This section is from the book "The Book Of Camp-Lore And Woodcraft", by Dan Beard. Also available from Amazon: The Book of Camp-Lore and Woodcraft.
One must use Western ways; remember the horses were educated in the West if you were not, but it is not necessary to use the cruel, old jaw-breaking Spanish bits with a ring on them. I have one, but it only hangs on the studio wall as a souvenir and a curious object of torture. But don't try a straight bit on a Western horse; he may spit it out and laugh at you; use the modern Western bits, saddles, and cinch and you will not go far wrong. Of course
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.
 
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