656 
CASTRATION OF CAVALRY HORSES. 
the dealer’s rough rider ; and the latter, led before it by the 
native stud-groom, was too obvious to all who witnessed it, 
to need any comment from me. I am, however, obliged to 
allude to it ; as I can to a fine team, in high condition, quite 
quiet, though entire, that I have seen, almost daily, for several 
years, in the village where I am writing ; and it is the same 
with some on the Continent, where entire horses are more 
frequent than in England. Indian cavalry horses are tied 
up by two head-ropes, their position being secured by the 
hind pasterns having leather hobbles, to the end of each of 
which are ropes several feet long. These ropes are fastened 
to tent-pegs driven obliquely into the ground (this method 
was tried at Chobham). Whether in camp or in the open 
Indian stables, one horse occupies double the space of an 
entire stud-colt, or that w ould be required by a gelding. In a 
hot climate, however, this is advantageous, as the horses are 
thus less liable to disease ; therefore, so far as economy of 
stable room, gelding is not an advantage there. 
It does not require an officer or veterinary surgeon* to 
have been in India (and many have been), to judge whether 
the geldings taken from England or the small entire horses 
purchased by the horse-agentf of the Commissariat, Mr. Wil- 
kinson, are best able to bear the privations and fatigue we 
read of in the newspapers. “ In Lord Cardigan’s exploration 
into the country 17 horses were knocked up “ 24 died, or 
were obliged to be destroyed from fatigue in drawing the 
field train from Balaclava.” 
Whatever impairs the powers of cavalry horses to undergo 
privation and fatigue, a 'priori makes them less efficient ; 
castration, under these circumstances, must be considered 
to do so, by depriving horses of that spirit which entire horses 
always retain, though diminished by privation and fatigue. 
The correspondent of the Illustrated London News remarked 
on the difference between Lord Raglan’s u steady old Eng- 
lish hunter, and General Canrobert’s Arabian also Omar 
Pacha’s. 
The comparative value of unclipped geldings, — the advan- 
* We must look forward with hope to the safe return of your old corres- 
pondent Mr. Gloag, and others, for interesting details of observations of 
horses in service. 
j* The Commissariat had Messrs. Mansfield and Price, V.S., in the de- 
partment, in 1814, which is under the Treasury, and not the Commander-in- 
Chief, who could grant no extra allowance to Mr. Wilkinson, and had Mr. 
Cherry’s death not opportunely happened, how was he to be reimbursed for 
extra expenses of travelling, but by the Commissariat. He could not be 
expected to travel above 40 miles per day on his own horses, and get only 
6 d. per mile. 
