2i6 THE ARMY HORSE. 



been properly fed and exercised, is sufficiently developed and 

 strong to bear the gradual work which precedes and 

 facilitates breaking. By the age of four years he could be 

 properly broken and rendered fit for military service, after a 

 few months of which work, his training is complete, and he 

 has the strength and endurance that are pre-eminently neces- 

 sary in an arm)^ horse. 



If we wish to discard routine, and to adopt a system of 

 liberal feeding and rational breaking, we will obtain a troop 

 horse which, at four and a half years, will be worth as much 

 or more than the six-\'ear old horse, after he has been 

 broken. 



Whence comes the deeply-rooted idea that a horse cannot 

 be used in the army before he is five years old ? How is it 

 that many eminent remount officers have perpetuated this 

 principle ? I suppose that, having ascertained that the five- 

 year old horses the}' procured were weak and undeveloped, 

 they concluded that it would have been impossible to work 

 them earlier. They were content with the fact, but did not 

 try to find out the cause. 



Nevertheless it has been long and repeatedly proved that a 

 three-year old horse, which has been well fed and well 

 exercised, can do ver}- hard work, and maintain a high rate 

 of speed.* 



''*■ If the objection is made that some (not many) of the animals may suffer, I 

 answer that I propose that only horses three years and six months and even 

 three years and nine months old should be broken, in which case they will have a 

 preparation of three months. Also, I would not require from them such 

 severe work as similarly bred animals which race, have to do, and which are 

 trained at two-and-a-half years old at the latest. 



Another objection it made about the great difference between the weights 

 carried by a race horse and troop horse ; but the latter is a year older than the 

 former, and his stronger build enables him to carry weight better. He is hardier, 

 he carries his full weight only on exceptional occasions, and his work is much 

 slower. If we go on gradually, as is done with race horses, we shall succeed 

 without any difficulty in developing his weight-carrying power. 



To the pure theorists who wish to wait for the complete ossification of the 



