Camp and Trail Part 12

Hobbles are of two patterns. Both consist of heavy leather straps to buckle around either front leg and connected by two links and a swivel.

In one the strap pa.s.ses first through the ring to which the links are attached, and then to the buckle. The other buckles first, and then the end is carried through the ring. You will find the first mentioned a decided nuisance, especially on a wet or frosty morning, for the leather tends to atrophy in a certain position from which numbed fingers have more than a little difficulty in dislodging it. The latter, however, are comparatively easy to undo.

[Ill.u.s.tration:

A--Wash Leather.

B--Heavy Leather.

C--Steel Ring.

D--Buckle.

E--Swivel.

_Hobbles--Wrong (Upper) and Right Sort._]

Hobbles should be lined. I have experimented with various materials, including the much lauded sheepskin with the wool on. The latter when wet chafes as much as raw leather, and when frozen is about as valuable as a wood rasp. The best lining is a piece of soft wash leather at least two inches wider than the hobble straps.

[Sidenote: How to Attach Hobbles]

With most horses it is sufficient to strap a pair of these around the forelegs and above the fetlocks. A gentle animal can be trusted with them fastened below.

But many horses by dint of practice or plain native cussedness can hop along with hobbles nearly as fast as they could foot-free, and a lot too fast for you to catch them single handed. Such an animal is an unmitigated bother. Of course if there is good staking you can picket him out; but quite likely he is unused to the picket rope, or the feed is scant.

[Sidenote: Side Lines]

In that case it may be that side lines--which are simply hobbles by which a hind foot and a fore foot are shackled--may work. I have had pretty good success by fastening a short heavy chain to one fore leg. As long as the animal fed quietly, he was all right, but an attempt at galloping or trotting swung the chain sufficiently to rap him sharply across the s.h.i.+ns.

Very good hobbles can be made from a single strand unraveled from a large rope, doubled once to make a loop for one leg, twisted strongly, the two ends brought around the other leg and then thrust through the fibers. This is the sort used generally by cowboys. They are soft and easily carried, but soon wear out.

CHAPTER X

HORSE PACKS

[Sidenote: Generalities]

ALMOST any one can put together a comparatively well made back pack, and very slight practice will enable a beginner to load a canoe. But the packing of a horse or mule is another matter. The burden must be properly weighted, properly balanced, properly adjusted, and properly tied on. That means practice and considerable knowledge.

To the average wilderness traveler the possession of a pack saddle and canvas kyacks simplifies the problem considerably. If you were to engage in packing as a business, wherein probably you would be called on to handle packages of all shapes and sizes, however, you would be compelled to discard your kyacks in favor of a sling made of rope. And again it might very well happen that some time or another you might be called on to transport your plunder without appliances on an animal caught up from the pasture. For this reason you must further know how to hitch a pack securely to a naked horse.

In this brief resume of possibilities you can see it is necessary that you know at least three methods of throwing a lash rope--a hitch to hold your top pack and kyacks, a sling to support your boxes on the aparejos, and a hitch for the naked horse. But in addition it will be desirable to understand other hitches adapted to different exigencies of bulky top packs, k.n.o.bby kyacks and the like. One hitch might hold these all well enough, but the especial hitch is better.

[Sidenote: Pack Models]

The detailment of processes by diagram must necessarily be rather dull reading. It can be made interesting by an attempt to follow out in actual practice the hitches described. For this purpose you do not need a full-size outfit. A pair of towels folded compactly, tied together, and thrown one each side over a bit of stove wood to represent the horse makes a good pack, while a string with a bent nail for cinch hook will do as lash rope. With these you can follow out each detail.

[Sidenote: Saddling the Horse]

First of all you must be very careful to get your saddle blankets on smooth and without wrinkles. Hoist the saddle into place, then lift it slightly and loosen the blanket along the length of the backbone, so that the weight of the pack will not bind the blanket tight across the horse's back. In cinching up, be sure you know your animal; some puff themselves out so that in five minutes the cinch will hang loose. Fasten your latigo or cinch straps to the _lower_ ring. Thus you can get at it even when the pack is in place.

