Your riding-bridle you will make of an ordinary
halter by riveting two snaps to the lower part of the
head-piece just above the corners of the horse's mouth.
These are snapped into the rings of the bit. At night
you unsnap the bit, remove it and the reins, and leave
the halter part on the horse. Each animal, riding and
packing, has furthermore a short lead-rope attached
always to his halter-ring.

Of pack-saddles the ordinary sawbuck tree is by all
odds the best, provided it fits. It rarely does. If you
can adjust the wood accurately to the anatomy of the
individual horse, so that the side pieces bear evenly
and smoothly without gouging the withers or chafing
the back, you are possessed of the handiest machine
made for the purpose. Should individual fitting prove
impracticable, get an old LOW California riding-tree
and have a blacksmith bolt an upright spike on the
cantle. You can hang the loops of the kyacks or
alforjas--the sacks slung on either side the horse
--from the pommel and this iron spike. Whatever
the saddle chosen, it should be supplied with breast-
straps, breeching, and two good cinches.

The kyacks or alforjas just mentioned are made
either of heavy canvas, or of rawhide shaped square
and dried over boxes. After drying, the boxes are
removed, leaving the stiff rawhide like small trunks
open at the top. I prefer the canvas, for the reason
that they can be folded and packed for railroad