214 HUMANE HORSE-TRAINING 



mare section. How many other blunders were made 

 through similar presumptions as these ? 



Whilst my services were still ignored as a horseman, 

 I saw city clerks, waiters and pianoforte-makers acting 

 as shoeing-smiths and roughriders, but I was generally 

 to be found on fatigue. Once I was commissioned to 

 become a " red-cap " a calling I strongly objected to. 

 The officers I came in contact with were a great scream. 

 Most of them were strangers to the animal called " the 

 horse/' I once heard a major ask the shoeing-smith 

 to " pick the beastly brute's paw up/' as he thought 

 there was something in the shoe (not the foot !). 



My most exasperating experience was when I asked 

 for a responsible position with the horses, for I could 

 see how the poor things were being neglected for the 

 want of a competent organiser. I was promptly told 

 off by a captain, who said, " Whatever do you know 

 about horses ? " and questioned me with, " Where is 

 the horse's wind ? What is the most important thing 

 about the horse ? " questions I could not very well 

 answer politely to a superior officer. 



I well recollect how in November, 1914, somewhere 

 in France, how I selected a beautiful chestnut gelding 

 from about two hundred remounts. He was very 

 green, but the correct type of middle-weight hunter. I 



