Our Cavalry

by Michael Frederic Rimington

CHAPTER XX
THE TRAINING OF THE MAN

1. That soldiers should make it their function to exert themselves to the utmost of their loyalty and patriotism.

2. That they should strictly observe decorum.

3. That they should prize courage and bravery.

4. That they should treasure faith and confidence.

5. That they should practise frugality.

(Order issued by the Emperor of Japan in 1882.)

The standard of proficiency in cavalry work to which we wish to attain is a very high one; our men must, in the first place, be taught—

(A) To ride well.

(B) To be able to look after their horses.

(C) Rifle-shooting and fire discipline.

(D) The use of at least one personal weapon, when mounted, with good effect.

(E) Individuality, and to use their brains.

(F) Bodily and muscular development.

(A) Riding

There is no doubt that our methods of teaching riding have greatly improved of late years.[99] The recruit is not made afraid of his horse, and of his work in the riding-school, as he often was under the old régime. From the day he joins, no opportunity should be lost of teaching the recruit that amongst his first duties is to love, honour, and have a pride in his horse. He certainly will not recognize this duty, if, as under the old “cast-iron” system, his horse becomes the means of applying an unpleasant discipline to him.

Further, he is now taught to ride in the open, and over a natural country in many cases, picking his own line. In fact he is taught campaign riding, rather than as formerly the elements of haute école; the latter plan was by no means unsuitable if the man had the previous knowledge of riding which many men, brought up in the country, joined with forty or fifty years ago.

(B) Soldier’s Care of Horses

Of all instructions to be given to the young soldier the most difficult is that in campaigning horse-management.

It should be explained that the care of his own horse in a campaign is quite a different matter in the cavalry from what it is in the artillery; in the latter the horses are always under the master’s eye in the first place, and in the second they are kept at a uniform pace, whereas in the cavalry men are detached here and there, and it is only by the individual’s care of his mount that the latter can win through a campaign. In fact the difference is as great as if, instead of carrying on his business under one roof, Mr. Whiteley had to send out all his young men and women in troops and sections and as individuals to effect sales. It would certainly lead to a very great diminution of profits, and just as in any great business the profits are effected by small and seemingly petty economies, so in a regiment it is the small economies of horse-flesh which mount up to a great sum in a month or so of campaigning. It is the regiment or squadron, in which, from the start, the man has been taught always to dismount at every opportunity, always to off-saddle and massage his horse’s back when a spare quarter of an hour affords him time to do so, always to give his horse a chance to nibble the short grass, or drink a few go-downs of water, always to report without fail a loose clinch or a swelling on the back, even if the latter is only the size of a shilling, that will constantly show a good return of sound horses. A bad system of horse-management will in a week incapacitate as many horses from work as will a general engagement.