Ladies, time to get out your blaze orange, hunting season is upon us. My barn owner Tammy and I hit the trails today and we both wore our loud orange jackets. At times, the gun fire sounded close and we wondered if that was enough for hunters to see us. Tammy rode "Willow", a lovely paint, I was thankful for her bright white color. We came up this hill and found this hunting camp. A glance to the right and we noticed a rather large blind (see it in those trees)....
gulp. We chose our route carefully, and still we came close to hunters. I went to the fabric store and am working on a hunting vest for Maddy. It will be simple, almost like a drape around her neck. I am thinking of making a velcro wrap for her browband and and maybe some sort of clip with orange streamers for her tail. I will have to make sure my riding partners have horses willing to ride next to all that gaudy stuff! Safety is important to me and the easier it is to see us, the better off we will be.
Ladies, time to get out your blaze orange, hunting season is upon us. My barn owner Tammy and I hit the trails today and we both wore our loud orange jackets. At times, the gun fire sounded close and we wondered if that was enough for hunters to see us. Tammy rode "Willow", a lovely paint, I was thankful for her bright white color. We came up this hill and found this hunting camp. A glance to the right and we noticed a rather large blind (see it in those trees)....gulp. We chose our route carefully, and still we came close to hunters. I went to the fabric store and am working on a hunting vest for Maddy. It will be simple, almost like a drape around her neck. I am thinking of making a velcro wrap for her browband and and maybe some sort of clip with orange streamers for her tail. I will have to make sure my riding partners have horses willing to ride next to all that gaudy stuff! Safety is important to me and the easier it is to see us, the better off we will be. 
10 comments:
Yikes, I always hated trail riding during hunting season. Stay safe!
Just think how desensitized your horses will get, if they aren't already, to gunshots.
Luckily the horses are very used to gunshots. Seems living out in Beavercreek, Oregon they hear it year round.
yup, i rode in a red shirt, red saddle pad and red polos today... not blaze orange, but the closest i have! I also wear "bear bells" (mine are actually a short set of sleigh bells)and talk much more to my boy! He must think he is the bestest trail pony ever- I bet I sang out "goood booooy" a million times on our ride!
I never like to ride during hunting season. I really don't trust most of these guys with the bows and guns. I'm glad you've got lots of orange but be careful of any white stuff they could think was a deer tail. My husband's uncle had a farm and actually used to paint the side of the cows with 'COW'!!!
Yes, around here the white looks like a deer's tail.
I bought some "blaze pink" quarter sheets for the horses I and I have head to toe orange for me.
For turnout, the Boys are all wearing blaze orange fly sheets and have lightweight turnouts in orange as well.
The sleighbells are a great idea in a place with as many hunters as you seem to have there.
I never thought about the white being thought of as a deer tail...good point. I am ordering an orange helmet cover as we speak:-)
Most hunters are law abiding citizens. It is the hunters that mix drinking alcohol with guns that you have watch out for! I used to live in Woodland, WA, by WA State land and was headed out on opening weekend of elk season, but ran into a very "red faced" hunter that warned me I might not want to ride my big, brown horse in the woods today.
I was wearing a blaze orange jacket, but after seeing him, decided to take his advice and that it just wasn't worth taking a risk and headed for home.
P.S. I really dislike orange, but now I have lots of it. Better safe than sorry comes to mind.
Safety first! Our dog Sheba now wears bright yellow (reflex style) whenever it gets dark. The children call her "Sheba with the fancy dress!", having never seen a dog wearing any kind of clothing before. :-)
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