It's not unusual to encounter a lone Elk.

It was one elk and he must be alone or is that normal? He is still out there somewhere.

Not really, but a cow with a calf will be very protective.

That is a good point if suddenly startled the elk. Do elk get territorial?

Usually your horse will perk up and let you know when another animal is there. That makes me think that you might have ridden up on a bedded Elk.

Perhaps because it was really quiet and it suddenly came out of no where. We were riding alone but that is our normal. Heck it started the heck out of me too. It was my first encounter with an elk.

Elk are no different than deer except they are larger. A bull Ek might be aggressive during the rut, but are much smaller than your horse. I'm surprised that your horse was so startled by this Elk.

Has anyone ever had an elk jump out of the bushes onto the trail in front of your horse while trail riding?? I was riding in wooded area a few blocks from houses when this happened. Since I relocated from TX to NM, is something new I need to adjust to??? The deer are not a problem and just turn away but this 'giant' deer/elk jumped right in front of us. My horse spun on a dime and must have sucked up her belly since the saddle was under her belly when I arrived home about 1.5 miles from this encounter. The saddle slipped and dumped me off so now I have some very painful areas. Do we make noise like is suggested for bears or ?