62 SEATS AND SADDLES. 



outpost duty never unsaddles, therefore it can suffer no 

 loss of time on account of the blanket ; and cavalry in 

 camp or bivouac is, or at least should be, always covered 

 by outposts, and is therefore scarcely liable to surprise, 

 and two or three minutes can make no possible differ- 

 ence where it is a question of preserving the efficiency 

 of the horses for weeks, months, and years. But the 

 superior officers are impatient, their personal credit is 

 involved in the turning out rapidly : ay, that's it. Let 

 the blankets be properly folded at daybreak regularly; 

 and let the horses be saddled too with loose girths, 

 whether you know if you are to turn out or not, and 

 there is an end of the blanket difficulty and of many 

 others too. 



With regard to the crupper. If your saddle fit pro- 

 perly, and if you sit in the proper way, you don't need 

 a crupper. If neither of these " ifs " be a verity, then 

 the crupper may prevent the saddle running forward, 

 but will also wound the steed's tail, or set it a-kicking, 

 especially if a mare perhaps, under favourable circum- 

 stances, both together ; in either case you must take off 

 the crupper, and what then? It is better to begin 

 voluntarily with a well-fitting saddle and a good seat, 

 than be kicked into it ; and therefore the cavalry crup- 

 per is an absurdity which every one else in the world 

 has thrown away ages ago ; and the Austrian, Bavarian, 

 and, we believe, many other German cavalries, discarded 

 some five or six years since. 



The breastplate might perhaps, in most cases, be 

 dispensed with ; but in others it is useful in keeping 

 the girths in their place ; besides that, it gives a point 

 of attachment for some of the pack, and is indubitably 



