Let’s talk about primary gear for pack animals.

Now, as a reminder, this is the gospel according to the “First Book of Tony.” This is from my own experience and it pertains to long-distance horse/mule packing, rather than outfitter-style packing into a base camp.

My list of primary gear for a pack animal contains the following:

• Pack Saddle and associated rigging
•  Pack saddle pad
• Pack halter and lead rope
• Panniers (either hard or soft)
• Cover tarp (canvas)
• Lash cinch and lash rope
• Breakaways
• Pack scale

Those of you who have followed my blog for awhile will recall a couple of posts I did shortly after the previous legs of my Mexico-to-Canada pack trip. You can find them here and here, for your reading pleasure. There are a couple other related posts, as well as a couple of videos that can be found on my Youtube Channel, Western Trail Rider.

To review a little, I have used both Decker style and crossbuck style pack saddles with equal success. It is a fact that Decker style pack saddles are more versatile than crossbucks, however, for the style of packing I do, a crossbuck works just fine.  I have discovered through experience on the trail that packing with panniers is easier and more convenient for the kind of packing I do than packing mantied loads on a Decker pack saddle.

My Decker style pack saddles have metal bows that are designed to be used like crossbuck pack saddles as well as with mantied loads.

I’ll explain the difference. Panniers are large bags or boxes that are hung on the pack saddle frame. On a crossbuck, they are simply hung over the crossbuck via straps, allowing one bag or box to hang on either side of the pack animal. Mantied loads are bundles of gear wrapped up and tied in a canvas tarp, called a manty, after which they are hung on the side of a Decker style pack saddle by ropes attached to the pack saddle frames. Mantied loads are great for hauling hay bales, feed sacks, or odd-sized items, which can be wrapped up in a bundle inside a “manty.”

For the style of packing I do, packing up manties every morning, prior to departure, is simply a waste of time. It takes a lot more effort to pack and balance the manties than to pack and balance panniers. Additionally, panniers serve as a place to store items while in camp, which can be pulled out and replaced as needed. Therefore I will restrict my comments on this post to pannier packing.

I purchased a pair of Phillips Formfitter pack saddles from Outfitters Pack Station, which I have found to be excellent and durable pack saddles. The leather is excellent and the frames and bars well made. While a crossbuck pack saddle has wooden bars that are fixed in position, the Formfitter pack saddle’s bars are mounted so that they can swivel, allowing them to adjust to a variety of pack animal backs. Additionally, accessory bars, made to fit a mule back, are offered as well, and can be changed out with minimal effort.

In general, the rigging of a crossbuck pack saddle is less cumbersome than the rigging of a Decker style pack saddle, which saves a little on weight. However, either style can be adjusted to suit a variety of pack animal body sizes.

A Decker style pack saddle normally has a cover, called an Arapajo, apparently called after a half-breed Arapajo Indian who first commonly used them. It is also sometimes called a “half-breed.” This canvas cover holds a 1 X 4 board on each side of the pack animal, which spreads the load and prevents items in the pack from poking into the side of the pack animal. It also protects the pack saddle and straps from excessive wear from use. While I have seen half-breeds made for crossbuck saddles, their use is uncommon.

Panniers, as mentioned, are either large bags, sometimes called “Utah bags,” which are made of a durable canvas or synthetic material, or hard boxes, into which gear and other items are placed. The bags are then hung on the pack saddle frame. Some bags are deep with narrow mouths, while others are shallow with wide mouths. Your own preference will dictate which you elect to use. I tend to like the Utah bag style, which is what is pictured above, because the depth provides plenty of room for anything one would desire to place in it, while the narrow mouth makes it unnecessary to cover the pack with a tarp when the weather is fair.

A canvas or plastic tarp may be used to cover the pack, which is then tied in place with a “diamond hitch” or a variety of other hitches that have been used for that purpose.

This cover retains any gear that is packed on top of the pack and panniers and keeps the load waterproof and dust proof.  The tying of  packing hitches is outside the scope of this post.

One caution, with regard to bag panniers, is that in a river crossing, if the pack animal should get into deep water or should stumble and fall, bag panniers that are open at the top can fill with water and can drag the pack animal under and drown it. Panniers made of “bear cloth”, such as the ones pictured above, drain water quickly, but not quickly enough to save a pack animal that has stumbled in a river. If river crossings are imminent, I recommend the pack always be covered with a tarp and well tied in place with an appropriate hitch.

Box panniers are handy for a variety of reasons. In some areas where I have packed, there is a danger from bears in camp. In areas where Grizzly Bears are present, government agencies regularly require “bear-proof” boxes to contain food items. Now, there is no such thing as anything bear-proof, however several manufacturers make bear-resistant boxes that qualify under the regulations. These are generally metal or heavy plastic boxes, into which gear and food items are placed.  These boxes serve nicely in camp as tables and chairs as well.

An additional benefit of these “hard panniers,” is that they teach a pack animal to be careful of how close it passes by trees, rocks, and other obstacles. I once had a pack horse walk too closely to a point of rock on a narrow trail. He was bucked into the river when the box contacted the rock. When we passed by that rock on the way out, he was very careful not to let the box hit the rock.  After a few days carrying hard panniers, a horse will be careful of a rider’s legs when under saddle. This is how I train my saddle horses not to brush my legs on obstacles.

