My pack saddles arrived last Friday, as promised by Wade and Simone Mauhl, of Outfitters Pack Station. They are every bit what I hoped.

My followers will recall the post I did a couple years ago about pack saddles, when I was trying to decide whether to go with the traditional crossbuck pack saddles or the newer, more versatile Decker pack saddles for my big pack trip…and on into the future. At length, I decided to go with the Deckers style.

So, as I was preparing to place an order for a couple pack saddles, my dad called and said I should talk to a friend of ours in Arizona, who is an experienced packer and has some definite opinions on pack saddles. I gave the fellow a call (name withheld because I don’t have his permission…yet) and talked to him for a while. He referred me to a man named Phillips, who builds a pack saddle he calls the “Phillips Form Fitter.”  My friend said he is certain Phillips makes the best pack saddle in existence.

Well, my friend didn’t know the website or how to get in touch with Mr. Phillips, so I did what any good, red-blooded American…or anybody else with a computer, would do. I googled “Phillips Form Fitter” and came up with Outfitter’s Pack Station. On their home page they have a great video presentation in which they describe in detail the pack saddle, how it is made, and how it functions. I was sold.

In speaking with Wade, I learned that Mr. Phillips has retired and Wade and Simone purchased his pack saddle business and continue to market them under the Phillips Form Fitter name through their storefront, Outfitters Pack Station.

After several conversations with Simone and Wade, I placed an order for two fully outfitted pack saddles. I also ordered a number of other items, which I will discuss in another post. Things got a little dicey, however, when I learned from Simone that they don’t keep these pack saddles in inventory. Wade makes each saddle as it is ordered, which is why they can make each one to suit the customer’s needs with a number of options. Here I was only a few weeks away from D-Day, so to speak, and I still didn’t have pack saddles! This was something I hadn’t contemplated. Wade and Simone assured me they would work overtime to make sure my saddles arrived in time for my planned departure to Arizona.

What a relief it was to receive a call from Simone last week, announcing they had shipped my pack saddles.

After ripping open the box like it was a Christmas present, I took a very good look at my new pack saddles.

I was immediately impressed with the heavy latigo straps and heavy nickel-plated steel hardware. All the straps are approximately 13 ounce latigo (just my guess), one-inch or 1-1/4 inch in width, depending on the particular strap. All buckles are heavy-duty roller buckles.

The upper buckle on the spider strap, where it attaches to the breeching, has a nickel-plated shroud over the buckle. As explained in the video, this was designed to keep the pack animal’s tail hairs from catching in this buckle.

For an extra $50, one can request brass or stainless steel hardware on the saddle.

The pack saddle outfit includes all straps, double straps for the breeching, as well as double straps for the breast strap, to keep them both riding in their proper places on the pack animal. The “halfbreed” is included, made of heavy 18 ounce canvas, reinforced with leather trim on the edges and filled with a two 1/2″ layers of felt padding inside. Leather pockets on each side hold a pine board that protects the pack animal’s sides from the load.

Underneath, one finds the pack saddle is made with bars contoured somewhat like a riding saddle’s bars, but a bit thicker. They are made of a polymer plastic, and while stiff, are somewhat flexible under load. The bars are attached to the “arches” by bolts, which allow the saddle bars to float and adjust to the back of the pack animal and move a bit as it moves. That makes them perfect for my pack trip, as we will have three horses each and rotating them as pack and saddle animals. No two of them will have the same back, being a mix of Fox Trotters, mustang, Quarter Horses, and a mule, so we will not have the luxury of being able to custom configure a pack saddle for each animal.

Each saddle bar is also enclosed in leather, with high quality sheep fleece underneath, just like a riding saddle. The theory is that the fleece helps the pack saddle stay in place without riding off the pad. Heavy-duty stitching keeps it all together, with screws attaching the leather to the bars.

I was impressed.

So, this morning I made an early start to my day and went out to trim hooves. I took along one of the pack saddles to try it on Ranger.

I am somewhat experienced in horse packing with a crossbuck pack saddle, but I was amazed at all the adjustability of this Decker pack saddle! While they are offered with a double cinch, like those usually used on a crossbuck saddle, Decker’s are usually outfitted with a single cinch. That’s what I requested on mine. The position of the cinch is adjustable fore and aft by adjusting the lengths of the fore and aft rigging straps, which, coupled with the floating saddle bars, makes this saddle adjustable to fit the back of pretty much any horse or mule one is likely to come across as a pack animal.

The Decker cinches are made with two rings on each end, a smaller one inside the larger one. The larger one is for the billet and latigo, while the smaller one is used in securing the load with the sling ropes. I outfitted my pack saddles with sling ropes and other rope accoutrements, per the recommendations of Bob Hoverson, in his book entitled, The Packer’s Field Manual, a book I recommend for Decker-style packing.

The breast strap and breeching are both made of heavy latigo leather, lined with oil-tanned leather, rolled on the edges to protect the pack animal from chafing. Both are fully adjustable for length and ride height via four straps on the breast strap and eight on the breeching. The spider pad holds four straps to keep the breeching in place and has an additional ring, which I suppose is for attaching the lead of a trailing pack animal. All these parts are stitched with heavy thread and all the straps and rings are secured with steel tube rivets. The breast strap and breeching are very nicely made and should be comfortable on the pack animal and easy to clean. Every part of this pack saddle rigging is made to be adjustable, so as to fit just about any pack animal of average size and conformation one might encounter.

The arches of the Decker pack saddle are the primary distinguishing factor between a crossbuck pack saddle and a Decker pack saddle. The Phillips Form Fitter arches are made of 3/4″ steel rods, bent to an arch, which connects the two saddle bars.  These arches, however, have small appendages, of the same diameter steel rod, welded to each side of the arch, creating a Decker arch which will also act as a crossbuck to hold Utah-style paniers intended for crossbuck pack saddles. Now I’m starting to feel right at home! I love these saddles!

One reason I decided to go with Decker pack saddles over the traditional crossbuck saddles, is the survivability of the saddle in the case of a rollover wreck. I am confident that the way this saddle is made, and the materials of which it is made, make this saddle much more likely to survive such a wreck with little or no damage, than a crossbuck or most of the other Decker pack saddles I have seen.

Lest I get too wrapped up in my enthusiasm for these pack saddles, I should mention a couple minor things I noticed on the other side of the coin with regard to these saddles. While the strap leather is, indeed, heavy latigo leather, it is not top-quality latigo, nor does it meet the standard of the harness leather I have seen on some high-dollar pack saddles. Also, rather than the steel tube rivets that secure these straps and assemblies, I would rather see copper hammered rivets. Having said these things, I am confident the use of these materials does not in any way compromise the utility and durability of these pack saddles. With a little care and oiling, I am certain they will outlast me and likely another generation of packers as well. The use of these less-than-top-flight materials is easily forgiven when one looks at the price of the fully outfitted Phillips Form Fitter pack saddle.

At $699, the price of the fully outfitted Phillips Form Fitter pack saddle, including breeching, breast strap, and halfbreed, compares favorably with other name brand pack saddle outfits that I consider to be lesser quality pack saddles.  The saddle tree alone, with no breeching or breast strap, but with the leather skirts and fleece, runs $325, which, again compares favorably with other Decker-style pack saddles with adjustable bars. Again, I am very pleased, both with the quality and the price of these pack saddles and their rigging.

I am thinking this was the first pack saddle ever set upon the back of Ranger. He handled it very well. I’m looking forward to how he handles it with a load on the saddle, our first day out on the trail.