62 SEATS AND SADDLES. 



on the other hand, two or three minutes more may 

 insure all the horses being well saddled, provided the 

 men know how to fold their blankets, and are made to 

 do so. Two or three minutes may be, however, of 

 great importance : let us endeavour to estimate their 

 precise value. Cavalry on outpost duty never un- 

 saddle, therefore it can suffer no loss of time on 

 account of the blanket; and cavalry in camp or 

 bivouac is, or at least should be, always covered by 

 outposts, and is therefore scarcely liable to surprise, and 

 two or three minutes can make no possible difference 

 where it is a question of preserving the efficiency of the 

 horses for weeks, months, and years. But the superior 

 officers are impatient, their personal credit is involved 

 in the turning out rapidly : ay, that's it. Let the 

 blankets be properly folded at daybreak reg-ularly ; and 

 let the horses be saddled too with loose girths, whether 

 you know if you are to turn out or not, and there is an 

 end of the blanket difficulty, and of many others too. 



With regard to the crupper. If your saddle fit pro- 

 perly, and if you sit in the proper way, you don't need 

 a crupper. If neither of these " ifs" be a verity, then 

 the crupper may prevent the saddle running forward, 

 but will also wound the steed's tail, or set it a-kicking, 

 especially if a mare — perhaps, iinder favourable circum- 

 stances, both together ; in either case you must take off 

 the crupper, and what then % It is better to begin 

 voluntarily with a well-fitting saddle and a good seat, 

 than be kicked into it ; and therefore the cavalry 

 crupper is an absurdity which every one else in the 

 world has thrown away ages ago ; and which the Aus- 

 trian, Bavarian, and, we believe, many other German 

 cavalries, discarded some fifteen or sixteen years since. 



