We just got back from setting up the wall tent and the first couple of days of elk hunting. It is 7 miles up a narrow canyon. Of course to get a tent, stove, cots and other camp materials in took a string of horses. I took 5 horses with me. Mainly because that's what fits in my trailer. It took a couple of trips up the canyon to get everything packed in. I took several bales of hay and each time we came back to the truck, I let the horses eat for hour or so before we headed back up the canyon.

At camp there is very little to graze on. I did hobble the horses and let them try to graze for hour or two mid day. I hauled in several bags of hay cubes to give them in the morning, since I didn't have time to let them graze when we were heading out before 1st light. There is some cured yellow grass on the ridge tops which I can let the horses pick at while I glass for elk. But I really don't want to turn loose or hobble my horses while I'm actively hunting.

So how do you feed hard working horses at elk camp?

Stout looking buckskin.

The dark buckskin on the far right is her dam, the black gelding on her left is her brother from the same mare and a different stud.

I lost a full brother to her this summer and I had hoped to get the same physical conformation from him. The stud is gone now, so no second chances for another.

All but the sorrel are Foxtrotters and make the ride up the canyon so much more comfortable.

One of two ways. On each, we pack in grain. My preference is to pick our camp site based upon available feed, or, we pre-pack in bales of certified hay.

If graze is available, we put the horses out on picket lines over night. If we pack in hay, they go on a highline.

we pick campsites with feed. usually have two on picket lines the rest hobbled.

Most on hobbles and one or two staked out where there is grass..We only camp where there is grass..We prepack in grain, supplies and sometimes pack in enough hay to last for quiet awhile, it just depends. I have found its a lot easier to manage the camp if you get it all set up and going with everything you need packed in prior to folks coming in...

otherwise I prefer to take one pack horse and one saddle horse, a little grain, and camp in a different place every night as we hunt..Usually two or three of us go, each with a pack and saddle horse.

Ray ... when you take two horses per hunter, do you just hobble them, and plan on camping in areas with good grazing?

What if there is significant snow?

I packed in a couple of bales of hay on one horse, a bag of hay pellets and a bag of grain on a second horse. Fed that at night while the horses were highlined and tried to let the graze as much as possible during the day. While we were boning out the elk we hobbled several of the horses and let them graze. There is plenty of grass up on the ridge tops, the cattle don't make it up that far. But in the canyon bottoms where we camp, the cattle have grazed off all the grass.

We are just riding up to pick up a couple of elk we shot to the left of the Spruce trees. This is about as good as the graze gets around here. And after last nights snow, this is probably under a foot of new snow.

We just hobble; chains, not strap. A few of the horses can move as fast with as without. Only had to chase a few back to the truck over the years. Gotta watch them for sure. If I was going on a winter type hunt then I would take a little grain. Horses which arn't coddled in a pen and fed hay and grain every day know how to make a living on sparse grass with hobbles.

Painted looks like a great place to hunt. I'd bet there might be more than 12 inches on that ridge if it stormed there like it did at my house.

Some areas of Davis County got 11" of snow eysterday. So I pretty sure that ridge is now knee deep in snow. I'll find out later this week as I head back up for the deer hunt and we still have some cow tags. Plus I've still got to pack my camp off the mountain.

If I camped on the ridgetop, there is enough grass for the horses to graze. But I like to get out of the wind, so camp is not on the bald ridgetops. And there is not much grass left in the bottom.

Deertick,
No hobbles on the two horse per hunter trips. I use one hobble on a long lead and staked for each horse and let them graze in a circle...

When the snow flies too deep for the horses to get to grass I'm in the house drinking coffee and wonder why anyone would subject themselves to all that snow! By the time that happens I usually have my elk in the locker. I don't like to hunt when the snow gets over a skiff for tracking. I don't work at it like I used too anyway.

I guess at my age the testosterone I once had has been replaced with brain matter!
well maybe, depends on who you talk to.

We pack pellets that are a complete ration including some grain. Used to hobble and stake out our horses but for about 10 years now we have been using an electric corral. Greatest thing since pockets on shirts. Your horses can graze constantly and if they eat it down move the corral,quick easy and fairly inexpensive. My hunting pard wasn't sold on them [YET} and picketed his 2. Had a bear come through camp and boy do pickett pins make a hell of a racket being drug through rocks and trees by a runaway horse. Didn't find one of them till the next day. They horses in the electric stayed put. The forest rangers that have seen it love it as it doesn't leave permanent scars [their words] like a high line. Prep your horses at home for a couple of days and we've never had one get out.

I've had elk run through my electric fence and watched it get strung through the forest as the elk drug it off.

I still use the electric fence a lot during the daylight hours, But I have to be around to watch the horses, no leaving them unattended. And I highline at dark, when it's ahrd to see what the horses are up to.

I have a portable Gallahger electric charger and a roll of ribbon. It was a great way to leave horses feed.... until a moose walked through it and knocked it down. That was a long walk back to the truck.....