In almost every regiment there are a number of Roman Catholics, who are, of course, free to attend their own place of worship, but the band at all times accompanies the Protestants to the service of the Church of England.
Chapter Sixteen.
Hast thou given the horse strength? Hast thou clothed his neck with thunder?
He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in his strength; he goeth on to meet the armed men.
He mocketh at fear and is not affrighted, neither turneth he back from the sword.
He saith among the trumpets, “Ha! ha!” and he smelleth the battle afar off.
My readers will probably be interested in the mode of procuring and management of troop-horses. In the first place, the horses which are purchased for the cavalry are selected of a sufficient height and strength, so as to be able to carry a man of average weight and four stone in addition, that being about the weight of a cavalry soldier’s kit and necessaries, which he must always carry with him when on a campaign or the line of march. The most favourable season for purchasing troop-horses is considered the autumn, and the commanding officers either attend the large fairs themselves, or they leave the business to a contractor, who has to supply the horses at a stated price (35 pounds for dragoons, hussars, lancers, and artillery, and 45 pounds for black horses for the Horse Guards,) subject, of course; to the inspection of the commanding officer and the professional examination of the regimental veterinary surgeon.
Except in time of war, when large drafts are required to supply the places of those killed in action, or that die of disease, exposure, and want of forage, no horses are purchased for the cavalry at a younger age than three years, and all must be perfectly unbroken, so that their instinct is untainted by any manner of training except the one uniform system in use throughout the entire service.
The trumpeters are generally mounted on grey horses, but the prevailing colours of troop-horses are bay, brown, and black. The Horse Guards (1st and 2nd Life Guards, and Horse Guards Blue, or Royal Horse Guards) are all mounted on black horses, and the 2nd North British Dragoons, or Scots Greys, are all mounted on grey horses. The most scrupulous care is of course taken of them in barracks. The veterinary surgeon is responsible as to their health, as reported to him by the troop-sergeant-major and the troop-farrier daily, the latter being more particularly required to examine each foot of every horse in his troop twice at least every week for any appearance of loose shoes, broken nails, or any change in the healthy condition of the feet. The troop-sergeant-major is supposed to be always present in the stable when the horses are fed, watered, and groomed; and he is therefore responsible for their condition, grooming, and general appearance.
Every horse, as a rule, is supposed to be shod once a month; but so great is the variety in size and formation in feet, and in the degrees of toughness and rapidity of growth of the hoof and sole of different horses, and even on different feet of the same horse and at different parts of the same shoe, that no particular pattern or form of shoe is prescribed. This is left to the skill and judgment of the farrier, to make according to the shape of the foot with which he has to deal. In this particular branch of his business he is far superior to the village blacksmith or the more pretentious shoeing-smiths in large towns, even London itself, where many veterinary farriers keep a lot of shoes by them that have been made by machinery; and, as a rule, they pare, cut down, and model the poor horse’s foot to fit their shoe, instead of making the shoe to fit the peculiar conformation of the foot. Hundreds of valuable horses used by civilians are constantly ruined by the pernicious practice of cutting the hoof and sole of the horse’s foot into a shape quite contrary to that intended by Nature, who has cast it in a mould necessary and proper to support the horse’s weight or the peculiar shape of its legs, which differ more or less in all animals, although the basis of their construction is essentially the same. All unnecessary loading of the horse’s foot with iron is carefully avoided; and if any farrier is caught in the reprehensible practice of applying a red-hot shoe to the foot, he is very severely dealt with.