HORSE SHOWS AND REMOUNTS 419 



The Germans have already grasped this fact, far-seeing as 

 they are, and such a demand for Irish hunter mares and 

 fiUies for export has never been known as there has been 

 this year, for it is fully recognised in Germany that in- a 

 short time there will be few mares to buy. 



For mobilisation, including the Territorial force, 156,000 

 horses are required, whilst the wastage would be immense, 

 and at least three times as many horses in addition would be 

 required within six months of war being declared. To meet 

 this demand there are only 15,000 horses on the peace estab- 

 lishment, and some few thousands more registered — but these 

 latter are only effective as transport and mounted infantry 

 horses, and cannot be reckoned upon to take their places in 

 the ranks of the cavalry, or the gun-teams of the artillery. 

 Highly trained horses are necessary for both of these arms, 

 and when Lord Haldane so light-heartedly reduced the 

 artillery by batteries at a time, he surely never recognised 

 how long it takes to thoroughly train a horse to be able to 

 take any place in a gun-team which is required at the 

 moment. Three years is the least period requisite for the 

 horse, and seven years for the artilleryman, to be made 

 thoroughly effective, whilst a cavalry horse cannot be manu- 

 factured under eight months, and even that is too limited a 

 time in the majority of cases. I was adjutant of the Kifle 

 Brigade for nine years, and always reckoned that it took 

 three years to train a rifleman before he became thoroughly 

 dependable, so that the times mentioned for the much more 

 complicated cavalry and artillery branches of the service 

 can easily be understood. At present we have but 7,000 

 trained cavalry horses, and these are not likely to 

 be largely augmented by animals which have been used at 

 the yeomanry trainings ; for it is notorious that many of 

 the horses are hired out for one training after another, and 

 therefore the total of horses ridden in the ranks each year is 

 very different to what it may appear on paper. 



The census of the horses already taken is very misleading, 

 as little or no distinction has been made between the animals, 

 and brood-mares and aged pensioners have all been counted 

 on. In my own case a mare thirty-three years old was 

 reckoned in the list of my horses. 



