Horseback Hunting Trips in the Canadian Rockies: What It Is Really Like

Why every hunt here is horseback

This is not a horseback hunt because we think it sounds romantic. It is a horseback hunt because the law of the land requires it. Our territory is a Forest Land Use Zone where motorized vehicles are prohibited, so there are no quads, no side-by-sides and no trucks past the trailhead. That single fact shapes everything: the country stays quiet, the game is not chased around by machines, and the only way to reach the good valleys is the way outfitters have reached them since long before the internal combustion engine. When people say they want to hunt the old way, this is the actual thing, not a re-enactment of it.

Base is a set of cabins at the Blackstone and Wapiabi river junction, and we are about three and a half hours from both the Calgary and Edmonton airports, so the wilderness is deep but the travel to reach it is not. You fly in, we get you to the trailhead, and from there the horses take over.

What riding a packstring in is actually like

A packstring is a line of horses: the ones you and the guides ride, and the pack horses carrying the camp, the feed, the food and, on the way out, your animal. Riding in is a slow, deliberate travel through country most people only ever see in photographs. You cross creeks, climb through timber, top out on a bench and drop into a drainage, and the miles pass at the pace of a walking horse, which is exactly the right pace to start noticing sign, wind and the shape of the land you are about to hunt. It is work, but it is the good kind, and by the time you reach camp you have already covered ground no truck could.

Camp is wall tents and cabins, packed in and set up to be lived in for the length of the hunt. The horses are not a novelty you ride once. They are the transport for the whole trip, taking you from camp to the day's glassing country and carrying the meat and the hide back when the hunt comes together.

How much horsemanship you actually need

Almost none to start, and this is the question first-timers ask most. You do not need to be a rider to book a horseback hunt. Outfits generally match the horse to the rider, putting newcomers on calm, experienced animals that know the trail better than anyone on it, and our string is no different. What helps is not riding skill but the willingness to sit a lot of hours in the saddle and to listen when your guide tells you how to handle the horse in a tight spot. The soreness is real for the first day or two if you never ride, so the honest preparation is not a rodeo clinic but time on your feet, a bit of leg and core conditioning, and boots and rain gear that will not fail you.

The horses do the hard travel. Your job is to stay balanced, keep your heels down when you cross bad ground, and trust the animal on the steep sections, because that horse has done it a hundred times.

A day in the life of a horseback hunt

You ride out from camp before light, because the first and last hours are when the game moves. You reach a vantage, tie the horses, and glass, sometimes for a long time, until you cut a track or spot the animal you came for. Then the horses either carry you closer or wait while you make a stalk on foot, depending on the country and the wind. Midday can be a long sit, a move to new country, or a slow still-hunt through timber. In the evening you work the game back toward its feed and, if it comes together, the pack horses earn their oats hauling the animal back to camp. Nights are a wall tent, a hot meal your guide packed the makings for, and the kind of tired that comes from a full day in real country.

It is a physical trip and we do not pretend otherwise. But the horses carry the weight, both yours on the way in and the animal's on the way out, which is exactly why a horseback outfit can hunt country a foot hunter or a truck hunter simply cannot reach.

What a horseback hunt costs

Every hunt we sell is a horseback hunt, so our published rates are horseback rates. There is no separate horseback surcharge; the horses are how the hunt happens. Below are our current hunt prices. Each includes guides, accommodations, meals, transport during the hunt, airport transfers, pre and post-hunt lodging, and animal prep with airline-ready packaging. Licences and tags, the WIN card, GST, airfare, tips and export are extra.

Who a horseback hunt is right for

This trip is for the hunter who wants the whole thing, not just the shot. If your picture of a hunt is a quiet ride into high country, a wall tent, a horse that knows the trail, and game that has not been pushed around by machines, this is where you do it. If you would rather drive to a stand and be back at a lodge for dinner, our country is not that and we would rather tell you so up front. The reward for the extra effort is access to backcountry that stays wild precisely because the machines cannot get in. See what the camp and the country are like on our Alberta hunts and our note on pack trips and wall tent life, and read up on our guided elk hunting if the rut is what is pulling you here.