CHAPTER VIII

SADDLE AND PACK EQUIPMENT

The riding saddle should be a double cinch, horn saddle, with wool-lined skirts and of ample weight to hold its position. My own is a regular stock saddle weighing thirty-five pounds, though for all ordinary use a twenty-five- or thirty-pound saddle will do just as well.

I prescribe the horn saddle because of its convenience. One may sling upon it a camera, binoculars or other articles in frequent demand, and when it becomes necessary to lead a pack pony the lead rope may be attached to it. For this latter purpose the horn is indeed indispensable.

In the light of personal experience with both single and double cinch saddles, I recommend the latter unhesitatingly, particularly for mountain work. In steep ascents or descents it will not slide, while a single cinch saddle is certain to do so no matter how tightly cinched, and this shifting will sooner or later gall the horse's back. In Mexico the single cinch saddle is almost universally used, but who ever saw a Mexican's horse that was free from saddle sores? The forward cinch should preferably be a hair cinch, though the ordinary webbed sort, both forward and rear, does well enough.

The saddle blanket should be a thick, good quality wool blanket. In Arizona Navajo saddle blankets are popular, and they are undoubtedly the best when obtainable. A hair saddle pad or corona, shaped to the animal's back and used in connection with the blanket, is a pretty good insurance against galling, and preferable to the felt pad, for it is cooler.

A leather boot for rifle, and saddle bags for toilet articles, note books and odds and ends, bridle, halter rope, a pair of cowboy spurs with large blunt rowels, and a quirt to tickle delinquent pack horses will be needed. The rifle boot has two sling straps. The usual method of carrying it is to insert it between the stirrup leathers on the near side, drop the sling strap at the top of the boot over the saddle pommel and buckle the sling strap at the bottom of the boot into the rear latigo ring. By detaching the latter sling from the boot before buckling it to the ring, the boot may be removed from or attached to the saddle by simply lifting the forward sling strap over the pommel, without unbuckling. In case the sling strap at the top of the boot be placed too far down, it should be shifted higher up and secured to the boot with a leather loop which may be riveted to the boot.

For the pack animals the ordinary cross-tree or sawbuck pack saddle is the most practical pack saddle for all-around use, though the aparejo, used by the army and generally throughout Mexico, is superior to the sawbuck when unwieldy packages of irregular size and shape are to be transported. Such packages must frequently be transported by army trains and they are the rule rather than the exception in Mexico, where freighting throughout wide regions must be done wholly on the backs of animals.

The aparejo is of Arabian origin, and the Spaniards, who adopted it from the Moors, introduced it into Mexico. In Mexico there are two types of the aparejo in common use. One made usually of the fiber of _henequen_, which is woven into pockets which are stuffed with grass, to form the pads, is used on donkeys in comparatively light packing; in the other type the pad casing is made of Mexican tanned leather instead of _henequen_ matting but also stuffed with grass. This is used in heavier packing with mules, in transporting machinery and supplies to mines and merchandise to inland settlements.

The cross-tree or sawbuck, however, is used almost exclusively in the United States by forest rangers, cowboys, prospectors and pack travelers generally, and it is to this type of pack saddle that we shall direct our attention chiefly. It may be interesting to note that this is a very ancient type of pack saddle, of Asiatic origin. It consists of two saddle boards connected near each end--front and rear--by two cross-pieces, the pommel and cantle forming a miniature sawbuck, while the saddle boards are similar in shape to the McClellan saddle tree. This is fitted with breeching, quarter straps, breast strap, latigos and cinch. As in the case of the riding saddle, the sawbuck pack saddle should be supplied with the double cinch. Care should be taken that the saddle fits the animal for which intended. A saddle either too wide or too narrow will be certain to cause a sore back.

Each pack saddle should be accompanied by a heavy woolen saddle blanket, which should be folded into three or four thicknesses, for here even greater protection is necessary than with the riding saddle, for the animal is to carry a dead weight.

The preferable method of carrying supplies with the sawbuck pack saddle is with kyacks, basket panniers or the _alforjas_, though with sling and lash ropes any sort of a bundle may be slung upon it.

When they can be obtained, kyacks of indestructible fiber stand first for preference. These are usually from twenty-two to twenty-four inches wide, seventeen or eighteen inches high and about nine inches deep, and are fitted with heavy leather loops for slinging on the saddle. Unless the horse is a large one, the narrower, or twenty-two inch, should be selected.

Basket panniers of similar size are lighter but not so well adapted to hard usage, and are more expensive.

The alforjas is constructed of heavy duck and leather, and of the same dimensions as the kyack. They are much cheaper than either panniers or kyacks, and are therefore more commonly used. Any outfitter can supply them. They are slung upon the saddle in the same manner as kyacks. A pair of the type decided upon will be required for each animal.

The next requirement is a half-inch lash rope. This should be at least thirty-three, but preferably forty feet in length. In some respects a cotton rope is preferable to one of hemp, though the latter is more commonly used, and regulations prescribe it for army pack trains.

A good broad cinch should be provided, fitted with a ring on one end to which is attached the lash or lair rope and a cinch hook on the other end.

There should be a pair of hobbles for each animal, and a blind to put upon obstreperous pack animals when slinging and lashing the load. These may be purchased throughout the West at almost any village store. It is well also to carry a bell, which should always be strapped around the neck of one of the horses when the animals are hobbled and turned loose to graze.

It will sometimes be necessary to picket one of the animals, and for this purpose fifty or sixty feet of half or five-eighth inch rope will be required. Also sufficient leading rope should be provided for each pack animal, and a halter rope for the saddle horse. A lariat carried upon the saddle pommel will be found useful in a dozen ways, and may be utilized for picketing horses.

All horses should be "slick" shod; that is, shod with uncalked shoes. The shoes should be of soft iron, not so light as to render them liable to bend before they are worn out, and they should not extend beyond the hoof at side or rear. Some extra shoes of proper size for each animal, a horseshoer's nippers, rasp, hammer and some nails should be included in the equipment.