94 SEATS AND SADDLES. 



carry 90 kilog. 24^ miles only at a walk and on a 

 good road, if we take into consideration that some of 

 the cavalry horse's work must be done in trot and 

 gallop, and much of it on more or less difficult ground, 

 it is probable that 90 kilog. (198J English pounds) 

 would be quite sufficient load, although the average 

 marches should not exceed 15 English miles per diem, 

 because the irregular food and the exposure to the 

 weather in bivouacs more than compensates for the 

 difference of distance. 



It seems, however, to be the practice of most cavalry 

 services to put on their horses at least a third in many 

 cases even more than that proportion of the animal's 

 own weight. Strange to say, we must go to the man- 

 uals of the artillery and pioneers for the weight of the 

 cavalry soldier. An Austrian authority, Baron Smola, 

 calls the average weight of the horse 740 to 864 Eng- 

 lish pounds ; and it has always been laid down as a 

 rule by the best cavalry officers of that service that 

 200 Austrian or 246 English pounds, = 17 stone 8 lb., 

 is the maximum load admissible. This would be 

 exactly one-third of the weight of the lighter horse, 

 and about two-sevenths that of the heavier one ; so 

 that, in fact, if this rule were adhered to, it would 

 make light cavalry heavier (for the horse) than heavy 

 cavalry. But we suspect that both one and the other 

 have transgressed this limit at various times. Yery 

 recently, indeed, the Austrian light cavalry has thrown 

 away sabretaches, echabraqrfes, cruppers, pistol -hol- 

 sters, and no end of other useless lumber, to the great 



this, probably 11 to 12 st. The British infantry soldier's kit at 

 present weighs exactly 11.67 kilog., leaving 10.33 kilog., or about 

 23 lb., for arms and ammunition. 



