Soapweed, my camera is a ten power optical zoom, and I wish I was steadier, so I could get higher into the digital zoom and still take clear pictures. It goes up to 48x but you'd need a tripod, and the quality isn't there.
As to the horseback part, I do spend a lot of time riding, but I don't usually carry the camera. The quad is my packhorse for salt and zipping up to check all the far gates in a hurry. This area is forestry, so anyone can and do wander through, and they don't always close gates behind them, unfortunately. We get a lot of quad and dirt bike traffic on weekends, and while most of them are good and stay to the old logging trails, it only takes one to leave gates down. They can get to all them easily in a day, so I spend a lot of time checking gates. At times I have gathered a ton of cattle with the quad and dogs too, but its not nearly as scenic putting along ahead of the cattle while the dogs bring them, and definitely not an easy way to take pics :wink: