136 THE BRIDLE BITS. 



CHAPTER XX. 



NOW A WORD TO THE CAVALRY MAN. 



The cavalry student; can learn by the light of his oil 

 lamp in a garret-room the theory of marching, manoeu- 

 yring and fighting a cavalry regiment witliout ever leaving 

 seen a horse, but it requires the skill and knowledge of 

 a practical man of long experience to keep cavalry effec- 

 tive in the field. This is one of the great problems in war. 

 To manoeuvre and fight cavalry we must have it, and it re- 

 quires the vigilant eye of an experienced superintending 

 official familiar with the various dispositions, tempers, 

 conditions and constitutions of horses, to properly care 

 for them and to see that his orders are obeyed by the men. 



Caring for and feeding all horses alike is a vital error, 

 especially when massed in a cavalry camp exposed to 

 every change of weather, and where the orderly sergeant 

 has the authority to detail a man on raid duty while the 

 horse is not fit to go out. Cavahy thus dwindles away. 

 Horses, like ourselves, have appetites for light and heavy 

 feeds at particular hours — one at dawn and another at 

 noon — and properly kept horses are fed accordingly. Thus 

 two horses requiring different hours for feeding, if not dif- 

 ferent food, are not fit to go together as a span. They 

 are mates but not matches, in constitution at least. If 

 they don't replenish their strengtli together, they should 

 not be made to exhaust it too-ether. 



In the absence of a commissioned veterinary surgeon to 

 a regiment, with higher authority than the captains and 

 commander over the care of the horses, tliousands died, 

 were shot or left behind on raids in our late war. We 

 did not see that West Point officers knew more or ccired 

 more about the individual care of cavalry horses than the 

 men who rode them. Their orders were more in the 

 way of military positions, regulations and discipline, than 



