You would have to park it if you see an elk and walk. Other than that, dont know how elk and horses do if around each other, I'm sure no different than deer. Elk roam around the foothills near the wildhorses here during the winter.

I know early in the morning when it is still fairly dark that I have walked beside a horse back rider with elk on both sides and they did not pay any attention to us. This was also in Northwest Wyoming hunting around the park herd.

Mike eastman mentions something about that in his elk book, he says that since horse's have four legs it would sound more natural to the elk than us on two legs. he says they can tell the difference between two legged and four legged critters. If they heard the 4 feet of the horse, they could be likely to think it's another elk

Does that mean an elk knows how many feet a horse has? The elk hunting in the Jeremiah Johnson movie was wrong?

I don't know lol

I think there is something to it.

I have gotten pretty close to elk while on horseback even during the late seasons when the elk are pretty scared and spooked.

A hunter with far more experiance than me taught me that one person can't approach elk in the open but two sometimes can. The trick is to make your silouette look like one 4 legged creature rather that two humans. It worked for us.

With that being said however I believe smell trumps sight where elk are concerned. If they catch wind of you nothing else matters.

Interesting....does "horse scent" spook elk?

It probably depend on the experience the elk had with horses. If they graze with them, then the scent shouldn't scare them. But if they've only been around horses with riders, I'd imagine the scent would scare them.

I am an outfitter from Colorado and I use horse from time to time with my business. In my experience 95% of the time elk dont pay any attention to us when we are on horse back.

Generally though we just use our horse to get to and from our hunting areas and to pack out our game. I have ridden right up on herds of elk before and I believe the horses scent over powers that of the rider.

A horse can be a great tool to help you find elk also. All you have to do is pay attention to your horses ears. Just look in the direction that the horses ears turn and you will see deer & elk!

The elk probably look at the horse and say to themselves,"Look at the tumor on that horses back! Hey buddy, go see a vet and get that thing cut off!"