Holy $hit Bullwinkle

July 26 2025

Hillbillie Willie loves riding new trails. He is also loving staying the Spa at DWA Arabians in Bellevue ID. Helen was kind enough to give Willie and Connie’s 3 horses refuge from the Owyhee heat for a while, and between my work days I’m able to come up for a few days at a time. Willie LOOOOOOOOVES walking around the farm sampling all kinds of GREEN GRASS (of which there is zero at home), green weeds, green alfalfa, green lawn grass, etc. Not to mention it is cooler here and the bugs aren’t so bad.

Today DWA Papillon and Connie, Willie and I went out for a ride on the BLM foothills near Bellevue for a good uphill workout on great footing. We were far away from the busy Ketchum/Sun Valley trails that are inundated with speedy bikers and loose outtacontrol dogs which make riding some of those trails on horseback impossible (and can sometimes make for scary hiking).

Willie led the way for a while, trotting up a soft 2-track road alongside a creek lined by aspen trees. 

Then Pappy took over the lead, cruising along, then - BRAKES! Pappy wheeled a bit, and Willie just braked behind him.

It was a giant moose! Holy $hit Bullwinkle! 

We’d startled him and he certainly startled us! He watched us and we watched him. Big daddy! There are moose in this area, Connie has spent plenty of time hiking and looking for a moose, but she’d never seen any, and when we least expected it, we came across this giant moose! Willie wasn’t worried at all (he has seen moose on the Old Selam ride, though not on the trail and not this close!), and he just curiously watched the beast.

Luckily Monster Moose was more interested in avoiding humans, and we were just fine with that. He went up and around a stand of trees and ended up back on the trail in front of us. We gave him plenty of space and kept walking upward (we wanted to stay on this great trail), and eventually he disappeared, probably back down in the brushy creek. We made plenty of noise as we rode along so any other moose would know we were on the trail!

The horses got a good uphill workout till we ran out of road/trail, and we walked back down. Pappy was all amped up from the moose, while Willie was the one mostly lingering and enjoying the great grass along the trail (he’s usually all business and won’t eat).

Then we headed up a harder steeper hill toward a ridge, trotting much of it to near the top. When we reached the ridge, the road went onward and upward, but that was a great workout and a great wildlife encounter for our boys today!

It’s a Wild(life) West Out There

June 21 2023

Hillbillie Willie and I regularly see wildlife on our rides in the Owyhee desert: deer, the periodic pronghorn, the occasional coyote (two were sunbathing on the peak of the ridge this morning).

But - whoa! - what was this creature!

Trotting at a brisk pace along a two-track, we came around a bend and two never-before-seen-by-Willie furry creatures were stepping onto the road ahead of us, then suddenly bombing away from us down the road. Willie slammed on his brakes as the two badger butts, a bigger one and a smaller one, ran away as fast as they could. But sensing big danger to her baby, Mama Badger stopped to face off with the super tall creature with an even taller creature on top. She’d probably never seen a horse and a human before, and despite the fact that combined we were more than 20 times her size, she challenged us, holding her ground, stepping behind a sagebrush for protection, then stepping back out to hiss.

Willie and I had a quick conversation:

SCREECH TO HALT

Willie: “Whoa!!!!!”

Me: “Ooof” - as I adjusted to the sudden change in pace.

Mama Badger: “Hisssssssssssss! I’ll kill you!”

Willie: “!!!!! Should I be scared?”

Me: “Ooooh! It’s a Mama Badger and that’s her baby running away! Badgers are fierce!” 

Willie: “I might be scared! Dudley told me about these things!” (Dudley was scared of badgers.)

Mama Badger turned to run after her baby. Overcome with curiosity, Willie started to walk after them. Mama whirled back at us and stopped in the middle of the road, hissing. We stopped. Mama even charged at us, posturing, snarling, “Come on, I’ll take you on!”

Willie planted it: “Um…. not me. Uh uh. Not messing with her.”

Me: “No, we don’t want to tangle with a badger!” Baby Badger was still running down the trail. “We’ll go around so the Baby can stop running and Mama can get him back.”

So we detoured far around the trail (Mama Badger stood her ground still hunched up in a big fight posture), far enough to get ahead of the Baby Badger. 

You never know what you’ll ride upon the Wild West. What a treat that was, and Willie can mark Badgers off his bucket list!