Re: MtMan-List: Cruppers & Breeching

[John Kramer <kramer@kramerize.com>]

I am resending this message of last night as by the time it got back to me
most of it was missing.  JTK

>From Random House Unabridged

breech·ing, n. 
1.	the part of a harness that passes around the haunches of a horse.
 [1505–15; BREECH + -ING1]

crup·per, n. 
1.	a leather strap fastened to the saddle of a harness and looping under
the tail of a horse to prevent the harness from slipping forward.
 [1250–1300; ME cro(u)per, var. of cruper ]


The current argument about breeching and cruppers is about something so
common it failed to receive much mention.  If one has spent much time in
the mountains with pack animals, trying to make miles, they soon learned
it’s hard to have too many straps holding your saddle on the animal.

If your saddle is moving around, has a tiny lump under it, or is binding on
the animals back, and you don’t soon fix it, it can sore him up so much he
becomes unusable for days, weeks, months or even forever.  It didn’t take a
rocket scientist to figure out a strap around the horses ass helped keep
the saddle in place, particularly on steep slopes.  

It did not have to be an officially manufactured piece of goods.  Breeching
can be quickly rigged from any convenient strap of suitable: cloth, leather
or rawhide, twisted or woven plant fiber or hair; as can be cruppers,
breast bands or even additional girth straps.   Cruppers may have been a
little more common simply because they require less material in
construction — sometimes a consideration.  Dandy’s might prefer the look of
a crupper on their riding saddle.

Some animals don’t take well to cruppers, tend to treat it like a
"ring-tail" from a lead rope, and blow up.  Some don’t like breeching much