Regardless of what kind of packs or panniers you decide to use, it is important to have a good pack scale, with which to weigh each pack. Once both packs a pack animal will carry are balanced to within 2 pounds or so, they are ready to be loaded onto the animal. In that way, the pack tends to stay centered on the pack animal’s back. If left unbalanced, the packs will tend to slip to the heavy side, which can cause saddle sores as well as some pretty spectacular wrecks!

A good pack saddle pad is important in order to keep a pack animal from getting sore from carrying a pack load. In the past, when I was using only wooden crossbuck pack saddles, I often used a pack saddle pad with a regular riding saddle pad on top of it, thinking I was better protecting the animal’s back. However, I learned that over-padding my Formfitter pack saddles actually causes saddle sores on the withers of the pack animal. It also caused the pack saddle to be unstable and turn under the load. The first day I packed with my Formfitter saddles, I had to stop nearly every other mile to re-settle the pack saddle on a particular Quarter Horse mare we were packing. Once we removed the extra padding, things went well.

I use 3/4″ thick mohair pack saddle pads of the Diamond brand, which I purchased from Outfitters Supply. They are offered by a number of vendors. I have found these pack saddle pads to adequately protect the back and sides of my pack animals. There are other, more expensive pads that are quite thick, which I have also found to be good, but I have not found them to be sufficiently better than my mohair pads to justify the extra expense.

As I mentioned in the previous post, I prefer heavy flat-braided halters and 5/8″ poly lead ropes. My halters are made so that I can attach the lead to a ring on the side of the halter, which allows the chin strap to put pressure under the lower jaw of the pack animal, to coax it to follow.

It also keeps the lead rope out from directly in front of the pack animal, so as not to obstruct its view of the trail or allow it to step on the lead rope, should it become slack. My lead ropes are attached directly to the halter via a loop I braid into the lead rope. I have no snap buckles on my lead ropes. A link to the seller of the rope and halters I prefer was provided in the previous post.

A lash cinch is a flat canvas cinch with a ring on one end and a hook on the other. It is attached on the ring end to a lash rope. My lash ropes are 3/8″ poly rope (the same type as my lead ropes) and are about 35′ long. Some packers use lash ropes as long as 50′. It just depends on what kind of packing hitch you prefer and how large your normal loads are.

Once a pack animal is loaded with its panniers, a top pack may be loaded on top. A top pack generally contains miscellaneous light items, such as sleeping bags, pack tents, clothing, etc. While it is a temptation to pack all these items in small bags and containers and then pack them into the top pack, I recently learned a new method that works much better.

On a recent pack trip to Alaska with a friend, he taught me to just toss everything into the top pack loose – the sleeping back unrolled, the clothing loose, nothing packed into any kind of bag or container. The top pack essentially converts into a suitcase for that individual’s personal belongings. This way of packing a top pack keeps things from settling to one side as the pack animal moves, requiring the top pack to be resettled on occasion. I found my friend’s way of packing a top pack to be effective in keeping a top pack centered and riding perfectly balanced on top of the panniers and pack saddle.

The panniers and top pack may then be covered with a canvas or plastic tarp. This tarp generally measures about 7′ X 8′ and is sufficient to cover the entire top of the pack and panniers. It is then tied in place with the lash cinch and lash rope, using an appropriate hitch, such as a diamond hitch.

A breakaway is a short length of breakable twine that is tied between each pack animal, which allows a pack animal to break away from the animal in front of it, in case of a wreck or other incident. I generally make mine of 1/4″ or 5/16″ hemp or manilla rope.  Mine are about 12-16″ long with a loop braided or tied into either end.

Each pack saddle has a loop of rope tied to its frame that hangs out the rear of the saddle, over the rump of the pack animal. The breakaway is looped through that loop and the lead rope is attached to the other end of the breakaway, thus keeping a breakable connector between each pack animal. This is particularly important when pack animals are used in precarious terrain, so that if one pack animal should fall, it will not pull down others with it.

Having said that, however, I seldom use breakaways anymore. I found that my pack animals quickly learned that they could break away by simply pulling back on their lead rope and they would be free. Unless I am crossing rivers or otherwise dangerous terrain with my pack string, I either tie them solid to the pack frame of the animal in front of them or simply leave them loose to follow the lead animal. Once the pack animals have been “broke to the trail”, they generally follow well. But, unless you are absolutely confident in your pack animals, you should tie them. It is a melancholy feeling to see your pack string running loose,  returning to the trailhead without you after the second or third day on the trail!

As I have learned many of the tricks of the trade, so to speak, of horse packing, I found a book by Bob Hoverson to be very helpful. Although he speaks mostly to outfitter style packing, I have incorporated much of the information he presents in the book into my horse packing routine and gear.  I recommend it.

In my next post, we’ll talk about camp gear, with particular attention to horse-related gear. Stay tuned.

TH