I guess that about eighty percentage of hunts in the mountains are organized with the usage of horses. Mountain massive in our country have no roads and other transport links in comparison with Europe. One of my clients who lives in Switzerland has told me that he goes for hunting by the mountain tram. We can reach the hunting area where the density of mountain ungulates is high by horses only. It makes the process easier and can save hunter’s strength if the equipment works well and the horse won't kick. Moreover, the hunter has to know how to ride horse.
Riding horse even by the plateau is a stress for non an untrained person. I don’t talk about the descendants of Kazaks and Kazakhs, riding is in their blood. I remember my friend has described his feelings after he has galloped one lap on the hippodrome: “I felt as if each of my organ wanted to tear off and the only desire to survive has kept me in the saddle”. Riding is the most traumatic activity in the process of mountain hunting. I don't want to scare anyone, but last year I has to save a guy who fell down from the horse and have broken both legs. Two guides died in 2013, the horse of the first one slides on the ice and It was pulled under the ice together with the rider, the second one fell from the horse and got a fractured skull.
In that year I also fell three times from the horse because of the poor riding gear and once because of the slippery road. That's why I advise you to get the riding course if you take part in mountain hunting. The hippodromes are in the most towns. Riding by the plain won’t prepare you to all obstacles that you can meet in the hunting trip but it’ll teach you not to be afraid of horses and to hold in the saddle. The rider's behavior when he just begins to get the mountain experience is the main reason of all injuries and falls. I’ll give you some advices below how to avoid such mistakes. But let me tell you a little theory before.
The base of riding gear is a saddle. It helps to distribute the rider’s weight on the horse back. The saddles that are mostly used in Kazakhstan mountains belong to the cavalry type. The saddle is put on the coat (made from wool or other materials that add the comfort to the horse). The stirrups are the belts and steel brackets for legs. Girth fixes a saddle on the horse. There has to be two of them. The first one is fixed on the front part of the horse’s belly and the second on the end. The crupper - the belt on the horse croup that fixes the saddle and doesn’t allow it to slide it to its head while riding down. The breastplate is also the belt that goes across the horse breast and connects with the saddle and the girth. It didn’t allow the saddle to slide back when riding up.
The bridle is the "steering wheel", the main control element of the animal. It’s a belt system that puts on the animal's head and has the aluminum segment (bits), put between the horse's jaws.
A saddlebag is used to carry luggage. It’s a double bag that is attached to the saddle behind the rider. In the mountains (and not only in the mountains), a noose is used, a thick rope 5-6 meters long for gartering ungulates. All horses must be shod! Good studded horseshoes will provide a reliable grip on any surface.
The saddle can be fixed by the crupper or the girth only.
Quotes:
The bridle:
1- occipital belt; 2-frontal belt; 3-cheek belt; 4-portable belt; 5-chin belt; 6-connecting belt; 7-chumbur; 8- iron bits; 9-reins
Set of cavalry saddle (without crupper):
1-front and rear bows; 2-left and right shelves; 3-seat; 4-wings; 5-girths; 6- stirrups; 7- breastplate; 8-sweating coat with sweating roof; 9-saddlebags; 10-pack belt
Stage one - How to choose a horse. Be honest with your host. It’s better to say that you don't ride well and ask to give you the calmest horse. Horses like dogs are smart and scientists consider their intelligence comparable to the intelligence of a four-year-old child. They have feelings and a character. The horses with bad character can ignor the rider at all and won’t follow his commands.
I always try to be on friendly terms with the horse before the riding, talk to it, treat it to an apple or a piece of salted bread, and rub the horse behind the ear. The main thing is not to be afraid and don’t jump aside at the first move. The animal will feel your timidity and use it against you. The horse must feel the confidence of the rider and know who is in charge in your tandem. Don’t shy to motivate it by the good rod. It doesn’t mean to beat the horse but to show it your firmness and the inevitability of punishment. You should achieve the execution of the command of you gave it.
I consider geldings (castrated horses) to be the best riding horses for the town riders. The stallions run faster but they have characters and only locals can control them. The gelding is almost always calm, easy-going and manageable.
