124 LISKI 



the opposite to this may be said about our home army horses. 

 I feel convinced that for active service the Russian cavalry 

 are better mounted than our cavalry are at home. When we 

 come to India, the case is entirely different ; because there, 

 our men are mounted on Australasian horses, which are bred 

 chiefly for the Indian saddle horse market under conditions 

 that are far more favourable to horse development than are 

 those which are found in Russia. 



Major Peters of the Remount Department kindly informs 

 me that the number of remounts purchased during the season 

 of 1899-1900 was 99 for the Household Cavalry, 1232 for the 

 Cavalry of the line, and 1511 for the Royal Artillery, Royal 

 Engineers, and Army Service Corps ; and that these figures 

 may be taken as a fair average for the Home Establishment. 



To avoid repetition, I may briefly explain my usual method 

 of proceeding with freshly caught wild horses. If the animal 

 has been caught and haltered, as at the cadres, I have it led 

 into a riding school or other convenient enclosure ; but if it 

 has been merely driven into a kraal or other suitable place of 

 detention, I halter it in the manner described on page 82. 

 In either case, with my pupil at one end of a rope and two or 

 three stout fellows at the other extremity, I begin, for safety 

 sake, by making at the end of a rope a running loop, which I 

 place on the ground, and give the other end to an assistant to 

 hold. I then try to induce the animal to place his near fore 

 leg in the noose, and as soon as he does that, I give a signal 

 to the assistant to pull it tight. After a few plunges on the 

 part of the horse and a few harmless flourishes of the long 

 stick or whip, I get my young friend to stand while he is held 

 by the men in front and by the helper who has the leg rope 

 in his hands, and who is mainly responsible that if I go up to 

 the horse's near shoulder, my brains won't get knocked out. 

 The fun now commences in earnest. While touching and 

 gently scratching the top part of the animal's neck (the crest) 



