Found a good "Pack Animals" link? Let Us Know!

Jump to Section on:

DOGS
Winter & Summer Travelling with Dogs: Excerpt from: "At Home In The Wilderness" By John 
Keast Lord, 1876;  Chapter 15 - Idlers — Free Fights — Packing Dogs — The 'Travaille' 
preferable — How to make and use a Travaille — The Sleigh and Tobogan — Bone Rings 
and Toggles — The Way to Harness your Team — A long Whip desirable — Precautions 
against Rheumatism — Sure Bind Sure Find — Feeding Dogs — Sore Feet — Merry-Bells
The Use Of Dogs: Hiking Dogs, Pack Dogs. How To Pack A Doo. How To Throw The Dog 
Hitch. How To Make Dog Travois. Dog As A Beast Of Burden In Europe And Arctic America. 
HORSES
Packing Horses: How To Make A Pack Horse Of Your Own - How To Make An Aparejo - How 
To Make A Cincha - How To Make A Latigo - How-To Throw A Diamond Hitch - How To 
Throw A Squaw Hitch - How To Hitch A Horse In Open Land Without Post, Tree Or Stick Or 
Stone - Use Of Hobbles And How To Make Them - How The Travois Is Made And Used - 
Buffalo Bill And General Miles - How To Throw Down A Saddle - How To Throw A Saddle On 
A Horse - How To Mount A Horse - How To Know A Western Horse.
Packing Horses: 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.
Packing Horse Excellent PDF Manual! Horses were used to carry loads long before they 
were used to carry people. Horse packing as we know it was developed hundreds of years 
ago. Genghis Khan is believed to have first used horses as pack animals 700 years ago. 
Packing has developed to the point where it is a combination of art and science. Packers 
take pride in their animals and in their ability to pack them in a professional 
manner. The art of packing is not learned overnight, but takes many hours of study, practice 
and actual packing.
Pack Horse packing do's and don'ts from an expert
Packing Tips, horse packing tips Unfortunately, every experienced packer has lost pack 
animals, rolled a pack animal down steep hills, had pack saddles and loads slip to the side, 
had horses step off trails, been kicked and stepped on by horses, had wrecks in steep 
terrain on narrow trails, and unexpectedly met other pack strings and wildlife on narrow trails 
in steep rough terrain. 
Horse Packing Horse packing is one of those increasingly rare activities that remains largely 
unchanged from earlier times, and successfully practicing it is a deeply gratifying exercise in 
this modern age. The fact that it allows you to access some of the most remote and beautiful 
areas in the country, not surprisingly graced with some of the best fishing and hunting 
around, can very nearly be viewed as mere icing on the cake.
Horse Training: Packing Wild Game by Cherry Hill  A sensible write-in tip sheet.
MSU News -- Prepare horses for pack trips Preparing for a pack trip in the mountains 
involves more than loading a horse into a trailer and driving to a trail head, says Sandy 
Gagnon of Montana State University. Riders need to condition their horses, understand how 
much food they need in a day and find out forest regulations ahead of time. They have to be 
able to recognize a good camp site. They need to know their horses.
Horse Pannier Purchasing Guide There are many types of panniers and pannier material. 
Hopefully, this guide will explain panniers and material sufficiently to allow you to make the 
best choice for your needs.
Ultralight Horse Packing By Lee Farren: If you wish you could just saddle up Old Paint and 
trot off into the wilderness for a few days, but come up short because you don’t have an 
extra horse to handle all your gear, you’ll love ultralight horse packing. Ultralight combines 
the new generation of lightweight backpacking equipment with leave-no-trace camping and 
traditional horse keeping. The result gets you into the backcountry and keeps you there, with 
only one saddle horse per person. No extra stock, pack frames, puzzling knots or awkward 
bags of feed. Just you, your friends and your horses.
MULES
Outfitting a Mule Train. Excerpt from: "At Home In The Wilderness" By John Keast Lord, 
1876; Chapters 1 & 2 - Fitting out for a Journey — Rules to be observed in the choice of 
Pack Animals — Geldings preferable to Mares — Mules Killed by Magpies and Blowing flies
— Beware of Crupper Cuts — What a Hoof ought not to be, and what it ought to be — 
Shoeing advisable, it possible — How to examine the Eyes — Mules with Defective Vision 
dangerous to a degree — Prevalence of ' Cataract' — The way to examine the Teeth — 
Parrot-Mouthed Mules always lose condition — Never work Pack Animals thin — 'Points' of a 
good Pack Mule.
Selecting & Using Animal Packs. Excerpt from "At Home In The Wilderness" By John Keast 
Lord, 1876; Chapter 3 - Fur-Traders' System of Packing — Journey from Fort Colville to 
Fort Hope — Disadvantages of the Cross-tree Pack-saddle — Crimean Pack Saddles 
radically bad — Desirability of the 'Aparejo' — How to make an Aparejo — Its Weight — 
Evidences of Suffering — In search of Pack Saddles — The 'Rigging.'
Packing & Driving the Train. Excerpt from: "At Home In The Wilderness" By John Keast Lord, 
1876;  Chapters 11 & 12 - By John Keast Lord, 1876; Packing the Train for a start — Driving 
in — Haltering — Putting on the Aparejos and 'Saddling up' — Synching—Packing on the 
Load — The way to pack Barrels — Slinging—Roping and Covering — Throwing the Riata 
and fastening it — Our March — The Abandoned Camp — Entering the Timber — 'Stringing 
out' and Counting — Mules apt to lie down if halted — Narrow Trails—Packmaster goes 
ahead of the Bell-mare — Mountain Passes — Bridge-making' — Crossing Swamps — 
Dangerous Corners.
Knots & Hitches
The Famous Diamond Hitch ... and how to ... Make Your Own Cinch: If you have a pony, 
horse, or mule for a pack animal, it greatly facilitates the transportation of camping material, 
and furnishes you with many more conveniences, such as additional cooking utensils and 
extra clothes. All campers travelling with pack animals owe a debt of gratitude to an old 
Spanish muleteer who many, many years ago invented the Diamond Hitch.
Pack saddle  Art Hedin from Kalispell, Montana, a long time packer in the Bob 
Marshall Wilderness area, says that when packing horses and mules, it is most often a good 
idea to have a quick release knot on the pack saddle latigos.
Equipment
Equipment List for Horsepack Trips The following equipment list is a guide to help you 
prepare for horse pack trips.  More items are listed than you will actually need to give you an
idea of some of the equipment possibilities. Also, before leaving on your next trip, be sure to
review the information on minimizing the impact of pack animals on the environment.
Finding or Building your Own Pack Saddle. One of the more difficult hurdles to overcome in 
preparing for a horse trek down the BNT is outfitting yourself with a pack saddle. This note is 
intended to assist you to either find a pack saddle or to make one for yourself. It isn't an 
exhaustive examination of the subject but is the result of my research when faced with the 
desire to go trekking but having no pack saddle. I will include information that is probably 
considered obvious to experienced packers because it wasn't obvious to me when I got 
interested in packing. The information in this article is geared to the local Australian situation.

Please Read The Website Disclaimer!
Copyright 1986-2012, The Survival & Self-Reliance Studies Institute (SSRsi), All Rights Reserved
Site conceptualized, designed, created & maintained by MEG Raven
Snail Mail: SSRsi, PO Box 2572 Dillon, CO. 80435-2572