ure that the others might as well not exist.

[Sidenote: Qualifications]

In general, a horse just from pasture should have a big belly. A
small-bellied horse will prove to be a poor feeder, and will probably
weaken down on a long hike. The best horse stands from fourteen hands to
fourteen two, and is chunkily built. There are exceptions, both ways, to
this rule. A pack horse is better with low withers on account of the
possibility of sore backs. Avoid a horse whose ears hang sidewise from
his head; he is apt to be stubborn. As for the rest, horse sense is the
same everywhere.

[Sidenote: What a Horse Should Carry]

[Sidenote: Sore Backs]

A pack horse can carry two hundred pounds--not more. Of course more can
be piled on him, and he will stand up under it, but on a long trip he
will deteriorate. Greater weights are carried only in text books, in
camp-fire lies, and where a regular pack route permits of grain feeding.
A good animal, with care, will take two hundred successfully enough, but
I personally always pack much lighter. Feed costs nothing, so it is
every bit as cheap to take three horses as two. The only expense is the
slight bother of packing an extra animal. In return you can travel
farther and more steadily, the chances of sore backs are minimized, your
animals keep fat and strong, and in case one meets with an accident, you
can still save all your effects on the other. For the last three years
I have made it a practice to pack only about a hundred to a hundred and
twenty-five pounds when off for a very long trip. My animals have always
come out fat and hearty, sometimes in marked contrast to those of my
companions, and I have not had a single case of sore back.

The latter are best treated by Bickmore's Gall Cure. Its use does not
interfere in the least with packing; and I have never seen a case it did
not cure inside ten days or two weeks if applied at the beginning of the
trouble.

[Sidenote: How Far a Horse Should Travel]

In the mountains and on grass-feed twenty miles a day is big travel. If
you push more than that you are living beyond your income. It is much
better, if you are moving every day, to confine yourself to jaunts of
from twelve to fifteen miles on an average. Then if necessity arises,
you have something to fall back on, and are able to make a forced march.

[Sidenote: Mountain Travel]

The distance may seem very short to you if you have never traveled in
the mountains; but as a