simple
reason that often in roping or leading a refractory horse, the horn is
a great help. For steep-trail work the double cinch is preferable to
the single, as it need not be pulled so tight to hold the saddle in
place.

Your riding-bridle you will make of an ordinary halter by riveting two
snaps to the lower part of the head-piece just above the corners of the
horse's mouth. These are snapped into the rings of the bit. At night
you unsnap the bit, remove it and the reins, and leave the halter part
on the horse. Each animal, riding and packing, has furthermore a short
lead-rope attached always to his halter-ring.

Of pack-saddles the ordinary sawbuck tree is by all odds the best,
provided it fits. It rarely does. If you can adjust the wood
accurately to the anatomy of the individual horse, so that the side
pieces bear evenly and smoothly without gouging the withers or chafing
the back, you are possessed of the handiest machine made for the
purpose. Should individual fitting prove impracticable, get an old LOW
California riding-tree and have a blacksmith bolt an upright spike on
the cantle. You can hang the loops of the kyacks or alforjas--the
sacks slung on either side the horse--from the pommel and this iron
spike. Whatever the saddle chosen, it should be supplied with
breast-straps, breeching, and two good cinches.

The kyacks or alforjas just mentioned are made either of heavy canvas,
or of rawhide shaped square and dried over boxes. After drying, the
boxes are removed, leaving the stiff rawhide like small trunks open at
the top. I prefer the canvas, for the reason that they can be folded
and packed for railroad transportation. If a stiffer receptacle is
wanted for miscellaneous loose small articles, you can insert a
soap-box inside the canvas. It cannot be denied that the rawhide will
stand rougher usage.

Probably the point now of greatest importance is that of
saddle-padding. A sore back is the easiest thing in the world to
induce,--three hours' chafing will turn the trick,--and once it is done
you are in trouble for a month. No precautions or pains are too great
to take in assuring your pack-animals against this. On a pinch you
will give up cheerfully part of your bedding to the cause. However,
two good-quality woolen blankets properly and smoothly folded, a pad
made of two ordinary collar-pads sewed parallel by means of canvas
strips in such a manner as to lie along both sides of the backb