Many years I hunted in the hunting farm and always used the gelding called Landcruiser. I rode it ten years and it never let me down. When it became old and the owner didn’t need it anymore, I bought it. Now it just grazes and rides the kids. The horses have a very good memory. They will definitely recognize you even in several years.
The second stage - the equipment. The ideal set consists on the comfortable saddle with two girths, the crupper, the breastplate and the bridle with the long reins. But I saw and used it just few times during my long hunting career. I don’t know why and what it depends on. The people don't use the breastplate not talking about the crupper. It's a common situation when the saddle is fixed on the only girth made from the available materials. All times I fell it happened because of the torn girth. Don't seat on the saddle fixed by the only belt. Two girths are minimum! They can reply you that there are not any other belts that’s why I suggest you to buy everything beforehand - the bridle, a couple of girths, a crupper and a breastplate. I advise to have that set as a minimum when you are going for a mountain hunting if you can’t take you own saddle. I try to take the full set including the saddle, the only left to have the horse with me. It's a joke but I recommend not to trust the host’s words that their riding gear is well.
The second component after safety is your comfort. You have to adjust to the length of the stirrup, the legs the legs should be only slightly bent and the distance from the groin to the saddle was a couple of centimeters. The bridle’s reins have to be long enough to compensate the tilt of an animal’s head or you can lose it. The saddlebag attached to the saddle behind you shouldn’t prevent you to get in and dismount from the horse. If you feel that the bad makes discomfort you’d reload in on the place, there won’t be any chance to do it when you are riding.
Try to pull the girth after the guide has tighten it. It’ll allow you to estimate how they’ve tightened it and you’ll be able to control it later. It often happens that the guides loosen it when you make stops and forget to tighten, you jump into the saddle, it curls up and you fall down.
You comfort correlates with the form of your ass and the saddle. I know they don’t coincide in most cases. That's why I suggest to use the soft flat pillow from batting that eliminate these inconsistencies. Long trips on a leather seat without a cushion usually end in bloody calluses on the most delicate places. Another one is "motivator". A good kamcha (a whip) is not even a piece of equipment, it is a piece of applied art. I found mine in the mountains (it's a good sign). The kamcha can say a lot about its owner. It’s not only a tool for prodding but the Kazakhs say that Satan is afraid of yellow kamcha, it's a amulet. The story of the Great Genghis Khan began when he found a golden kamcha (a whip). A piece of an old cord can also suit well. A simple willow rod also copes well. There is no any need to to lash the animal on the sides constantly, it is enough to indicate the movement with swings. Do not twist the whip around the horse's head – it may instinctively jerk sharply to the side.
How to control the horse.
Let’s imagine that you have a gelding.
The first rule: Never come to the horse from its back. It can get scared and kick instinctively. It hurts. Once, the harmful gelding kicked my fellow and broke the carbine's stock. Everything was fine. But he should buy the new stock. Some of the horses can bite. Do not lose your vigilance, if you see that the horse is sniffing you actively, tell him something strictly, they understand the intonation.
The second rule: Sit the horse from the left side. It started from the Cavalry; the saber did not allow them to sit on the other side. Most of the horses don't like when the rider sits from the right. Keep the reins by the left hand while sitting the horse and hold on to the horse’s mane by the same hand but don’t hurt it. Beginners usually grab the front pommel of the saddle- it's not right.
Put your left foot in the stirrup If you have problems with stretching or the horse is tall, do not hesitate to bring the horse to a stone or a log, so that it is easier to saddle it. Lean on the stirrup and throw your right leg over the saddle. Then insert the second leg into the stirrup, stand up on straight legs, fix your clothes so that there are no creases and other inconveniences.
The third rule: the horse management teams are most likely the same everywhere. Chu- means go ahead, Trr- - stop. The horses don't understand when you say by voice “to the left, right or go faster”. Some of them can distinguish obscene language in the local language. All commands are transmitted tactically. The commands to the left or to the right are made by the pulling of the reins to the side where you are going to ride. The command "chu" is accompanied by blows of heels on the sides of the animal or and (or) by hitting the whip on the animal's rump, and "trr" by pulling the rein on itself.
