Is another proposition, for here you will need a pack sawbuck saddle ([Figs. 276], [277], [278] and [279]); over this saddle you can swing your two saddle bags, called alforjas ([Fig. 283]). [Fig. 284] is after Stewart Edward White's diagram, and shows how the alforjas are lashed fast to the horse's back with a latigo ([Fig. 285]). [Fig. 280] is the lash rope which the man above [Fig. 284] is using. In Chapter VII we tell how to throw the diamond hitch. [Fig. 282] shows the cowboy favorite cooking utensil, the old Dutch oven, and it is practically the same model as the one once belonging to Abraham Lincoln. A glance at the cross-section of the cover shows you how the edges are dented in to hold the hot ashes heaped on top of it when the bake oven is being used. [Fig. 281] is a sketch of two essentials for any sort of a trip: an axe and a frying pan.
Of course, one could write a whole book on horseback work, saddles and pack saddles. The truth is that one could write a whole book on any subject or any chapter in this book. But my aim is to start you off right; I believe that the way to learn to do a thing Is To Do It, and not depend upon your book knowledge. Therefore, when I write a book for you boys, I do the best I know how to make you understand what I am talking about, and to excite in your mind and heart a desire to do the things talked of; you must remember, however, that no one ever could learn to skate from a school of correspondence or a book, but one could gain a great deal of useful knowledge about anything from a useful book, knowledge that will be of great help when one is trying to do the things treated of in the book.
I can tell you with the aid of diagrams how to pack a blanket, and you can follow my diagrams and pack your blanket; but in order to ride, skate, swim or dance, you must gain the skill by practice. A book, however, can tell you the names of the part of the things.
Names of Parts of Saddle
For instance ([Fig. 272]), T is the saddle-tree; a good saddle-tree is made of five stout pieces of cottonwood which are covered with rawhide; when the rawhide shrinks it draws the pieces together more tightly and perfectly than they could be fastened by tongue and groove, glue, screws or nails; in fact, it makes one solid piece of the whole. The horn is fastened on to the tree by its branched legs, and covered with leather or braided rawhide. The shanks are covered first and then attached to the tree and the thongs are tacked to the saddle-tree, after which the bulged cover is fitted on. When a good saddle-tree is finished it is as much one piece as is the pelvis of a skeleton.
P is the pummel, A is the cantle. S is the side bar of the saddle-tree, C is a quarter strap side, B is the quarter strap cantle, E is the stirrup buckle, F is the outer strap safe, G is the cincha ring, H is the cincha cover; the cincha strap is unlettered but it connects the cincha ring with the quarter strap ring D; J is the cap or leather stirrup cover, L is the wooden stirrup, K is the horsehair cincha. [Fig. 275] is one of the saddle pads to fit under the saddle. On [Fig. 274M] is the horn, N the cantle, O the whang leather, which your saddler will call tie strings.
You will note that in [Fig. 274] there are two cinchas, and in [Fig. 272] but one. You will also note that in [Fig. 274] the skirt of your saddle seems to be double, or even triple, and the stirrup rigging comes on top of the skirt, and this is made up of the back jockey, front jockey, and side jockey or seat. Now then, you know all about horseback; there is nothing more I can tell you about the pack horse, but remember not to swell up with pride because of your vast knowledge, and try to ride an outlaw horse with an Eastern riding school bit. But acknowledge yourself a tenderfoot, a short horn, a shavetail, a Cheechako, and ask your Western friends to let you have a horse that knows all the tricks of his trade, but who has a compassionate heart for a greenhorn. There are lots of such good fellows among the Western horses, and they will treat you kindly. I know it because I have tried them, and as I said before, I make no boast of being a horseman myself. When I get astride of a Western horse I lean over and whisper in his ear, and confess to him just how green I am, and then put him on his honor to treat me white, and so far he has always done so.