SADDLING
To saddle ours, using our user-friendly equipment:
1. Take the lexan-aluminum packframe, snap on the pad and all rigging
as shown. (by 'rigging' we mean all the straps that hold it in place
on the llama: a chest strap, a crupper or breeching that goes in the back,
and two cinch straps which pass under the belly.) Each set of rigging
will be adjusted to the right size for one of the llamas on the trip and
marked; taking the time to check that the sets go together and get on the
right animal will save you trouble.
2. Tie the llama short to some tree or post. Most of ours, most
days, don't need this, but you can't depend on all of the llamas to stand
still all of the time, especially if their wool gets stuck in the attchments.
brush off any pine needles or deris that has accumulated on the saddling
area. Packsaddles can be put on from the right or left sides, the
llamas don't care.
3. Spreading the springy bows, place over the llama's back behind the
shoulder blades. (To be sure you know where these are, place your
hand about a foot back from the chest about halfway up the torso and get
him to take a step. You will feel the scapula bone move. Keep
the saddle bow behind that spot, it'll make him sore. The pad is OK here.)
You don't want it so far back that most of the weight is on the kidneys.
To make this easy for our customers, we clip the wool in the right spot.
4. Now reach underneath the llama for the front cinch strap.
Make sure that they are not crossed and that the padded area is centered
under the llama. Now bring it up and slip it through the roller buckle.
You want the saddle to be tight enough that it will not slide around, but
not to restrict breathing or cause discomfort. Tighten the cinches
to about the same tension you would want on your boot laces.
Do the same for the second cinch strap.
5. Next, bring the chest strap across the front and snap it to the
lower lash point on the opposite side. Presumably, this is the correct
strap and has been pre-set for this llama. If it is too loose or
too tight, adjust it evenly by the buckles on both sides. Clip
the center ring to the collar to prevent sagging.
6. Last comes the breeching, which is not the llama's favorite part.
Using the supplied cleaners, oil the round leather part which goes
under the tail. Snap it to both sides first, then lift the tail and
slip the strap underneath. Adjust so that the pads rest against the
pelvic bones and the crupper is centered under the tail.
7. Check the saddle to make sure that it is centered, secure, and not
too loose or too tight (remember the boot laces). Often there
are 'paths' in the llama's wool that show where the straps should go.
8. Have a helper stand on one side with one pannier while you
are ready with the other. Place both loads on at nearly the same
time, trying not to let one weight hang unbalanced as it may drag the saddle
to that side.
about our saddles
We have custom-designed saddles for our llamas since we started packing
with our first in 1982. At that time, there was no llama packsaddle
available. We started with an awful padded leather contraption with
a single nylon webbing cinch and fore-and-aft D-rings for tying on the
load. From this we went through a variety of home-made, new and used
varieties as they became available: soft packs, crossbucks, injection molded
re-worked saddle-trees, oak-and-brass slatted heavyweights, adjustable
steel-tubing affairs, and the like. We fastened them on with single
cinches, double cinches, chest straps, breeching, cruppers, with various
straps to hold all the latter where they were supposed to be and keep them
from sliding to inconvenient, painful or non-functional positions on the
llama's anatomy.
the problem
Almost all of the systems were fine for short dayhikes on easy trails,
once you got the hang of how they fastened on. But when novices had
to get them on correctly, or the llama you were packing wasn't the same
size and shape as the one the manufacturer had used, the animals got saddle
sores from the ill- fitting equipment, which didn't add to their enjoyment
of the mountains. Without horizontal rigging, every single
saddle we tried slid around when the terrain got difficult, with steep
ups and downs, or half-melted snowbanks the llamas could fall into without
notice; or when cross country rockhopping and bush-whacking was called
for; or when the load was a single overstuffed frame backpack belonging
to a hiker with heat exhaustion we met on the way out --- well, we
found that the saddles we had could use a lot of improvement. What
we needed was:
1. tack and rigging adjustable to fit a range of llamas without binding,
chafing or slipping;
2. a saddle that would stay in place uphill and down, through jumps,
twists, and things knocking on the load;
3. something that a relatively inexperienced person couldn't miss gettng
on in the correct position
4. fastenings that worked quickly, easily, didn't catch wool,
and gave leverage where needed;
4. attachments which could manage bulky soft panniers, rigid boxes,
and posts / shovels for trail work; and
5. a unit that was light, useful in camp, weatherproof, and could withstand
reasonable wear-and-tear.
So we set out to make it ourselves (we wish we could add 'ease of manufacture
and inexpensive components' but you can't have everything.)
the frame
Our current version has a covered foam pad which fastens to the saddle
to hold it securely in place during use, but is detachable for sitting
on when in camp. (Put 2 together to make a 3/4 sleeping pad.)
Front and back caliper-shaped polycarbonate 'bows' give the saddle the
stiffness of a frame while retaining some of the flexibility of a soft
pack. Each 2' wide strip of polycarbonate has to be custom-molded
and pre-drilled (a difficult and expensive process), then the tops are
bolted together with steel loops to which loads may be snapped, tied, bungeed,
or over which pannier straps can be cinched, depending on what is being
loaded.
cinches
At the bottom of each bow on both sides are large buckles for the two
cinches. We are currently using belt-grade latigo leather cinches
with felt pads connected at the bottom. To make cinching up even
simpler, the buckles are the roller-type for good leverage and the pad
extends below the buckle so that the wool cannot get wrapped in the buckle
when tightening.
chest strap
The two bows are spaced 14' apart (narrow enough to keep the load off
the llama's shoulder blades) by two inch-and-a-half aluminum crossbars,
each terminating in fore-and-aft D-rings. The upper set of rings
are extra lash-points for the load, while the lower set of rings are used
to snap on the horizontal rigging. We use an adjustable padded chest strap
with a center ring which can be clipped to the collar to prevent sagging.
With this reinforcement, you can add a small chest pack for holding loads
under 5 lbs., like a water bottle.
breeching/crupper
In the rear, we use a draft-horse-sized crupper with conway buckle
adjustments, which on a llama opens out to make a very nice semi-breeching.
We thread the strap through a pad on each side which puts the pressure
against the pelvic bone where it does not hamper hind-leg motion; this
also serves to keep the adjusting buckles from rubbing. The inch-thick
stitched leather roll is stuffed into a U-shape shaped and tends to ride
right under the root of the tail, which our llamas are now used to and
comfortable with. (Warning: the llama won't like it the first time
--- they don't like you messing around that close to their testicles.)
Sometimes if a loose crupper tends to sag too low when it gets loose on
the uphills we will put a strap over the back snapped to the adjusting
buckles; clipping a 'path' in the wool also helps keep straps in place.