[Sidenote: Packing the Kyacks]

Distribute the weight carefully between the kyacks. "Heft" them again and again. The least preponderance on one side will cause a saddle to sag in that direction; that in turn will bring pressure to bear on the opposite side of the withers, and that will surely chafe to a sore.

Then you are in trouble.

When you are quite sure the kyacks weigh alike, get your companion to hang one on the pack saddle, at the same time you hook the straps of the other. If you try to do it by yourself you must leave one hanging while you pick up the other, thus running a good risk of twisting the saddle.

[Sidenote: Top Packs]

Your top pack you will build as the occasion demands. In general, try to make it as low as possible and to get your blankets on top where the pack rope "bites." The strap connecting the kyacks is then buckled. Over all you will throw the canvas tarpaulin that you use to sleep on. Tuck it in back and front to exclude dust. It is now ready for the pack rope.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _The Jam Hitch._]

[Sidenote: Jam Hitch]

1. _The Jam Hitch._--All hitches possess one thing in common--the rope pa.s.ses around the horse and through the cinch hook. The first pull is to tighten that cinch. Afterward other maneuvers are attempted. Now ordinarily the packer pulls tight his cinch, and then in the further throwing of the hitch he depends on holding his slack. It is a very difficult thing to do. With the jam hitch, however, the necessity is obviated. The beauty of it is that the rope renders freely one way--the way you are pulling--but will not give a hair the other--the direction of loosening. So you may heave up the cinch as tightly as you please, then drop the rope and go on about your packing perfectly sure that nothing is going to slip back on you.

The rope pa.s.ses once around the shank of the hook, and then through the jaw (see diagram). Be sure to get it around the shank and not the curve.

Simplicity itself; and yet I have seen very few packers who know of it.

[Sidenote: The Diamond Hitch]

2. _The Diamond Hitch._--I suppose the diamond in one form or another is more used than any other. Its merit is its adaptability to different shapes and sizes of package--in fact it is the only hitch good for aparejo packing--its great flattening power, and the fact that it rivets the pack to the horse's sides. If you are to learn but one hitch, this will be the best for you, although certain others, as I shall explain under their proper captions, are better adapted to certain circ.u.mstances.

The diamond hitch is also much discussed. I have heard more arguments over it than over the j.a.panese war or original sin.

"That thing a diamond hitch!" shrieks a son of the foothills to a son of the alkali. "Go to! Looks more like a game of cat's cradle. Now _this_ is the real way to throw a diamond."

[Sidenote: Colorado Versus Arizona]

Certain pacifically inclined individuals have attempted to quell the trouble by a differentiation of nomenclature. Thus one can throw a number of diamond hitches, provided one is catholically minded--such as the "Colorado diamond," the "Arizona diamond," and others. The attempt at peace has failed.

"Oh, yes," says the son of the alkali as he watches the attempts of the son of the foothills. "That's the _Colorado_ diamond," as one would say that is a _paste_ jewel.

The joke of it is that the results are about the same. Most of the variation consists in the manner of throwing. It is as though the discussion were whether the trigger should be pulled with the fore, middle, or both fingers. After all, the bullet would go anyway.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A downward journey]

I describe here the single diamond, as thrown in the Sierra Nevadas, and the double diamond as used by government freight packers in many parts of the Rockies. The former is a handy one-man hitch. The latter can be used by one man, but is easier with two.

[Sidenote: The Single Diamond]

Throw the pack cinch (_a_) over the top of the pack, retaining the loose end of the rope. If your horse is bad, reach under him with a stick to draw the cinch within reach of your hand until you hold it and the loose end both on the same side of the animal. Hook it through the hook (_a_, Fig. II) and bring up along the pack. Thrust the bight (_a_, Fig. III) of the loose rope under the rope (_b_); the back over and again under to form a loop. The points (_c_-_c_) at which the loose rope goes around the pack rope can be made wide apart or close together, according to the size of the diamond required (Fig. V). With a soft top-pack requiring flattening, the diamond should be large; with heavy side pack, smaller.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _THE SINGLE DIAMOND._]

Now go around to the other side of the animal. Pa.s.s the loose end (_d_, Fig. III) back, under the alforjas, forward and through the loop from below as shown by the arrows of direction in Fig. IV.

[Sidenote: The Single Diamond]