The guide rides the first, as a rule, and the rest of the group follows him. If you stay alone, choose the mountains paths, don’t ride along the slope. It can be dangerous.
A horse can slide down on stone landslides. Be always ready to jump out, don’t be lazy and go near the horse on the most dangerous parts. I recommend to dismount the horse when you are descending because it tires much more when riding down with the rider than when goes up and it’ll be a good exercise for the hunter to walk. Beware of wet clay trails and snow with frost after rain, the horses can slide and can fall off with all four legs.
Use your feet to absorb shock when jumping over ditches.
Features of horse riding in the mountains
Do not forget while sitting in the saddle that they are alive although strong, has their own margin of safety. Mountains require additional effort from the rider, unlike trips on the plain. Your task it not to be a bag on the horse’s back. You have to balance all the time and to help the horse like on rodeo. You should carry you center of gravity in dependence on the horse’s movements, lean forward close to the animal's neck if you ride up and lean back to its croup when riding down. Always tilt to the opposite side when the horse lean to the side.
Redistribute your weight using the legs in the stirrup and don’t shy to move in the rhythm of horse’s movements. Don’t overwork the horse because it can lay down and not to stand up anymore. And most importantly, do not try to think for the horse, he has four legs, and you have two! The horse thinks in its own way and knows much better where to step, they also do not like when it hurts, and are afraid of fractures!
In the camp. It's important to pay a little attention to your four-legged assistants when you stop in the camp. It is the duty of the horse breeder, but just in case I will write about it.
The first thing to do is to relax the girths. Don’t take off the saddle and the coat. The horse should cool down, depending on the time of year, from an hour or longer, in the cold, you cannot remove the saddle at all.
The second thing is to relax the reins and pull out the bit to allow the horse to graze. It’s better to roll up the reins around the bridle not to tangle them.
The third thing: Tighten the girth to the upper part of the saddle. The horse can lay down if it's tired and the girth can hurt the animal or to get caught on something.
The fourth: Detach the saddlebag. Otherwise, the horse will try to get rid of the annoying load by riding on its back.
The fifth: The horse must either be hobbled or tied with a rope so that it does not go home – this happens quite often.
Crossing the river
You will cross rivers while hunting. It’s always dangerous. You can't see what is there under the water and the horse can slip up. It can be taken down by the strong current of the mountain river. It's dangerous to wade across the river in the winter time when the part of the river is covered by thick ice but it's open on the places where the current is too fast. The horse and the rider should go by ice then to jump into the rough flow and then to climb out on the ice. The edges of ice are always sharp and brittle. Two years ago, we had to wade across the river in such conditions twice because the main road was blocked by the avalanche. It's hard to put in into words. I prayed to all Gods and swore to avoid such situations in future.
Unfortunately, in 2014 the guide whom I knew died in the same situation when crossing the river. Keep the distance when wading across the river about 3-4 meters, your horse needs it to navigate by the one in front and it’ll reduce the risk. It’s better to keep the same distance when riding up or down not to clutter the movements of other riders. It's save you if the horse of the one in front will slide or fall down and the branches won’t hurt you too.
When it's too deep the horse can start to swim. You’ll understand it by the absence of hoof beats and it will start to drift along the current. Don't panic! The horse can safely swim with the rider on its back! Sit calmly, and do not interfere with the animal to cope with the situation. The maximum that you face (if there are no rapids downstream) is wet feet.
Transportation of weapons and assault backpack
Due to the dense vegetation in our mountains, as well as untreated trails, I believe that the carbine should be carried on the back, wearing the shoulder strap over the head. The rifle is securely fixed, your hands are free: the left one keeps the reins while another keeps the whip. You'll need free hands to protect yourself when threading among bushes and forests.
if the branches across the path are too low, you need to turn the carbine around your neck with your right hand so that it does not cling to them. I don’t recommend to carry the carbine in the backpack because there is a chance that it’ll cling on something and you’ll fall down from the horse or damage the equipment.
I put my backpack on my back. It's not heavy and I don't get tired of it but it protects the spine from the damage if I fall down and helps to keep the rifle in the vertical position. None of variants with a holster strapped to the saddle work. There is a risk that the horse will bend the barrel or collapse the optics if fall sideways.
