FIRST EXERCISE. Taking a feed and haversack rations to make a day's march and practise the noon halt.
SECOND EXERCISE. Taking vehicles or pack animals according to size of unit, to make a two days' march with a night bivouac. Instruction is needed in the use of natural wind breaks and slopes of ground, also to adapt the sweat pad, blanket, overcoat and saddle, into a dry camp regardless of the weather.
THIRD EXERCISE. After extensive practice at the home camp, in cooking without any utensils except the pots and cups for the tea or coffee, to make a night bivouac without any kitchen transport.
So far one could dispense with the camp equipment, and almost the whole kitchen; but concurrently with this training to drop needless baggage, there would be first exercises for scouting and road reports, vedettes, flankers and despatch riders.
Factors of mobility
MOBILITY. The factors for mobility may now be added up: The breeding of horses on pasture natural to the species; sheds to secure dry earth standings and a wind break; outdoor management; a weight-distributing saddle; an actual training of men and horses to rapid and sustained marching with reduced transport. With these few measures the mobility of mounted troops could be doubled.
The wings of an army
To quadruple the mobility of mounted forces one has merely to add the stock-range system of a pony herd supplying two mounts per man. In an enemy's country each horseman would ride, and lead his spare mount, changing over at halts. A march would be continuous with short halts, up to the limits of endurance for the men and horses available, and this after proper training would not be far short of one hundred miles a day. From the moment when a war of positions culminates in advance or in retreat, flying brigades or even divisions could play havoc with enemy's plans by threatening his lines of communication. The raid, as practised by the Confederate, General Morgan, in the American Civil War, is no longer healthy because there are aircraft about. Detached units cannot, as in past times, be left in the air to forage for themselves; and yet mobility of the screen and wings may prove as useful an aid to a marching army as claws are to a crab.