I can heartily recommend a packing school for a week or so to get started on the right foot. Then you will learn from professionals and work with some experienced animals. They cost less than a regular commercial pack trip because the students do most of the work. I was fortunate enough to ride with Lee Rouser in 1978 and Bob Tanner's crew a short time later out of Mammoth Lakes, CA. Sawbucks and diamonds work for most anything.
I went on a private trip with friends in WY once and thought it was funny when they used a scale to balance panniers. We trotted that horse string for miles when we had good trail doing 25 miles a day in the mountains. We never had to adjust a pack oonce.
