Cavalry horse

“ That the ordinary hunting man in Great Britain knows very little indeed about economizing his horse’s strength is evident from the fact that not one in twenty is ever, after a sharp gallop, seen to dismount, loosen his horse’s girth, and turn his head to the wind. Ten to one, if any one does so, it is a soldier, and one who has served in South Africa.
First of all is the question, What is the most suitable animal for cavalry work? ”

“ In the movements to extend the left of Grant’s lines at Petersburg the cavalry always blazed the way, usually preceding the infantry by a few hours. I recall a touching incident that illustrates the devotion that a cavalryman’s horse has for the man who has been its inseparable companion for months. ”

“ The dress of the native cavalry is splendid: scarlet coats, or more crimson perhaps, with blue and white striped turbans; white that of the infantry is buff with dark-blue turbans and facings. We walked through the cavalry lines [338] of horse pickets, and the horses of this regiment are exceptionally fine, either "country-bred" or "Australians." Each man is obliged to keep a grass-cutter for his horse, and a pony or mule is shared by two, which goes out in the early morning and returns to camp at night with the next day's load of grass. ”

“ Next day was passed in scouting and in gathering up horses, supposed from their fat, sleek appearance, to be fit for service, but no greater mistake was ever committed, for a Southern cavalry horse, after being entirely broken down, 194couldcould travel farther and better than the fine-looking steeds just from a Pennsylvania stable, and many a man bitterly repented him of exchanging his poor old horse for a new one, even if he got a watch to boot. ”

“ Polish light horse, with metal sunbursts gleaming on their square-topped helmets, and crimson and white pennons snapping in the wind at the points of their lances; Old Guard cavalry, with curving helmets like Roman legionaries; Mamelukes, with full red trousers, white and scarlet turbans, strange standards of horsehair surmounted by the imperial eagle, brazen stirrups singularly fashioned, and horse trappings of silver with flying crimson tassels; Horse Chasseurs of the Guard, in hussar tunics and yellow breeches, their sabretaches swinging as they rode ”

“ I saw a horse fall down in a heap, and his rider extricate himself, looking this way and that to see where the bullet had come from. I fired again and again—there was a stir among them—the little chaps on either side of me bucked up and began to let off their rifles—the cavalry began fidgeting, crowding and jostling together—more horses fell—there was a sudden turning of the horses' heads, and they all began to retire. ”

“ Each horse had a number of brass bells at his neck, and they no sooner appeared than the whole cavalry of the enemy, starting at the hideous figure and noise, fell into confusion, and, being closely pressed with violent blows of their great swords, no longer disputed the ground, but left the field on the gallop. ”

“ The lady's horse, the cavalry horse, every horse in which prancing action is esteemed a beauty, and in which utility is, to a certain degree, sacrificed to appearance, must not be too long in the arm. If he is long there, he will be proportionally short in the leg ”

“ In the eastern sunlight the tips of their lances shone like fiery stars; but no other appointments glittered about them; for unlike the gay light cavalry of France and Britain, their uniforms are generally of the most plain and dingy description. As yet they were about a mile distant, and if I would escape them, there was not a moment to be lost. I rushed to my horse, looked hastily but surely to bridle-bit, to saddle-girth, and stirrup-leather ”

“ We arrive thus at the conclusion that the horse, which one would naturally suppose to be a source of [Pg 46] immensely enhanced mobility and power, is a positive source of danger to a rifleman unless he also carries a lance or sword. ”

“ The French cavalry carbines are much heavier and longer than those in use in the English cavalry. (We had, of course, the Gras pattern in my time.) On Saturdays, besides undergoing the weekly inspection, we had to prepare a number of horses for the infantry officers. The Captains in command of infantry companies being mounted, Lieutenants and Sub-lieutenants had to be taught riding, and few of them had any idea of what riding a horse meant, their only knowledge of such animals being derived from seeing them in the streets. ”

