What does it mean to ask how much weight a horse can carry? Technically, you could probably put twice the healthy amount of weight on your horse and it would still manage - for a while. The problem is that there is a difference between what is possible and what is good for a horse. If you push your horse beyond what is good for it very often, your horse will pay the price later in life with increased problems with joints or general over-all health. ​It is important to limit your activities to only what is good for the horse, even if you can't see the effect of a bad choice immediately.
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How many horses do i need?

Many of us are drawn to the idea of doing a packing trip with just ourselves and one horse. Having a second horse alone feels more complicated. Is it really necessary to have a second horse along to carry our gear, or can my horse carry me and our gear both?
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It depends.

​It depends, in fact, on a number of things.
  • How much do you and your tack weight?
  • How big is your horse? (How much does she weigh?)
  • What kind of terrain (and speeds) are you planning on covering?
  • Is your horse in good shape?
  • How long is your trip going to be? (The biggest variable with long trips is how much food you need to carry. Food adds weight fast.)
  • Do you need to bring food or water for your horse or are you sure you can find all you need along the way?
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How Much Weight Can One Horse Carry?

As a general rule of thumb, a horse can comfortably carry 20% of its body weight without harm. Some breeds or individual horses can carry more than that, some less, but 20% is a good starting point. this means that if your horse weighs 1000 lbs, it an comfortably carry 200 lbs. (This amount must include you and your saddle.)

There are a number of things which can effect  this, however. 
  • A horse that is in good shape can carry more weight without harm than a horse that hasn't built up its muscles at all. A horse in poor shape may not be able to carry the full 20%, and some horses in top shape may be okay with more.
  • Lots of steep climbs  up and down are harder on a horse than a flat or more gradual trail. If the trail is particularly steep or severe this may cut down on the weight your horse can safely carry. 
  • If you want to go faster than a walk your horse may not be able to carry as much weight as if she is kept at a slower pace.
  • A trip that is short or has lots of rest days will allow you to push your horse a bit more without harming her than a long trip with constant hard work.
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So, Do I need a Pack Horse?

200 lbs as a basic limit is a problem for me, as my saddle and I together weight that much with no additional gear at all. Rocky Mountain Horses tend to be able to carry a bit more weight than most other breeds, but not enough to cover everything I would need to stay out for a week or more. With absolute minimalist camping gear, and if my horse can find all her food and water on the trail, I can occasionally push things and bring only one horse - if I can keep my food to a couple pounds, maybe by forgoing hot food and leaving all the kitchen gear home and limiting my trip length to a few days max. This kind of thing will also require other sacrifices, such as forgoing the comfort of a tent and leaving some of my extra safety gear behind.
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But is it really harder to travel with two horses than with one?

Most people automatically assume it is harder to travel with two horses than one. But this is not necessarily the case. In fact, in some cases, having two horses along can make things much easier than just having one.
The Pros of Two Horses
  • Most horses are much calmer and more cooperative if they have another horse with them. The horses are much more likely to be calm when resting or grazing if they have a budy near by. When I have only one horse, there are always times when that horse gets agitated and stressed, making it harder to handle.
  • Sleeping is more comfortable if you don't have to provide a single horse with your constant company at night. Having two horses along allows me to leave the two of them together at night, shutting myself up in a tent when I sleep. With only one horse I need to be more present as company for it in the night. I have to forgo the tent and sleep in the open air or in a bivy sac so the horse can see and hear me. 
  • You have a wider choice in what trails you can go on. With only one horse you cannot carry food or water for the horse, so you have to choose only trails with adequate food and water along the way. Any trail without a sure supply of both these things is simply not an option with one horse.
  • You can carry more gear for yourself, making your trip a bit more comfortable. With a pack horse to carry your gear, you can carry a great deal more than if you need to fit everything into saddle bags on your own riding horse. Packing everything you and the horse need onto your riding horse means you have to take absolutely nothing that is not essential to your survival. Everything else must be left behind.
  • Packing all your gear on your riding horse makes it much more cumbersome and difficult to get on and off your riding horse on the trail. It can really be extremely difficult to swing your leg over the back of your saddle if it is piled high with sleeping bag, tent and sleeping pads, and balancing a bunch of gear on the front of your horse is equally difficult at times.
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The Cons of Two Horses
  • You have to be able to "pony" your pack horse off of your riding horse. Not every riding horse is trained to be okay with this and if yours isn't then it may refuse and fight with the pack horse. My horses are all trained to this and ponying isn't a problem, but the at is not the case with many horses.
  • The rope you lead the pack horse with can be a pain to hold onto, especially since you NEVER tie it to anything. To be safe, you always have to have it in your hand, able to be dropped or loosened in an emergency. If your horses aren't use to working together or you want to cut through trees instead of staying on a well defined trail, your horses can both walk around opposite sides of a tree and get themselves and their rope twisted up. This can be a real pain. I find that this is less of a problem than you would think, but still I don't much care for this aspect of having two horses. If I have the right horses with me and don't think I will run into any other horses on the trail, I can sometimes take the rope off and trust that my pack horse will follow my riding horse without it, but this is an unusual situation most people don't have with their horses.
  • Having two horses doubles the care you need to give the horses in the evenings and the work of saddling and packing up in the mornings.  Sometimes, when my energy is particularly low, I know that taking a pack horse is beyond me not because of the horse itself, but because I won't be able to handle saddling two horses up each morning. I need the simplicity of less equipment to deal with and less care to give.
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In Conclusion

The end result of all this is not one answer or the other. I sometimes take only one horse and sometimes take two. It all depends on what situation works best for any given trip.
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NOTE ON PACKING WITH MORE THAN TWO HORSES:
For longer trips, and when traveling places where you must bring all your own water and horse feed, it may be advisable to use more than one pack horse in addition to your riding horse. This is totally doable and not uncommon, however, it is not something I tend to do. Thus, I will not spend a lot of time teaching about it here.​