PERSONALITY IN HORSEMANSHIP 213 



that our rations were being stolen and sold to the shop- 

 keepers, and my men, who were very dissatisfied and 

 hungry, were always grumbling and making complaints ; 

 so, in order to draw the officer's attention, they were 

 purposely late on parade or for duty, thinking it would 

 bring about a better menu — instead of which it resulted 

 in my being " broken." (Reduced to the Ranks). 



The O.C., a man of small stature, had been in India, 

 and was used to dealing with black men, not white 

 men. He had, I heard afterwards, performed exactly 

 the same ceremony of breaking a N.C.O. who showed a 

 better aptitude for riding and general horsemanship 

 than he. When the O.C. was mounted he resembled a 

 country butcher-boy riding a pony to the blacksmith's, 

 with his shoulders shaking up and down and elbows 

 flapping, bad hands and an ugly seat. In spite of 

 having been with horses for many years, he knew very 

 little about them, and he lacked the gift he was so envious 

 of in other horsemen. 



I remember a very funny incident taking place when 

 the veterinary officer and the same Commanding Officer 

 were examining mares that had proved to be in foal — 

 how I purposely led an old gelding with a pot belly or 

 enlarged abdomen to be examined. The gelding was 

 casually observed, passed in-foal, and sent to the brood 



