Manual for Noncommissioned Officers and Privates of Cavalry of the Army / of the United States 1917. To be also used by Engineer Companies (Mounted) for Cavalry Instruction and Training

by United States. War Department

36. As the instruction progresses, the recruits will be grouped according to proficiency, in order that all may advance as rapidly as their abilities permit. Those who lack aptitude and quickness will be separated from the others and placed under experienced drillmasters.

37. The individual dismounted instruction of the recruit is habitually given by experienced noncommissioned officers, especially selected for that purpose. All such instruction is under the careful personal supervision of a commissioned officer, and in the corresponding mounted instruction it is desirable that the actual instructor be a commissioned officer when this is practicable. All lieutenants will be required to instruct recruits in person sufficiently to acquire skill in such work.

When recruits, upon their arrival at a station, are assigned to their respective troops for training, the captains prescribe and supervise the instruction.

38. The instructor will always maintain a military bearing and by a quiet, firm demeanor, set a proper example to his men. A calm and even temper is indispensable. Unnecessarily loud commands and prolonged explanations are to be avoided.

As the recruits become somewhat proficient in the school of the trooper, the officer superintending the instruction may call upon them in turn to drill the squad in his presence and to correct any errors that may be observed. This will increase their interest, hasten their instruction, and facilitate judgment upon their fitness for the duties of noncommissioned officers.

39. A carefully thought out program of instruction, prepared in advance and based upon the probable time and facilities for instruction that the case in question may present, is essential to economy of time and effort and to systematic, thorough instruction.

40. The preliminary individual instruction, dismounted and mounted, should be carried on during different drill hours of the same days. This preliminary phase should include, in addition to regular drill, instruction in: The elements of discipline; the names of the various parts of the arms and equipment; the proper care of arms, equipment, and clothing; elementary instructions as to the names of those parts of the horse that are frequently referred to at drill and stable duty; grooming; a few simple rules regarding the care of the horse; personal hygiene; and other related subjects.

41. As soon as the instruction shall have advanced so far as to include the few necessary preliminary drills, collective instruction in the school of the squad will be taken up. This instruction may, like the individual instruction, properly be carried on during different hours of the same drill days, in both mounted and dismounted phases. The recruits meanwhile continue their progress in the individual instruction.

42. The progress in mounted collective instruction must be carefully regulated in accordance with the recruit's confidence and skill in the management of his mount, and must progress no faster than the recruit's horsemanship justifies; but this restriction need not affect the dismounted collective instruction, and the latter may properly be carried forward as rapidly as the state of the dismounted individual instruction will permit. By the time the recruit's instruction in equitation has progressed so as to prepare him for mounted drills at the faster gaits, he should have learned the mechanism of all the movements by executing them at a walk. His course of dismounted training should meanwhile have included not only the close-order movements of the squad but the mechanism of extended order, practice in the use of the saber, a little preparatory range practice with the rifle and pistol, and work in the nature of minor field exercises involving dismounted fire action. He should, during the same period, have learned the mechanism of passing from mounted action to dismounted action and should have acquired familiarity with all commands and signals used in the squad. The recruit will thus ordinarily be ready to enter with reasonable efficiency upon certain phases of the work in the platoon and troop before his individual mounted instruction is completed.

43. There are two kinds of commands: