Military Riding. 3 1 7 



a genuine money affair, refused to be drawn to it ; Leon left 

 the Aquarium ; and Sample disappeared from my sight. In 

 this matter, I need hardly say that I had no grievance against 

 either Leon or the Sporting Life, the editor of which arranged 

 matters in the not unusual way, out of pure good nature and 

 from the natural desire to keep his paper before the public as 

 a leader of sport. 



During this autumn, at the invitation of General Sir 

 Evelyn Wood and the Committee of the Military Society, 

 I gave a lecture at Aldershot on horses for army purposes. 

 I had a large and attentive audience, and was gratified by 

 gaining the approval of General Sir Baker Russell and other 

 good men ; although I could not help feeling depressed by 

 the knowledge that no matter how clearly I might point out 

 defects in our military school system of training horses, and 

 suggest improvements, no words of mine could loosen red- 

 tape bands. Our military breaking has remained unaltered 

 for at least sixty years, and is consequently in an antiquated 

 condition. As this is not the place in which to fully discuss 

 such subjects, I may content myself with saying that the 

 great advance made in school riding and breaking on the 

 Continent during the last few years, has been due to the 

 knowledge of the movements of the horse, as investigated 

 in the first instance by Marey and completed by Muybridge. 

 This is exhaustively shown in Barroil's L'Art Equestre. 

 What was good enough for their grandfathers, appears to be 

 regarded by our military riding authorities as excellent 

 beyond the possibility of improvement. The fact is that 

 their sixty or eighty year old system is as much inferior to 

 that of Raabe or Fillis, as a ' Brown Bess ' is to the present 

 magazine rifle. I hope within the next year to bring out a 

 book on military riding and breaking ; for such a work is 

 greatly needed. Even if it be not adopted by the military 

 authorities, I am certain that it will be largely read by officers 

 in the army, among whom I have a big reading public. 