“ With respect to the horses, it would be more difficult to render it as perfect as our Life Guards, and as to their bridles and equipments in general (except their regimentals) there is often an inequality and want of care and attention as to uniformity of appearance, but throughout all the French cavalry, the men have an excellent command over their horses. I have been at many grand reviews both in France and in England, and in the former I never saw a man thrown, whereas in the latter it has frequently occurred, either from the horse falling or other circumstances. ”

“ THE TRAINING OF THE HORSE We have only to consider the contingencies of service in the cavalry to come to a conclusion that the officer or man who begins a campaign on a well-trained horse has many chances in his favour against him who enters it riding an indifferently-trained animal ”

“ Horses.—The remarks on type, which have been made with regard to the cavalry riding horse, apply with equal force to the cavalry draught horse. Many of our English draught animals were of far too heavy a type, either for horse artillery or for cavalry transport. It is sometimes argued that a proportion of heavy horses is very useful when wagons begin to get stuck in boggy places. ”

“ I am naturally very fond of a horse, and resolved that if I went at all it should be as a cavalry-man, so I have been giving not a little of my time to horseback exercise, sabre, pistol, and carbine practice, and shall not be quite so awkward as some of the other raw recruits. ”

“ This celebrated cavalry officer appears to have carefully studied that animal's character and habits, and all the precepts he gives in his treatise on horsemanship are dictated with an amount of wisdom and humanity which has not, perhaps, been excelled since his day. The safety and comfort of that animal and his rider were ever before him, and his teaching was principally directed to make the horse particularly adapted for war, as the importance of cavalry was beginning to be perceived by the Greeks in their contests with that nation of horsemen, the Persians. ”

“ Cavalry has never forgotten its aristocratic and romantic ancestry, and is inclined to look down somewhat on the Infantry without whom battles cannot be fought, and still less won. Cavalry is to this day the premier Arm in the British and in many other Armies. In Germany the logical insight of the Hohenzollerns has long since made Infantry the senior Arm of the Service.
The word Cavalry—French Cavallerie, Italian Cavaleria—is, like Chivalry, derived from the Late193 Latin word caballus, in common use for horse when equus had become highflown. ”

“ I do not wish to lay any undue stress on horse management, though we miss the acknowledgment that the horse is a possession whose good condition is one of the supreme tests of regimental efficiency. Gunners, from the Colonel to the driver, hold it a point of honour not to blame their horses as long as there is anything else left to blame, and the Cavalry have the same high ideal. ”

“ Just as there is a use for everything, even Shoolbred’s, so there is a use for a horse with three legs. I do not say the army can do without such an animal. But he has no proper place in a cavalry regiment ”

“ The French cavalry we thought badly horsed; but their uniforms, though showy, were, like those of the infantry, comfortably large and roomy.
I have frequently remarked that firearms are of little use to the mounted soldier, and often an incumbrance to man and horse. Cavalry want only one arm—the sabre. Let the men be well mounted and at home in the saddle. It requires great knowledge in a Commander-in-chief to know when and how to use his cavalry. ”

“ The principal weapon of the cavalry in the early period was the bow, though sword and shield both occur, but were apparently not much used. It was customary for the mounted archers to be accompanied by another mounted soldier whose office it was to hold the bridle of the archer’s horse while the archer was aiming his arrow at the enemy. The attendant wears a plain tunic and an ordinary cap, while the archer has a pointed helmet, an embroidered tunic and a sword belt. Their legs and feet are bare to enable them to sit their horses firmly—the latter being without saddles. ”

“ The cavalry horses, if they came back from the wars, are ploughing. The rusty sabres stick fast in the battered old scabbards. The old saddles are shabby—and our friends take them away from us. The old buttons are tarnished, and an order forbids our wearing them. ”

“ Memories are short, and it is possible now to print a statement of this sort, which, if promulgated during the dust and heat of the war itself, when the lance and sword fell into complete and well-merited oblivion, and when mounted men on both sides were judged rigidly by their proficiency in the use of the horse and the rifle, would have excited universal derision. ”

