CHAPTER IX 



SYSTEMS OF HORSE-BREAKING 



AT the cadres the following system of breaking-in young 

 horses is carried out. When these three or four 

 year olds are taken over from the remonteurs, they are 

 practically unhandled, because the only experience they have 

 had of civilisation is that of being caught with a lasso, secured 

 by a head-collar, forcibly led by its rope, and tied up in a stall. 

 The animal is lunged once or twice a day for several months 

 by means of the head-collar rope, which is held by two, three, 

 or four men as the case may require, while another man 

 chases the pupil round with a whip. The attendant soldier 

 in the stable as a rule quickly wins the confidence of his 

 charge by petting him and giving him bread and other equine 

 dainties. After the novice has gradually allowed his own 

 particular man to handle and lead him, he is put through a 

 course of lunging in small circles (voltes] in a riding school, 

 and is subsequently mounted and ridden. If the animal plays 

 up or is obstinate, the only means adopted for obtaining 

 control is by petting and humouring him, which, I need hardly 

 say, are methods that are well calculated to give a horse an 

 unduly exalted opinion of his own power, and to make him 

 resent being handled or ridden by anyone, except his own 

 particular human chum. It is therefore no wonder, that when 

 these remounts are drafted to their regiments, several of them 

 prove difficult to manage in their new surroundings. Even 



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