JJ and I take an interesting walk at Pine Mountain
I’ve been trail riding with my colt in the mountains since he came back from the riding program at the college. Most days are uneventful, we plod along a well worn trail at a walk.
There are tall pine trees overhead, birds chirping and insects buzzing. For the most part it’s a quiet and peaceful time. I’ve even took a nap while trail riding.
I go riding on what we call Post Mountain. I can park my truck and trailer on the side of the road and unload my horses right on a horse trail where it crosses the road.
Twenty five years ago, when my wife and I were dating, we went to a house on Post Mountain and watched bears. The farmer got leftover food from a local prison and fed his hogs. He dumped the extra slop out in his back pasture.
It didn’t take long and the bears figured out his routine. The evening we went to watch the bears there were thirteen bears eating at the slop pile. They didn’t even mind that we walked around and took pictures. We stayed about 50 yards away, but they were fairly docile so long as the slop was there.
Now, I also deer hunt all over Post Mountain for several years. I’ve never seen a bear while in the woods. Most bears are fairly shy, they slip away unnoticed.
So back to my trail ride. Me and JJ, the colt, are having a good day. I’ve got some extra heavy split reins I use on colts. I kind of weave the colt through the big pine trees and use the heavy split reins to teach him how to neck rein.
I also lean one way, then another, sort of over-cueing him as to what he should do. I’m not paying attention to my surroundings too much, I’m just messing with JJ, trying to get him sort of side pass through the big trees. Mainly, I was bored.
All of a sudden something black ran by almost under JJ’s nose. We were kind of in a brushy spot. At first I thought it was a hog, we’ve got an abundance of wild hogs.
Just as I’m getting my bearings on the black flash critter, another black critter ran behind JJ. He was now convinced he was under attack, I could feel the muscles bunching up for a fight or flight reaction.
Then another, much larger, black critter ran by in front of us. This time, I got a good look at it, it was a good sized sow bear. She popped her teeth at us as she was running away.
The popping teeth caused JJ to run backwards. I think we were convinced he was about to become lunch for a party of three.
I was gathering the slack out of those big reins as fast as I could. He spun over his hind fast enough to give me a dizzy spell. Then the race was on.
All I had on JJ for a bridle was a big D ring snaffle. I also left the halter and lead rope on under the bridle. I had the lead rope wrapped around my saddle horn. He went from zero to running for the Triple Crown in millisecond.
I could feel his heart beating between my legs as he ran. Luckily, he ran down the horse trail and there weren’t any big limbs to knock me off.
I thought about trying to pull his head around and get him shut down, but the trees and brush worried me that, if he got off the trail and started running through the brush, he’d knock me off. So, I decided the best option was to just let him run down the trail.
We were probably three miles from the trailer. He ran flat out for maybe a half-mile. I don’t know if we figured out we weren’t being chased or if he got tired, but he slowed down a little. It wasn’t long and he slowed down to a good short lope.
Now, I’ve always been taught not to ever run your horse back to the house or truck. It will get them to acting up the entire way home, if they think they can run home anytime they want.
So, when we loped up to the truck and trailer, I just kicked him by and we continued down the trail. I figured I’d make him lope a quarter a mile or so then we’d walk back to the trailer.
I’ll be dad gummed if we didn’t lope right up another bear. Now, that bear thought we were after him, and he hit high gear in a hurry. JJ didn’t know quite what to make of that.
On one hand, the bear equals death, but on the other, it was running away. We just stopped and watched the bear run away. I pointed JJ to the trailer and we made it back in a somewhat normal state of mind.
I figured I’d quit while I was ahead, riding up on four bears on a green broke colt is enough for excitement for one day.
One other funny thing happened. Usually I have to kind of coax JJ in the trailer with some feed. That day he hoped in as soon as I led him around to the back. I kind of got the vibe he was wanting to get the heck out of these bear infested woods.