XLI 



THE French cavalryman rides well, as all mounted men 

 serving a long enlistment do. In Algeria he interests us 

 because of his horse. His saddle is much like our old-fash- 

 ioned artillery pattern ; his equipments vary little from 

 the usual. But he has some objectionable ways. In or- 

 der to make his horse walk fast, which he accomplishes 

 well enough, he is, like his congener in France, continually 

 drubbing his flanks with his heels. This habit tends to 

 make him grip too much with the calf of the leg, and to 

 turn out his toes in an ungainly fashion. A man ought to 

 ride close and be ready to grip with all the legs he has 

 got ; but one does not like to see the heels constantly held 

 too close. The leg, from the knee down, should be nearly 

 or quite perpendicular in fact, naturally pendent a habit 

 which will keep the feet where they properly belong. One 

 finds lamentably unmilitary riding among soldiers in this 

 generation : the habit is marked, even in Berlin or Paris, 

 where a cuirassier or a Uhlan is often seen trotting along, 

 trying to rise and leaning forward for the purpose, when 

 his stirrups are too long to enable him to do so otherwise 

 than with an awkward bump. You never see one of our 

 cavalrymen do this. After observing modern army-riding 

 in most of the countries of the accessible world, I am in- 

 clined to j>ref er a thoroughly good West Point seat to any ; 

 not the tongs-on-the-wall seat which sometimes obtains, 

 but that which most nearly approaches the natural in our 

 usual army-saddle. And be it noted that even the Briton 



