6 Preface 



land's hardest riders across the Leicestershire pas- 

 tures. 



In an article on " The New Army School of 

 Horsemanship " (Scribner's Magazine, July, 1909), 

 by Major T. Bentley Mott, U. S. A., the following 

 passages occur : — " The fact is, the United States 

 have long ceased to be a nation of horsemen whose 

 boys learn to ride as a matter of course, just as they 

 learn to walk ; and yet, with considerable blindness, 

 the public and the press have continued to assume 

 that for military purposes all Americans are born 



with a knowledge of horsemanship On 



the other hand, England has never had a school 

 of horsemanship such as Saumur, Hanover, or 

 Pinerolo. 



" England and Ireland still remain par excellence 

 the land of horses and horsemen, and the number 

 of men who ride and handle horses constitute in 

 those countries a fair proportion of the population, 

 and the mounted services are recruited in officers 

 and men considerably from people who have always 



ridden Nevertheless, the British are 



now awakening to the fact that in the matter of 

 army horsemanship — certainly in its refinements — 



