Tip #2 Chaps, Bras, and the One Minute Club
Chaps. Safety gear for the back country. I don’t feel naked without them on but do feel under dressed when mounting if they are still hanging on a hook. There are many types, my preference happens to be bat wings. Cooler in the hot southern deserts and just all round sexier looking – in my opinion. And I can use all the help I can get. Chaps can save your legs from a wide variety of indignities, abrasions from brush or trees, stallions trying to chew on your saddle horse and munching on your leg instead, kicks can be dampened. Warmer in the cold and drier in the rain. If they match your tapaderos so much the better. Like mine do. Roughed up, scratched, stretched out of shape, and sorely abused. Like me.
I have a concern about chaps though. I often see chaps that have no break link. Mine have a little wang in front holding the two sides together unless enough force is applied to break it.
Jim demonstrating the “wang” on his chaps.
An example. We were on a ride up the in north looking for some camp meat in Stone Sheep country in the Batt Creek basin. A good mountain horse will refrain from lunging up steep and slippery slopes, but eventually even good horses will lunge. That requires the rider to lean forward – really far forward on steep talus slopes. Grabbing a handful of mane and standing on your toes helps to keep your horse from going over backward though this puts your chap strap right about where your saddle horn is. It’s an easy catch. Getting married to your saddle horn in situations like that on a lunging horse gives one thoughts of future progeny. Not only can it be very uncomfortable but also very dangerous. Fortunately, the break link on my chaps broke and I was freed from the horn. And sad to say, no camp meat on that mountain.
Bras. Be careful around them! I’ve talked with riders who wear them (I don’t) and have been hooked on the saddle horn while dismounting. Another fellow and I had to grab a lady’s legs and lift her off the horn to release her bra from the horn. I guess we could have unhooked it if it was clasped in the back, but she had a big coat on, and time can be of the essence when a wreck is pending.
The One Minute Club of BCHBC is perhaps not what you think. It’s a FUN club with a packer style initiation. At this year’s packing clinic in Tulameen the standards were set, and membership encouraged. It developed from a desire to acquaint everyone that packing horses and mules in the backcountry need not an onerous activity. It can and should be fun. The concept of getting packed up and out of camp by the ‘crack of noon’ is ok, but definitely optional! We decided to first concentrate on the last step… the pack cinch and pack rope. Throwing a hitch can be a quick and fun pleasure.
Cole Barker receiving his hard earned t-shirt from Jim
Steph Tottenham and Amelie Zunk in their coveted T-shirts.
There was a constant stream of people trying for the One Minute club membership.
The standard for membership in the One Minute Club is to throw 50′ of rope and a cinch on a loaded horse in a minute or less, as an individual. And there needs to be at least one diamond. At our clinic in Tulameen we had only one qualify, but at RV in Merritt another six joined the exclusive club and proudly wore their prized One Minute Club T shirts around camp.
So now you know about it! Interested in joining?
Photos by Sheila Sowerby
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