men no little wory since the beginning 
of time. If all one had to consider was 
to fix a horse up so that he couldn’t get 
very far, the problem would be simple 
enough, but there are other things to 
think about. 
FRIEND of mine, who made a 
pack horse trip up in Alaska last 
summer, told me that he had to turn 
his horses loose as the forage was so 
scarce that they could not even get 
enough feed when unhampered by 
hobbles. In that case, a person just 
has to take a chance on catching the 
animals again. One can often help mat- 
ters, when in a country where feed is 
scarce, by camping in the mouth of a 
narrow canyon that widens out farther 
up so that horses may obtain forage. 
If camp is situated in some narrow 
space between them and their back trail 
into the country, they will have to come 
right through camp or very close to it 
to hit this trail, and when going away 
out into a new country, it is mighty 
discouraging to find that part of the 
pack string have hit the back trail for 
their. own range, and if they have a 
day’s start they will often get back 
home before they are overtaken. 
Where horse feed is abundant, a 
hobbled horse can get plenty to eat. 
However, some horses fight hobbles all 
the time. They do not seem to be able 
to adjust themselves, and when the 
hobbles have burnt them, some other 
means of holding them will have to be 
found. Before leaving the subject of 
hobbles, I have known a number of 
horses that became altogether too well 
acquainted with them. So much so, in 
fact, that they would cover twelve or 
fifteen miles during the night and we 
would have to spend half of the next 
day in hunting for them, and I have also 
known them to jump pasture fences 
when hobbled. The best thing to do 
with a horse of this kind is to trade 
him off (to some one whom you don’t 
like) or shoot him, otherwise you'll 
spend much valuable time hunting 
horses, 
In fairly open country where feed is 
plentiful, “The Heavenly Circle,” as it 
was called by the old-timer who taught 
me how to use it, is about the best 
method to hold a horse, and also keep 
his legs from being burnt with a pair 
of hobbles. Judgment should be used 
in placing the horses in this circle, for 
one would not want to place four or 
five quiet horses with one restless one, 
as he would keep the rest of them from 
feeding until he became accustomed to 
the new order of things. 
With unruly and restless horses, it 
is a good plan just to put two of them 
together, and after several hours of 
circling around they will become pretty 
tame and settle down to real feeding. 
To fix a pair of horses up in this way, 
put a halter on both of them and then 
tie one’s head to the other’s tail. Do 
this with both of them, allowing them 
just enough rope so that they can get 
their heads to the ground comfortably, 
but not so much that they can step over 
the rope. About two feet of rope or a 
little less is right, depending on the 
height of the horse. In making a large 
circle, just do the same thing, head and 
tail a whole string, and then tie the 
leader’s head to the tail of the end 
horse. Some of us take turns in look- 
ing after the stock to see that it does 
not stray too far during the night, and 
at the ranch we have a night herder, 
often called “Night Hawk,” who brings 
the horses in from the hills in the morn- 
ing. This keeps the stock from stray- 
.ing away and we usually have the 
horses at the ranch when we want them 
in the morning. But to get back to our 
camp on Taylor’s Fork. 
Qe TOM did not want any help 
around the kitchen, so the rest of 
us took care of our horses, chopped 
wood and sat around chinning with Old 
Tom while he was getting supper. Tom 
kept a diary during the winter and it 
was nailed on the cupboard door. Some 
of it made very interesting reading. At 
the call of “come and get it,” we did 
not have far to travel. After supper 
was over and the usual number of yarns 
were spun, we trailed off to our blankets 
and were up at the first sign of day- 
light, for we wanted to get to Lost 
Lake, in the heart of the Peaks, and 
as there was much interesting country 
to go through, we wanted to get an 
early start. 
N packing our new horses on this 
morning, they were not quite as hard 
to manage as they had been the day 
before, so soon after breakfast we 
were under way and our little outfit 
made a pretty sight as it crossed the 
small grass covered pockets and wound 
its way up the trail leading to the 
higher snow covered peaks, which were 
now catching the rays of the sun. 
We had not gone very far when some | 
one saw a coyote and several of the 
boys droped off of their horses to shoot 
it. When they started shooting, one of 
the new pack horses we were leading, 
pulled away and started toward the 
creek, bucking at every jump. I yelled 
“whoa,” and just about that time he 
struck a patch of mud and slid along 
and fell on his face. He was so scared 
he just laid there and we went down, 
thinking he had broken a leg, but we 
soon had him up and going, and during 
the rest of the trip we never had an- 
other bit of trouble with that horse. I 
believe the horse actually thought that 
I threw him, for I yelled at him just 
at the psychological moment and _ it 
seemed to make an impression on him. 
After skinning our coyote we again 
took up our trail and were soon on the 
top of Shedhorn Mountain. This is a 
long ridge covered with a very luxuri- 
ant growth of grass and wild flowers, 
and along the trail we followed the 
country was one vast flower garden. 
This mountain got its name from the 
number of elk antlers that could be 
found on it, and it used to be a great 
hang-out for bull elk during the spring 
of the year when they were shedding 
their antlers. They like a fairly open 
running place at this time, and the 
(Continued on page 384) 

836 
The line-up, about to start for the mountains. 
