As the oil and gas industry matures and known reserves continue to be depleted, the focus moves towards more challenging environments. To help moderate the decline trend in reserves or to reverse it, the industry is expanding its exploration and development efforts to include horizons with permeabilities in the same range as common cement, that is, microdarcies. While horizontal wells are being used with increasing frequency in exploiting tight gas reservoirs, many questions have arisen as to the optimum practices to drill such wells. The experience of drilling horizontal wells in one of the deep basin tight gas reservoirs in Alberta is presented in this article. The initial results were below expectations. Consequently, a systematic study was undertaken to investigate the controllable factors that are in play during the course of drilling these wells. It was found that formation damage played a significant role in reducing the initial productivity. This was particularly true because all horizontal wells were completed in an open hole fashion where bypassing damage by perforation is usually not an option. The investigation into the formation damage in horizontal wells and its results are presented. The study led to using a new drill-in fluid which resulted in significantly reduced formation damage. Well tests conducted in the wells drilled with the new fluid appear to support the laboratory results. Finally, general guidelines are provided for selecting the most suitable drill-in fluid and implementing it in the field to minimize the horizontal well drilling formation damage in tight gas formations.