The U.S. Forest Service focuses restoration efforts on water, soil and trees, and using fire as a tool to reduce risks of bigger fires. It’s a job that requires a lot of tools, including ones with manes, tails and four hooves.

“We don’t just take care of the trails, but of the rest of the forest, too. It’s hard to get ATVs up there, so we use horses,” said Scott Woodall, the Rangeland Program manager. 

On Thursday, members of the White River Forest Service gathered at the Rifle Fairgrounds to learn from the Shoshone Specialty pack string team on how to communicate with horses and mules so they could ride them up into the forests.

---

---

“We’ve got to make sure they know what they’re doing, because the horses will have to go across creeks, step over timber, jump down from high places, pack equipment and tools and possibly even move fallen trees or rocks,” Woodall said. 

The horses are highly trained and will go through a few years of it before they’re ready to work in the forests. 

---

---

“We’ll often do work far from any trail and they might not be in a campsite at night or near other people, so we have to teach our folks how to use these animals. Horses are prey animals and their first instinct is to run away, so we just keep working with them to get them used to our type of work,” Woodall explained. 

Although horses are prey animals, the coyotes stay away, and probably the worst enemy horses encounter are yellowjackets, according to Woodall. 

“We use them for about 10 years or so, and then we re-home them to families so they can have a nice time near the end of their lives, so they can ride on trails instead of working,” Woodall said. 

The Shoshone Specialty pack string team came down to help with the three training days that the White River National Forest sets aside for its employees to learn how to communicate with the horses that are essential to their work. 

Crosby Davidson, who has been working with horses ever since he was a young boy on his parents’ ranch, ran the training. 

“Being around horses makes me happy, so I’m lucky that I get to have a job where I’m around them a lot,” he said. 

As someone who understands horses, he’s ideal for being the lead packer on the Shoshone Specialty string pack team and training others in the ways of the horse.

“All of this stuff is based on fundamental ideas on how a horse’s brain works; pressure and release,” Davidson said. “Once you get those fundamental building blocks, you can take it wherever you want to go and get horses to do some really refined movements and refined things, get a horse to where he’s doing exactly what I want to do and we’re both working in partnership to get a job done. Every horse has their own personality.” 

Davidson and his team visit many places to train people about horses when they’re not working in the forests. 

“Stock managers who have been at these trainings for years and brand new employees all show up to these training sessions,” he said. 

Leanne Veldhuis, a district ranger with the White River National Forest for Eagle/Holy Cross, was learning from Davidson during training. She didn’t have a lot of previous experience with horses. 

“It wasn’t what I expected in terms of how to communicate with the horse. I expected how to work with reins or a lead rope,” she said. “I’m not an expert but I can see how it works now.”

Veldhuis says it’s about “practice makes perfect” and that it can be easy to overthink.

“If I’m not clear, it might not be clear or assertive to the horse,” she said. “Timing is important for the pressure and release system.”

She gave an example: If she’s in the saddle and wants her horse to stop, she has to get its hind end to respond because that’s where most of the horse’s power comes from. 

“Pull on one rein, apply pressure with your leg on that side, and it’ll circle and stop,” she said. 

Veldhuis also said that the first couple days of training were dedicated to groundwork and building relationships with the horses. Respect is important in these relationships and contributes to whether the horse listens to you.

“We also learned about different parts of the saddle and the best way to put the saddle on the horse so as not to spook it,” she said. 

The U.S. Forest Service has more information on the White River National Forest chapter and fire danger levels in different parts of the forest at fs.usda.gov/whiteriver.