WAR-HORSES 81 



years in training, and spends four years in the ranks as 

 his average time of active service. It is very possible 

 that if the type of cavalry horse were bigger it would 

 last longer. But the modern animal is a compromise 

 between the needs of the Service and the price which 

 Government can afford. There is no such contrast 

 now as formerly between the great war-horse, specially 

 bred to carry the man in armour, and the ' natural ' 

 war-horse, bred for speed, endurance, and to carry a 

 man armed only with sword, spear, and shield. The 

 difference has never been presented so vividly as in the 

 battles of the Crusaders, especially those in which they 

 were opposed to the Saracen cavalry. Sir Walter 

 Scott's representation of the single combat in the desert 

 between Sir Kenneth and Saladin is a very probable 

 account of what would happen in such an encounter. 

 When the mail-clad Knights on their heavy horses were 

 able to charge knee to knee they must have swept away 

 any force of Saracen cavalry ; but there is evidence in 

 the accounts of the Templars that they modified their 

 equipment in some degree to suit the Eastern modes 

 of warfare and the climate. It is, however, less well 

 known that the Saracens did the same, and that the 

 changes they made in the days of the Crusades endured 

 a hundred years ago, and in some parts of the Soudan 

 are still observable. They adopted a light chain 

 armour, the steel cap, and the two-handed sword of the 



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