246 METHOD OF HORSEMANSHIP. 



allowed by government for horses of re 

 mount, causes few horses of good shape to 

 be met with in the army, and it is with such 

 only that education is easy. The officers 

 themselves, mounted upon a very com 

 mon sort of horses, strive in vain to render 

 them docile and agreeable. After two or 

 three years of fatiguing exercise, they end 

 by gaining a mechanical obedience, but the 

 same resistances and the same faults of con 

 struction, are perpetually recurring. Dis 

 gusted by difficulties that appear insur 

 mountable, they trouble themselves no more 

 about horses and horsemanship than the 

 demands of the service actually require. 



Yet it is indispensable that a cavalry 

 officer be always master of his horse, so 

 much so as to be able, so to say, to com 

 municate his own thoughts to him : the uni 

 formity of manoeuvres, the necessities of 

 command, the perils of the battle-field, all 



