By Maddy B. Gray
It’s been a long time since a deer hunter has shot a horse, according to game warden John MacDonald. In his 10 years as a warden for
Maine Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, he has not heard of a single incident.
But that doesn’t mean it won’t happen.
“If you can dream it up,” he said during a recent phone interview. “it can probably happen.”
He should know. His peers just finished successfully prosecuting a hunter who shot a house.
A house!
The shot narrowly missed a woman on its way through two interior walls. The bullet ended its journey in the side of the family fridge.
The shot narrowly missed a woman on its way through two interior walls. The bullet ended its journey in the side of the family fridge
I asked MacDonald if this was your stereotypical out-of-stater, parking wherever and bumbling around in what he assumed was a remote section of Maine woods. (It was just that kind of person, a woman from Massachusetts, who shot and killed our family dog when I was a kid.)
“No,” he said. “This guy was a local. He knew the house was there.”
Here is a pause for us all to shake our heads and contemplate sharing the planet with people like this guy...Sounds like a domestic terrorist to me!
Crazy, huh?
Frankly, I was surprised no horses have perished.
"A hunter should not mistake a horse for a deer," said MacDonald, and then perhaps recalling the 1988 tragic and fatal shooting of Karen Wood in her own backyard. "A hunter should not mistake a human for a deer."
I certainly do not want to trash deer hunters. The vast majority are solid outdoorsmen with a keen sense of safety and etiquette. But there is a creepy minority. They're Yahoos with no business owning a firearm, say nothing for traipsing around the woods with a loaded one. They scare me.
Statistically-speaking, we know our horses won’t be shot by deer hunters. Statistically-speaking, we won't win Powerball either. But that doesn't stop us from putting orange on our horses or dropping a few bucks on quick-picks!Statistically-speaking, we know our horses won't be shot by deer hunters. Statistically-speaking, we won't win Powerball either. But that doesn't stop us from putting orange on our horses or dropping a few bucks on quick-picks.
Sue Laffely of Windham has responded to our anxieties with bright orange mesh
Protectavests to put on every size of equine (she also sells halters, quarter sheets, orange helmet covers).
The idea started way back in 1990 when she acquired a young Arabian and pastured him in an area with plenty of hunters. She was already “stitching for a living,” she said. So, after several tries, using her Arab as a guinea pig, she began producing what we now see dotted across many Maine fields and pastures.
Her Mac Mountain Tack company produces hundreds of horse vests every year.
Almost all of her business is in the northeast United States, she said. That’s where hunters and high densities of non-hunting animal owners converge to make the season a stressful time.
Laffely hasn’t found a market west of the Mississippi, she said. Most horse owners there grew up around hunting and very likely hunters themselves.
Over the years, her sales have steadily increased by 15 percent annually.
“The more paranoid you are, the more orange you put on your horse.”
Of course, you don’t need to spend a lot of money to turn your buckskin pony bright orange.
“You can take a can of orange spray paint,” suggested Laffely, “and spray an old blanket or fly sheet.”
I've embellished my bright orange hat with flowery tassles and wear it every time I leave the house. My dogs and horses have various orange treatments, too.
The way I see it?
I’d rather be safe and give folks a good chuckle than discover or become a dead loved one.