ITALY. 309 



convenient. It may be kept in the stable of the officer to 

 whom it has been assigned. 



The expenditure for bedding and shoeing for officers' 

 mounts is charged to the fund assigned for those purposes 

 for troop horses. 



A corps commander, for the good of the service or on rec^uest 

 of the interested parties, may authorize officers to turn in 

 horses assigned them and take others from those available in 

 the regiment. 



The chargers are dropped from the roll of officers' horses 

 after six years, and are then carried as troop horses and may 

 be selected for sale on installments of the second and third 

 categories. If, however, a horse, in the judgment of the 

 officer to whom assigned, shows special aptitude for continu- 

 ation in the service as a charger, the commander may leave 

 him on the roll for another term. The commander may have 

 the horse dropped from the roll before the expiration of the 

 six years if the animal is found unfit for service as an officer's 

 horse. Reports of such cases are sent to the minister. If 

 unfitness results from carelessness of the officer to whom the 

 horse has been assigned, the council of administration of the 

 corps deducts from the remount allowance of the responsible 

 officer the sum representing the depreciation of the horse. 



The annual supply of chargers to the corps is at the most 

 one-sixth. 



ASSIGNMENT OF HORSES TO SUBALTERN OFFICERS OF THE FIELD ARTILLERY 

 AND HORSE ARTILLERY. 



In field artillery and horse artillery regiments there are 

 a number of horses called chargers, taken from the best horses 

 coming from the studs, the ordinary remount service, or the 

 special remount service ordered by the minister for this pur- 

 pose. These horses are distributed among the batteries of 

 these regiments, to be assigned to subaltern officers of these 

 regiments, with the exception of the train. Some of these 

 horses are assigned also to the staffs of these regiments. 



The chargers are entered on the rolls like battery horses 

 with, in each case, the special note as charger, to which is 



added, " Assigned to on ," if for an officer. A report 



is made to the minister each time a horse is entered upon the 

 roll or assigned to an officer. The chargers are not branded 

 and are not subject to the dispositions in force with regard 

 to battery horses referring to dimensions and cut of the tail, 



