Will We See Bears - ??????

Man, I've heard that comment as we set out from trailheads so many times if I charged $5 a time I'd be holidaying in Mexico. And, reading the Alberta Equestrian Federation's latest e-newsletter, with berries and lush raspberries gloriously thick and ripe, experts'advice on encountering bears is dutifully mentioned to their trail-riding members.

Well, with The Best I've stood downwind of a few bears so unbelievably rank my eyes stung and I seriously wondered what they had for breakfast earlier that morning. Carrion, prime carrion, had to be. And these were encounters in September and October, three different locations, one a just gorgeous silver tipped grizzly - actually, there were all grizzlies so special occasions there.

The Fox gets a tad twitchy without his cool-as-cucumber girlfriend but he's pretty OK, and the pinto couldn't give a damn.

Moose, though, ah, moose. And, pulling out of Mesa Butte and flicking on the CBC's 1010 AM program as the rig crunched through a few potholes, oh joy, the newscaster had on the world-renowned 'Dr Moose', handily live from a cellphone in northern Manitoba.

The man obviously adored moose. He told stories. Anecdotes. He mentioned the males' noses will be deepening, darkening now from the colour they've shared over the summer with Mrs Mooses, as their hormones prepare to open the floodgates. In three weeks, he remarked, velvet from the antlers will begin to be scraped off, the males will start to express opinions about territories even though their rut won't officially be in, er, full thrust for a few months yet.

A magnificent moose, in his prime, once fancied The Best and we darned near had a near-death experience, cascading down a scree slope in saner moments I would have described sincerely as absolutely unrideable. He really did have his antlers in a twist, I mean, have many pure white lady mooses have you seen in your lifetime?

Horses, you see, find it difficult to 'read' moose. Moose stand still, no body language to read, are they a threat, these large, almost black animals - ? Better to be safe, let's run-for-home and that nice-safe-trailer, eh? On foot, hiking, yes, I'm bear aware but having read a stack of park wardens and biologists' accounts, annoyed moose have stomped, chased and treed more than their fair share of humans. If you're riding along willows, muskeg, streams (West Bragg Creek, ah, has some wonderful areas of precisely these ingredients, another is the section by 'Moose Pond' before it elevates into the spectacular Eagle Hill Trail too), watch your horses' ears, perhaps a sudden 'dragon's snort' or a jolted halt, high headed. It's a great opportunity, too, to learn to read landscapes, practise developing the mountain people's amazing peripheral vision, drag your own vision away from tunnel vision on your trail line only, listen to ravens discussing the deal - then, as Andy Russell once described, each day in the mountains begins its moments of magic.

Scratches Update

I am very bored with scratches (also known as 'cracked heels' apparently in Ontario and as 'mud fever' in the UK and Ireland. The Best is EXTREMELY bored with them too. It's taken nearly two weeks, eventually ending up with a new application of veterinarians' Moore&Co 'Scratches Ointment', covered up with plastic, then padding, then a carefully applied bandage of equal pressure, both hind legs to level out any favouring of one leg (and its ligaments and tendons). Every day. Yawn. We almost got there, no puffiness (ie, no poulticing which went on for a whole darned week) and I left the bandages off for 14 hours and we were back to square one.

Eeeargh. So, we resumed. One hind leg (she's black skinned, as are all pure-bred and part-bred grey or white Arabians) has, guess, a white sock (hard black foot though) and that's the one that's cranked my back into major creak zones.

So, with the drier weather forecast for a week to come, do I or .......? ....... cross my fingers and hope, this time, we're OK - ? Decisions, decisions.