497 
SADDLERY, AND THE CAUSES, PREVENTION, 
AND TREATMENT OF SORE BACKS. 
BY 
VETERINARY LIEUT.-COLONEL W. B. WALTERS, C.B., 
F.R.C.V.S., late A.V.D. 
(A Lecture delivered at the Boyal Artillery Institution , Woolwich , 15th February, 1894). 
Colonel W. S. Curzon, E.A., in the Chaie. 
The Chairman — I will ask Colonel Walters to commence the subject 
of his lecture. 
Veterinary Lieut.-Colonel W. B. Walters —As the subjects of 
saddles and sore backs are so intimately related to each other, I propose 
to consider them conjointly, for the sake of brevity and convenience; 
and, in doing so, I shall occasionally quote from a paper on the 
“ Casualties Amongst Army Horses in the Field,” read by me at the 
Royal United Service Institution in February, 1890. 
With our present knowledge of the art of saddle-fitting and the 
care exercised by all ranks of our mounted corps in barracks, camps, 
and on the line of march, sore backs on home service are much less 
numerous than they used to be in former years ; and although, in spite 
of every precaution, they do occasionally occur, they are generally 
detected before they have assumed anything like formidable propor¬ 
tions and are easily and speedily cured. But on a campaign, where 
each serious case means the temporary loss of a mounted soldier, the 
matter assumes a very serious aspect. On active service in the field 
the casualties resulting from saddlery and harness galls are, perhaps, 
the most important of any with which we have to deal; not only on 
account of their extreme frequency, but also because the majority of 
the cases which occur on service can, and ought to be prevented. 
When we consider the vast number of horses which were rendered 
temporarily useless from injuries of this description during the brief 
military operations in Egypt, and think of what the consequences 
might have been had the campaign been indefinitely prolonged, it must 
be admitted that the subject of sore backs demands the earnest and 
immediate attention of those who are responsible for the efficiency of 
an army in the field. All military officers are aware that the exigencies 
of war service sometimes demand extraordinary exertions on the part 
of mounted troops, and that there are occasions when it is absolutely 
io. yol. xxi. fid 
