VHl PREFACE. 



physical drill, mounted and dismounted, are by degrees deve- 

 loped and hardened; the height and weight of the recruit 

 are added to, and his chest measurement greatly increased. 

 Great stress is laid on the necessity of avoiding any such 

 rough forcing treatment as is likely to create nervousness 

 or beget want of confidence. The introductory lessons are 

 short, and only the quietest and most sedate horses, animals 

 thoroughly broken to their work, are the novice's first 

 mounts. The result of this carefully thought-out and excel- 

 lent system is that our men are well down in their saddles 

 in an easy, natural, and strong position, understand the 

 different " aids," and can use their weapons with good 

 effect. The seat of the trooper is now a near approach 

 to what is understood by "the hunting seat," a combination 

 of ease and flexibility, in which, as aptly described by Sir 

 Francis B. Head, Bart, " the knees form the pivot, or rather 

 hinge, the legs beneath them the grasp, while the thighs^ 

 like the pastern of a horse, enable the body to rise and 

 fall as lightly as a carriage on its springs." Our gallant 

 Six Hundred, who perpetrated that magnificent folly the 

 death-ride of Balaclava, with their upright balance "fork" 

 seats, would, with all their devoted heroism, have found it 

 impossible to go in and out of a road in line^ negociating 

 the stiff fences on either side, without drawing rein or 

 without emptying a saddle. And yet this feat was per- 

 formed by one of our regiments during last autumn 

 manoeuvres without the slightest hesitation, though this 

 '• double event" would have sent many a so-called hunting 

 man skirtin? round bv " shufiler's bottom." 