It follows that you should have your own saddle if you can drive to the mountains by car. If not, I advise to have the minimum set, included a couple of girths, a crupper and a breastplate. It’s not heavy even if you travel by plane but it’s universal and suits to all Nomand's saddles.
The history of a saddle.
The history of the saddle with a front and rear bow and an iron stirrup dates back one and a half thousand years, this is the basic innovation of the peoples of the Turkic Khaganate.
The millennial experience of our glorious ancestors deserves respect Now we use two types of the saddles. The first one, known as a steppe saddle or some people call it a Kazakh or Cowboy saddle.
The horn on the front pommel of these western saddles is a torment to the hunter: it beats directly to the solar plexus when you are riding up, it's easy to break the binocular by this horn and it prevents you to jump "over the head". The back cantle isn't comfortable when you ride up, you feel as if you fall from the saddle.
The next saddle for a mounting riding is called a Cavalry saddle. It distributes the load on the horse's back as evenly as possible and is quite comfortable for the rider. A high pommel and a cantle guarantee a good rider’s fixation not matter if you ride up or down. Nothing superfluous, the saddle is light and ergonomic. The saddle top is made from leather, the panels are covered by felt plus a thick coat under the saddle. It is the best choice for horse riding in the mountains.
A traditional Kazakh saddlebag “korzhyn’” is the most comfortable model to carry the load on a horse. The proper korzhyn - this is a rarity, they are now used infrequently, so manufacturers don't produce them anymore. The used materials are tarpaulins, less often kirza or banner fabric.
The disadvantage of the fabric bags is that they rip when clinging on the bushes. The best ones are made from the banner fabric, the same as the inflatable boats are produced. This strong reinforced material is difficult to damage, it is waterproof, that is very important during transitions in the rain and when transporting meat. It is better to use reinforced plastic boxes for long-term expeditions. Dry food and small equipment can break in soft bags when the horse rubs against the trees or rocks on the narrow paths.
A couple more things you need to know
Moving at night on a horse is an unpleasant process for a rider. You can't see where you are riding. But there is nothing to be afraid of. A horse's night vision is much better than a human's and it will always find its way in the starlight. I don’t recommend to use bright flashlights because horses don’t like and are afraid of white light, especially at night. A powerful beam blinds it and can lead to irreversible consequences. It can have sense when crossing the rivers. That situation is so dangerous that I suggest to use the light.
The best option is to use the red light of the head lamp. Horses can't perceive it. You can turn on the diffused white light at the lowest brightness when riding on the rocks in the most difficult parts. I used Black diamond flashlights for many years already. They have several light regimes from red to the diffused white.
Mountain riding in the mountains is slow. You sit in the saddle, hold the reins tight by the left hand and a whip in the right. There is not any need to hold on the saddle with both hands. The horses can break into a trot when you are riding back to the base. This is the most uncomfortable way of the horse riding; you have to amortize with the legs and move the body in the lower back.
Nobody gallops in the hunting trips.
All horses ride in their own way. I like how the pacers ride. But you can hardly meet them in our mountains.
Mountain horses on the Tien Shan or Altai are short but strongly built, with a short back and a strong neck. They are perfect for mountains. My best horse, I’ve ever met, was in Altai. We climbed Belukha mountain. I haven’t met smarter and stronger horse. It jumped on the rocks with me sitting on its back. I was going to buy it in that May but its’ owner boozed it in the winter. Our mountain horses are our great friends and reliable assistants.
And in conclusion, a few tips in random order:
1. Don’t water the horses on the route, and don’t water them until they cool down (from an hour or more);
2. It is not recommended to allow horses to eat grass on the move, you can fall if the horse bends its head to the ground on the descent;
3. If you are placed in a definite place on the mountain, keep the horses together, otherwise they will start to neigh, trying to establish where one of the brothers is, thereby giving away your location;
4. At the beginning of the season, when driving for a long time, your knees often start to hurt, it's not terrible – release your legs from the stirrups in turn to restore blood circulation;
5. If the seat is very stiff, move to the hip, while keeping the center of gravity on the axis of the saddle, tilting the body in one direction or the other.
