Hello,
I'm thinking about trapping on horseback next season so I'll be able to go farther away from our property. Has anyone ever done it? Any suggestions on how to carry supplies? No, I don't have saddle-bags and I'm afraid I can't afford them.
Thanks,
AuthorTrapper.

Make some saddle bags by sewing pant legs shut on old pair of jeans or find I
A way to mount two buckets on the horse. And yes I think a lot of fur had been trapped horseback.

Yep..I've done a bunch..Make sure your horse is OK with a cat on it...

Make sure your horse is OK with any type of animal or hide on it. Same goes with lure that it can smell.
Especially on a freezing misty morning.

In the true story autobiography book I'm reading about trapping in the British Columbia wilderness during the 1930's, called "Three Against the Wilderness," Eric Collier traps almost exclusively off horseback.

I use horses for spring beaver, but I take a pack horse along. It would be a lot harder if I had to tie everything on my riding horse. It would greatly limit what I could do.

As far as the spooky horse thing, if I'm breaking in a green pack horse I'll take along some poly feed bags to drop the beaver down in before loading them on the horse.

Trying to keep a balanced load with beaver takes a little doing. If you catch say a 40 lb beaver you have a weight problem. I save the carcass and all, so skinning them in the field doesn't gain you much. To deal with that balancing problem when I leave camp I put five, roughly 5 lb rocks in each pannier. Then by shuffling them from side to side you can balance the load on a pack horse to keep the saddle from turning, and also avoid messing up the horses back. Travel very far with a saddle out of balance and you will sore back a horse.
The same applies to your riding horse. If you hang a little extra weight on one side of the saddle you can off-set that some by sitting with a little extra weight in the off stirrup.
But if you have a 40 lb beaver hanging off the saddle horn on one side you can't carry enough weight in the off stirrup to counter-balance that. So you can sore back your riding horse pretty easily. You mess up ones withers and they will be out of commission for a long time. It's can be a hard wound to heal and sometimes may take a year or more before you can use them again.

About six adult beaver is max load for a pack horse, especially if you have very far to go. You can throw rocks away or add rocks or what ever you have to do to
keep the saw-buck in the center.

If you don't have access to a pack horse and you are primarily coyote trapping you could take along a couple of feed bags to hang one on each side of the horse to carry traps in. Wrap the traps individually with feed bags for padding before putting them in the carry bag. You could put them in gallon zip-locks first to keep them scent free. If you have a couple of zipper top tool bags with the loop handles on them they could be used as well. Hang one off each side from the saddle horn.

When you catch a coyote you could field skin it, leave the carcass in the field and stuff the hide in a plastic bag, then place it in a feed bag and tie it on behind the saddle.

Read a story bout a young man looking for work on ranch. Boss thought he was too young and paid him no mind. He was pesky and kept asking, one day a saddle horse laid down and no cowboy could kick, pull or pry it up. Boss told the youngster if he could get that horse up he had a job. The boy walked aways off to the barn and came back carrying a feisty barn cat. He got the job

Gary Jepsons coyote dvd and coyote/bobcat snaring dvd show horseback trapping. In the snare video he goes over using horses, feed, how many miles to cover, and how to hang the animals, etc

I used a mule of mine trapping and it was enjoyable. As others mentioned above, make sure you condition your horse/mule to the sights and smells of trapping. I thought I did a pretty good job of that until my mule reminded me that I did not introduce her to the sounds of trap chains bouncing around on her. She walked sideways a lot trying to figure out that noise. She got over it, but let me know I did NOT cover all the bases.

Whatever you miss in training your horse will let you know about it...It was still a lot of fun and worth the time...

I trapped off a Shetland pony when I was a boy. I did Not have a good setup and I was about 2 mile one way to the timber I was trapping. Each trip I made things got a little better as I made adjustments but I will say that it may have been faster to pack him and walk.

Through the 90’s I coon hunted off a mule and what the other guys said about getting them used to dead critters is spot on. It doesn’t take much but I would advise showing your mount a few dead coon or some hides of the fresh varieties.

Done it last year saddle panniers work great can carry a lot of gear keep adding to the line as you go.

Thank you, everyone, for your help!

Key words= Pack Horse