“ As soon as he reached the covert of the woodland he dismounted, and leading his horse a little way aside from the path, fastened him by the chain of his cavalry head-stall to a tall ash-tree in the centre of a thick coppice. ”

“ The cavalry arms are the lance and sword for mounted action; horse artillery usually work with cavalry, and the arms employed by cavalry for dismounted action are the rifle, the machine gun, and the Hotchkiss rifle. Examples of the employment of cavalry in modern warfare are given throughout the "Lectures." ”

“ At first, as may be assumed, the tuition is carried out with trained horses, but, as men become advanced in the art and practice of riding, they are put on to younger horses, and it will be easily understood that, in learning himself to make the horse execute the movements, the cavalryman trains the horse to its work as well as increasing his own knowledge.
In the matter of foot drill there is not so much to learn in the cavalry as in the infantry. ”

“ Unfortunately it is hard to find concrete examples of cavalry and horse artillery action. For good horse artillery and cavalry, trained to work in conjunction, on modern ideas, have never yet been seen on any battlefield in the latter part of the nineteenth103 century. ”

“ For the purpose of strengthening the irregular cavalry, he proposed that every person who kept ten horses should be required to furnish one horseman and a horse for such a corps, and those who owned more than ten horses were to subscribe a proportionate sum towards its maintenance. ”

“ In many cavalry training-grounds can now be seen an acre of ground in which are a score or more of self-adjusting dummies of varying heights, and representing horse and foot; there is no better practice than to send half-a-dozen horsemen into this tilting ground at a sharp gallop, and let them practise for the mêlée for a minute or so.
The French cavalry lay great stress on these pointing exercises; they do not expect to turn out many real swordsmen in a squadron, but they want every man to be able to ride his horse at an enemy, and run him through. ”

“ The unequal size of the horse, and the great diversity in his strength and breed, have rendered it necessary to divide this arm into light and heavy cavalry, and a mixed class called dragoons. The heavy cavalry is commonly used in masses where force is mainly requisite; the lighter troops are used singly and in small detachments, where rapidity of movement is most desired. ”

“ Though mounted on stronger animals, the Roman cavalry could make but little impression against that of Persia and Arabia. The faculty of moving quickly, and coming down in a flying cloud of skirmishers, as well as rapid retreating and rallying, always assured the superiority of the Numidian and Parthian horse when contending against the heavy infantry and cavalry masses of the Romans. ”

“ He must be able to act on his own initiative in accordance with the orders he receives and the situation of the moment. His horse is the cavalryman’s best weapon. The soldier should prize his horse more than his own body, and thus in an emergency he will be able to rely without fail upon this weapon. It is only when the foregoing qualities have been acquired by training and experience in the field that a man can call himself a true cavalry soldier.—Japanese, Cavalry Drill Regulations, 1907, 44 (trans.) ”

“ Of late years our custom has been to train our cavalry to fight on foot, and in the present war we have reaped the fruit of this wise policy. But the instinct which must be inculcated in the horse soldier to regard his horse as his chief reliance, must always disqualify him to some extent for the rôle which our cavalry were called upon to fulfil throughout the momentous issues in the history of the war of which this chapter treats. ”

“ Their saddle and arms cannot weigh less than eighty pounds, an enormous addition to the horse's burden: they nevertheless consider themselves as light-armed troops, ridiculing the Turkish cavalry, who, they say, can take care of little else than their big boots and their cap. ”

“ We must exercise our powers of selection, and find the best method to meet the idiosyncrasies of each man and each horse, always keeping in mind the aim to be obtained. What we want are horses that can use their back muscles, especially in the gallop, with pliable necks, light on the hand, able to turn easily, and safe across country (with special reference to rat-holes, etc., not fences) , that do not refuse to quit the ranks, and are not headstrong. ”