hunts but I’m now 100% convinced of the value of the traditional horse and backpack hunts. I believe hunting was and should remain to be an experience and not a grab and go exercise.
The art and coordination of packing horses with boxes, however staggering also afforded us eggs and bacon in the morning as well as fresh lettuce and a comfortable bed at night. The horses were overall gentle and easy to ride, like us though every one of them had a personality that you soon came to know. “Duke needed to ride with Luke, George had to be behind the lead horse, don’t pack eggs on Bullseye~ he’s a chronic roller…” My one horse Woody, soon became my best friend as I started feeding him parts of my Cliff bars, and would patiently wait for me whenever I wanted to glass ~ funny enough he crow hopped on anyone else that got on him…
Gary’s favourite horse Club, sleeping right outside our tent…
We calculated we rode over 100 miles with the horses in 2 weeks
Hildago, another of my favourites
It was truly spectacular where our horses would take us and the areas they would travel. What a great experience, those horses deserve credit for working so hard.
The day the snow started
love, love, love! my darling and i used to do the horsepack camping thing…now three kidlets later…we will again someday! this post brought back memories! thanks brandy!! and GORGEOUS photos by the way!!!
Isn’t it the best! I truly fell in love with it and hope we can continue to do some more around home. Let me know if you want to go for a ride!
These photos are epicly beautiful!! This was a trip of a lifetime!
Thank you! It was hard to get a bad shot with the backdrop being spectacular 🙂
What an amazing experience!!!! I know I said it yesterday, but your photos are BEAUTIFUL! I’m loving this series of posts and can’t wait for more!
Thanks so much Suzie! Hopefully this doesn’t get too boring, I took a lot of pictures of horses, it was loving it too much!
So cool that you did this. My boyfriend and I went on a hunt trip and packed in on our horses this summer. It’s a lot of work, but you’re right–you can definitely take a lot of stuff. For just the 2 of us we had 2 pack horses so, at lot of gear, but even more food! Did you have an outfitter that took you guys or were they your own horses?
That sounds like an awesome trip Angela! We went with Redstone Trophy Hunts out of the NWT, they trail horses into their area over 160 miles before the hunts start, those horses are incredible! We would like to go as you mentioned you had and take 2 horses each and do it on our own, I think it would be a blast.
What an experience! These are such pretty pictures!
Thanks so much, I love taking photos and video almost as much as hunting, so I happily fill up my time with that too.