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[RC] Bucking & Saddles - k s swigartJ & G Ranch said: Can you imagine yourself going around with two 2x4's nailed together strapped to your back? While it is something of an exaggeration to call the frame of a back pack "two 2x4's" the concept of a rigid frame of a back pack compares quite well with a rigid tree in a saddle (and it is also something of an exaggeration to call the tree of a saddle "two 2x4's"). I certainly remember from my back packing days, that it you wanted to be able to comfortably carry sufficient weight on your back to provide food and gear for even an overnighter, damn straight you used the back pack with a rigid frame to help distribute the load and not a "day pack" (i.e. what kids use to schlepp their books to school these days....and plenty of pediatricians say that kids are ruining their backs, and other parts of their musculoskeletal syste, by doing so....because books are heavy). A frameless back pack is only good for carrying lunch :). So yeah, I can "imagine myself going around with two 2x4's nailed together strapped to my back." And I have done enough miles of hiking with even an ill-fitting back pack with a frame(one where the frame dug into...well...assorted places), and I must confess, that even an ill-fitting back pack with a frame was easier to carry a 30lb pack (this when I probably only weighed between 90 & 100 lbs myself) than trying to do it with a day pack (especially since things in the day pack, if any of them were hard, would usually shift around enough to end up digging into my back anyway :)). It is possible to enormously increase the amount of "comfortable load" by nailing two 2x4's together to provide a frame for the load, and this is as true for horses as it is true for people (or it is as true for people as it is true for horses....depending on how you want to look at it :)). kat Orange County, Calif. kat Orange County, Calif. ============================================================ And remember, an arab's fourth gait is the spook! ~ Jeanie Miller ridecamp.net information: http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/ ============================================================
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