428 THE EXTERIOR OF THE HORSE. 



If the rain increases the weight 10 kilogrammes, an astonishing total of 162 

 kilogrammes is obtained. How can we make horses run that are loaded twice 

 as heavily as the mules, which only walk? It seems impossible that this rule 

 should not be revised. 



" In foreign countries four wagons are assigned to each regiment, and one to 

 each squadron of cavalry, to carry the accessories ; why not follow this example? 

 The objection will be made that the wagons cannot always follow ; but whilst 

 admitting that they do not immediately rejoin them, cannot the rider, shel- 

 tered by his cloak if the weather be inclement, be deprived for two or three days 

 of this supplementary stock of clothing which crushes the horse? 



" The increase of power which results from this diminution of weight is 

 really prodigious. With the routine campaign burden a horse expends as much 

 force as does one without such load and moving at a gallop. By relieving him 

 of this difference of weight his power is tripled." * 



Such are General Bonie's general indications. On the whole, in 

 their ensemble, they are perfectly founded. To cite an example, we will 

 say that we have seen, during the Franco-German war (1870-1871), 

 the first squadron of the Eighth Hussars, mounted on Arabian horses, 

 who were ordered into the environs of Chateaurenault, start in the 

 morning at half-past six o'clock and return in the evening at half-})ast 

 four, having accomplished in ten hoiu'S a distance of 95 kilometres 

 without leaving behind a single horse. At the same time, the first 

 platoon of the same squadron accomplished with like success a distance 

 of about 106 kilometres, calculated as accurately as possible. 



The preceding indications need not be taken d la lettre as an inva- 

 riable line of conduct ; they are only nearly so, nothing more. The 

 commanding officer should especially adapt himself to circumstances in 

 order to ward off the most pressing difficulties. We therefore give 

 him this information only as a pocket-book jotting ; it is his place to 

 appreciate in what degree he may deviate from the statements which it 

 contains, in one sense or the other, according to the nature of the 

 ground, the state of the temperature, its dryness, its dampness, etc. 



Endurance considered as an Innate, Acquired, or Lost 

 Aptitude. — A final question presents itself, that of the endurance 

 examined as an innate, acquired, or lost aptitude. 



If we remember what has already been said above, we cannot at first 

 deny that this aptitude is a resultant whose many effects proceed from 

 three different sources : the first consists directly of ancestral heredity ; 

 the second is the consequence of training ; the third comes from the 

 external medium. 



The horse inherits from his ancestors the temperament, the form, 



1 See, for further details, the work already cited. 



