Balanced Travel…!

“Balanced Travel”….!, Christchurch, NZ

Packing horses for back country travel is a bit of an art form.. the saddle itself is especially designed to take a bag either side, called Panniers, or indeed pack boxes..

Before departing on any trek these need to be packed very carefully, putting the heavier objects in the bottom and in the middle of the panniers, with the lighter items pack around and above.. nothing within the panniers should rattle or bang while travel is underway as this can scare the horse..

As I mentioned, heavy items need to be low down and central as when the horse travels up or down slopes the bags become a sliding object on the horse, again this can upset some..

Each Pannier is weighed prior to travel and each must weigh almost identical to the other.. shifting some items to the other side and reweighing to gain perfect balance..

Once on the horse the rider always keeps an eye on the pack horse load as at times it can shift over one side and if not checked, has the potential to slide right over and imagine the horses reaction to this…stopping as we see any imbalance occurring we often will pick up a rock , and add this to the light side…funny, many well used station huts often have a small pile of rocks outside the hut that have been used for balance..!

We have a maximum of 60 kgs including pack saddle and harness on the smaller horses, and up to 80kg on our larger models… these are light weights, and we do this as much of our travel involves mountain passes, up and down, as well as deep rivers at times..!