There is another thing about collars, which, in my opinion, is very important.  When you are pursuing a journey with teams of mules, where hay and grain are scarce, the animals will naturally become poor, and their necks get thin and small.  If once the collar becomes too large, and you have no way of exchanging it for a smaller one, of course you must do the next best thing you can.  Now, first take the collar off the animal, lay it on a level, and cut about one inch out of the centre.  When you have done this, try it on the animal again; and if it still continues too large take a little more from each side of the centre until you get it right.  In this way you can effect the remedy you need.

In performing a long journey, the animals will, if driven hard, soon show you where the collar ought to be cut, They generally get sore on the outer part of the shoulder, and this on account of the muscle wasting away.  Teamsters on the plains and in the Western Territories cut all the collars when starting on a trip.  It takes less time afterward to fit them to the teams, and to harness and unharness.

When you find out where the collar has injured the shoulder, cut it and take out enough of the stuffing to prevent the leather from touching the sore.  In this way the animal will soon get sound-shouldered again.  Let the part of the leather you cut hang loose, so that when you take the stuffing out you may put it back and prevent any more than is actually necessary from coming out.

See that your hames fit well, for they are a matter of great importance in a mule’s drawing.  Unless your hames fit your collar well, you are sure to have trouble with your harness, and your mule will work badly.  Some persons think, because a mule can be accustomed to work with almost any thing for a harness, that money is saved in letting him do it.  This is a great mistake.  You serve the best economy when you harness him well and make his working comfortable.  Indeed, a mule can do more work with a bad-fitting collar and harness than a man can walk with a bad-fitting boot.  Try your hames on, and draw them tight enough at the top of the mule’s neck, so that they will not work or roll round.  They should be tight enough to fit well without pinching the neck or shoulder, and in fine, fit as neatly as a man’s shirt-collar.

Do not get the bulge part of your collar down too low.  If you do, you interfere with the machinery that propels the mule’s fore legs.  Again, if you raise it too high, you at once interfere with his wind.  There is an exact place for the bulge of the collar, and it is on the point of the mule’s shoulder.  Some persons use a pad made of sheepskin on the toe of the collar.  Take it off, for it does no good, and get a piece of thick leather, free from wrinkles, ten or twelve inches long and seven wide; slit it crosswise an inch or so from each end, leaving about an inch in the centre.  Fit this in, in place of the pad of sheepskin, and you will have a cheaper, more durable, and cooler neck-gear for the animal.  You cannot keep a mule’s neck in good condition with heating and quilted pads.  The same is true of padded saddles.  I have perhaps ridden as much as any other man in the service, of my age, and yet I never could keep a horse’s back in good condition with a padded saddle when I rode over twenty-five or thirty miles a day.