Four members of the Wild Horse Plains Back Country Horsemen gathered at the Sanders County Fairgrounds last week to provide a day of education to the U.S. Forest Service's Youth Conservation Corps.

The horseman club spent Friday with the YCC's three girls and four boys for the annual YCC Stock Packing Class, teaching them the proper way to load up a pack mule or horse, which would transport supplies to sites in the field.

"Part of the mission of back country horse is to involve youth and to pass on the heritage and working knowledge of working with stock in the woods or mountains," said John Errecart, one of the instructors for the eight-hour class. He added that some of the YCC kids might consider future careers with the Forest Service, which still uses stock in certain places. The Seeley and Nine Mile Districts in Montana both have mules and horses for field work.

Friday's instructors included Jean Nemeth of Camas Prairie, David Crawford of Ronan, Perma resident Jack Bodnar, who is also president of the horsemen club, and Sarah Cummings of Ronan, who volunteered to help, but is not a club member. Marie Errecart, John's daughter, is the YCC crew leader for the second year and helped with the instruction.

The YCC team included Kara Altmiller, the assistant crew leader, and students Brandon Zimmerman, Gage Fuhrman, and Trey Fisher, all of Thompson Falls, Molly Carter, Jocelyn Noble, Parker Flock, and Rachel Wrobleski, all of Plains. The only "repeat offender," as John Errecart calls them, is 16-year-old Fisher, who was with the YCC last year. Errecart said he was amazed at how much Fisher remembered from a one-day class a year ago. Natalee Deschamps was the only YCC member that couldn't make the class.

This is the third time for the YCC to get a stock packing class, but only the second time it's been provided by the Wild Horse Plains Back Country Horsemen, which will be giving the same class to a YCC group in Superior July 23.

The YCC team began this year two weeks ago and will go until Aug. 3, according to Marie Errecart. The YCC, which began 11 years ago, is an eight-week summer program for kids 15-18. Sponsored by the Forest Service, it is an introduction of the agency's services and occupations. The YCC members get paid and do a variety of jobs, such as trail cleaning, bridge restoration, fence building, and fish counting. This year the group will be getting two of the Forest Service's fire lookouts ready for summer season.

One day of the week is normally reserved for education, such as the Stock Packing Class, which is a mixture of lecture and hands-on training. John Errecart, a 35-year veteran with the Forest Service, gave the kids a basic horse/mule safety lesson, such as approaching the stock animal, moving around it and how to avoid being kicked. Crawford gave a leave-no-trace-behind when camping lecture and showed the group that even a campfire can be done without leaving a record that they were there by placing the fire on top of a Forest Service fire shelter. He also taught the kids five different knots they could use during packing.

Bodnar, who for many years was a hunting guide in Canada and Montana, presented a lecture on the different types of saddles and showed the group how to convert a riding saddle into a packing one. He also gave a history of the saddle.

"They're really engaged with this and they're having fun and it's educational," said Marie Errecart, who became one of the newest members of the Plains horsemen club last week, bringing the total membership to 28.

This was the first time that a farrier was brought in to give a lecture on shoeing a stock animal. Cary Andrews of Trout Creek, one of a handful of farriers in Sanders County, gave a 45-minute class and shoed the front feet of "Bullet," Errecart's 18-year-old mule, which has done more than 200 packing trips in the three years that Errecart has owned him.

Andrews, who's been a farrier for 38 years, showed the kids the different horseshoe sizes and how he has to manually shape shoes for mules. He showed them some of the custom made tools he's designed for his work, which often takes him to Missoula and Kalispell. The 15-year-old Flocker thought the horseshoeing segment was the best part of the seminar.

The kids practiced tying the animal's halter to rails and stock trailers and learned how to put a halter on the two mules and two horses there. They also learned the proper grooming of a horse or mule and how to load a stock animal. John Errecart said the load shouldn't be more than 10-20 percent of the animal's weight. They practiced tying manties (a large canvas type tarps that cover a cargo load) and saddling the stock and they had to properly load the stock. Nemeth said it's important to have the load balanced on each side of the animal, to have it centered, and to have the load on tight.

Ed Moreth

A WALK IN THE PARK – Youth Conservation Corps member Rachel Wrobleski walks "Hummer" around to see if the load is balanced and tight.

"It's important to keep the class interactive and hand-on," said John Errecart, who felt the class went well and would like to conduct it again next year.