RFI: North American Horseback Mammalwatching
I would like to spend a few days mammalwatching via horseback in fall 2023 or in 2024. A search of this site for “horseback” and “horse” did not return any results that suggested anyone had done any such trips in North America. Has anyone been on such a trip or able to recommend any providers? I’m more interested in the experience than “ticking” any particular species, but I am more interested in ungulates and carnivores. I’m thinking maybe something like South Dakota or Yellowstone.
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4 Comments
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Vladimir Dinets
I did a lot of that when working on hantavirus research in New Mexico. It works great: you can get to places that are difficult to access in any other way, and approach many animals easily. Many national forests and BLM lands in the West allow almost unlimited horseback access; there are also horse trailer rentals and horse rentals, but the problem is finding horse owners who would allow you to transport their horses to other areas. Try contacting Indian reservations in New Mexico and Arizona, they are often more flexible, and some are located on very wildlife-rich lands. They also have exceptionally good guides sometimes.
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Ian Thompson
Wayne Sawchuk at Muskwa-Kechika Adventures runs horseback trips in northern British Columbia from a base camp on the Gataga river, which is an incredibly wildlife-rich region. I don’t know if they run trips that late in the season, but it might be worth checking out. I did a canoe trip in the area in August 2017 and he was very welcoming and showed us around the operation despite the fact that we were just passing through.
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wildlife_watcher
I did a horseback ride in Costa Rica but all we saw on the horses were coati. On foot I found many more animals but they were monkeys and reptiles. I do not have much experience but based in that, I’d probably keep these activities separate.