Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

"...I personally consider it important to train my horses to face and then 
chase threats..."

I don't know about your horses, but all the geldings I have ridden have been 
trained to chase dogs and their kin, but still want to boogie at the first 
whiff of bear.   I personally have not been lucky enough to surprise a lion 
yet.  Training horses that scary things like dogs, cows, llamas, trolls, and 
forest gnomes will move if chased, is good and necessary but not to be 
depended on.

Given that lions tend to attack from ambush, and from behind, the most 
likely happening would be that the inattentive horse and rider would catch a 
glimpse of a speeding form coming up from behind.  To chase it the horse 
would have to do a roll back, and start chasing.  My personal feeling is 
that upon catching a glimpse of a pursuing form, the primitive instincts of 
the horse would take over and you and the horse would be going 35 mph away 
before you could even think rollback and chase the cat.

By the way, my personal opinion is that the chance of being attacked by a 
cat while on horseback are very slim, especially in the enlightened parts of 
the USA where there population is controlled by hunting.   While they live 
here, the only attack on a human that made the papers* in the last 6 years 
was on a young teenager who was hunting antlered game.  In contrast to the 
usual stories of how you won't have enough warning, he successfully used his 
rifle to end the threat.  There was a good photo of both him and the cat in 
the Missoulian.

Ed
*There have been a few folk who disappeared in the forest and who have never 
been found.  Perhaps, they were eaten by the cats who do or the Grizzly 
Bears who don't live in the Bitterroot.


Ed & Wendy Hauser
2994 Mittower Road
Victor, MT 59875

(406) 381-5527

ranch(at)sisuwest(dot)us 



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