Anyone who travels with pack horses should know how to arrange the lead rope in a manner so that it may be quickly and easily loosened, and at the same time be out of the way, so that the horse will not get his foot over it when climbing or descending steep places, which often happens when the lead rope is fastened to the pack in the usual manner. If you will take the rope and wind it loosely around the horse's neck, behind his left ear and in front of his right ear ([Figs. 198] and [199]), then tuck the end under the strands, as shown in [Fig. 198], the thing may be undone in an instant, and in the meantime the rope is out of the way where it will not bother either the man or the horse.
Practise all this on the wooden horse, then it will come natural when the time comes to handle a real horse. The manner of looping up the lead rope, just described, I learned from the explorers of the Mt. McKinley expedition, who had many occasions to test the best, as well as the worst methods of packing and arranging their duffel. There are a number of other hitches, some given by Stewart Edward White, in Outing, called the Miner's Hitch, the Lone Packer's Hitch, but possibly we have given the reader enough to start him on his way; remember for the pack horse the necessary outfit is a horse blanket, the cincha and lash rope, the sling rope, the lead rope, the manta, which is a cover for the pack, sometimes called the tarp—short for tarpaulin, and the blind, but as a rule a handkerchief is used for a blinder. The aparejo is a sort of a leather mattress which goes over the horse's back and on which the pack rests, but you will find all about that when you hit the trail with a pack train. The alforjas is a Spanish name for the saddle-bags used on a pack horse. When the reader knows how to pack his horse, knows all the Spanish names for the pack saddle and all that sort of thing, there may come a time when he will have a horse which needs to be hitched at night, and it may happen he must needs
Hitch the Horse
On some trail where there are no trees, sticks, or even stones; but if he is a good woodcrafter and plainsman, with his hunting knife he will proceed to dig as narrow and deep a hole as possible in the earth, then he will tie a knot in the end of the picket rope and drop the knot to the bottom of the hole ([Fig. 201]) (the picket rope in reality should be one-half inch rope, fifty feet long); the only way to get that knot out of the hole is to stand directly over the opening and pull the knot up perpendicularly. It will never occur to the horse to shorten the line by taking hold of it with his teeth, so that it may stand over the hole and pull up the knot, consequently the animal will be as securely hitched as if tied to a post.
Hobbles
For the front legs may be purchased at any outfitter's ([Fig. 202]), or home-made from unravelled rope ([Fig. 203]). Make a loop from a strand from a large rope and then fasten it round one leg, as in diagram; after that twist the rope to make the connections between the two loops, tie another knot to prevent the rope from untwisting, then tie the two ends around the leg of the horse ([Fig. 203]); the unravelled rope is soft and will not chafe the horse's leg.
Travois
[Figs. 204] and [205] show the famous Indian mode of packing by travois.