228 
CLIPPING BATTERY HORSES. 
up positions after a rapid advance of some miles ought to be constantly 
practised. How would clipped horses fare under such circumstances ? 
Of course most private horses required for fast work are very rightly 
clipped, but if required to stand about even for a few minutes a rug 
is at once thrown over them, if they are carriage horses or if riding 
horses, they are always kept moving. They are housed in warm, com¬ 
fortable stables, with plenty of clothing on when their work is done. 
How different from the cold, cheerless and draughty troop stables! 
Artillery and Cavalry horses really work more under the conditions 
of wagon and dray horses, and these latter are seldom or never clipped 
except perhaps on the legs and under the bellies. 
I would here protest most strongly against the tendency to apply 
the test of peace time requirements to military matters and to judge 
soldiering from a civilian point of view. 
This no doubt is largely due to the fact that we have had no cam¬ 
paign in a temperate climate for 40 years. A long peace leads to the 
adoption of unmilitary practices which are detrimental to efficiency for 
war and unsuited to hard campaigning. What is admirable for the 
hunter is often quite unsuited to the war horse. 
Just before last Christmas, as an experiment I took my battery 
across to North Woolwich on the Free Ferry, marched to Romford, 
watered and fed horses, gave the men luncheon, and marched back the 
same way arriving in barracks before dark. It was a cold day with 
very high wind, and owing to the private traffic the ferry had to 
make on the outward journey three trips before the battery was all 
across, and two when returning, there was necessarily some standing 
about in the cold on the banks, the crossing itself was very cold and 
had the horses been clipped they must have felt the cold when halted 
at Romford. 
I quite agree with Major Challenor that a vast amount of time is 
often wasted in trying to dry horses with long coats that come in hot 
and u break out 99 again. If such horses be fed on straw in place of 
hay and water be sparingly given them until they are cool, it will be 
found that they sweat much less. 
In any case it is useless to keep on trying to dry these horses in 
warm stuffy stables but instead, they should be slowly walked about 
for a few minutes with the saddle blankets thrown over them if neces¬ 
sary, and then brought in and dried as far as possible, after which they 
may be safely left to take care of themselves, the blankets being again 
put on if the weather and stables are very cold. 
While on the subject of blankets, I may mention that the complicated 
arrangement of numnah with straps and light blanket is, I consider, a 
mistake and unsuited to the rough and ready work of campaigning. 
A good thick blanket eight feet square and weighing at least 8 lbs. 
would be more efficacious in preventing saddle galls and would form a 
serviceable protection for the horse on the picket lines. 
In this matter also, appearance and peace time requirements seem to 
have prevailed over utility and the exigencies of war. 
I cannot think that leaving horses unclipped renders them more 
subject to chills and chest affections, my experience is certainly the 
