246 METHOD OF HORSEMANSHIP. 



allowed by government for horses of re- 

 mount, causes few horses of good shape to 

 be met with in the army, and it is with such 

 only that education is easy. The officers 

 themselves, mounted upon a very com- 

 mon sort of horses, strive in vain to render 

 them docile and agreeable. After two or 

 three years of fatiguing exercise, they end 

 by gaining a mechanical obedience, but the 

 same resistances and the same faults of con- 

 struction, are perpetually recurring. Dis- 

 gusted by difficulties that appear insur- 

 mountable, they trouble themselves no more 

 about horses and horsemanship than the 

 demands of the service actually require. 



Yet it is indispensable that a cavalry 

 officer be always master of his horse, so 

 much so as to be able, so to say, to com- 

 municate his own thoughts to him : the uni- 

 formity of manoeuvres, the necessities of 

 command, the perils of the battle-field, all 



