CASTRATION OF CAVALRY HORSES. 
655 
the East is one of opinion. 5 ’ The knowledge by the natives 
of our superior intelligence is backed by our powerful energy 
in carrying out whatever we undertake ; and how far it may 
be prudent^ for economical reasons, in rearing horses, to cas- 
trate our cavalry horses, while our own irregular cavalry 
horses, and those of our enemies in countries beyond our 
north-west frontier, use entire horses, I leave others to deter- 
mine ; I am only drawing attention to the present oppor- 
tunities of testing, in Turkey and the Crimea, the relative 
powers of geldings and entire horses during severe service, 
exposed as they are to heat, cold, rain, and privation of food 
and grooming ; for there the dragoons have not the aid of 
native grooms, neither is there those useful Indian camp- 
followers, grasscutters and their ponies. 
I read in your journal of great numbers of horses being 
castrated of late years ; the natives, therefore, must think us 
rum’uns on this subject. I recollect the complaints of cavalry 
officers were, “ that geldings were timid, unable to bear pri- 
vation and exposure to the climate, and after a march would 
return into camp like post-horses that had gone a stage ; that 
geldings required the same rest, careful grooming, and high 
feeding, to enable them to go again the next day, which could 
not be obtained for cavalry horses on service ; that entire 
horses, as w T ell known to Indian sportsmen, were not timid, 
but would charge anything — lion, tiger, and wild hog ; that the 
customs of Asia should overrule our preconceived notions of 
the convenience of geldings. 5 ’ On the other side, it was con- 
tended “ that to keep entire horses steady, corps had to be 
overworked.” I cannot write this happened wdthin my expe- 
rience ; on the contrary, corps were under-exercised. As to 
casting, the average, if I recollect right, was about ten per 
cent., averaging the whole service, and in no other w T ere there 
so many aged horses, not stale upon the legs and feet. 
The quietness of entire horses depends much on habit ; we 
see this in Arabs and stud-bred colts, when compared to 
country horses, brought up entirely by natives, whose mode of 
rearing and feeding oftener renders colts vicious at an early 
age; on the contrary, entire stud-colts stand close to each other, 
without any separation by bails, with a hempen head-stall, 
to which is attached a piece of bamboo instead of halter, 
having a loop at the other end, which slides up and down a 
long pole fixed in the ground. Morning and evening, except in 
the rains, these entire colts are at liberty in a large paddock, 
till in the third year put into condition to be shown to a 
committee for admission into the service ; and the difference 
of temperament of the former, ridden before a committee by 
