26 INDIAN TROOP HORSES IN STABLES AND ON THE LINE OF MARCH, 
R.A. to do any work required of them. The general rule is that a 
wheel-horse is posted as such, and there he remains for his service ; the 
same for lead, centre and detachment horses. The consequence of this 
is that a centre or lead horse put into the wheel in four cases out of 
five won’t go. This is not as it should be. A horse ought to be 
trained to go everywhere on a pinch; and by this means galled horses 
are relieved temporarily, to say nothing of getting a gun along with a 
disabled team in actual action. Take a wheel-horse with a breeching 
gall, put him in the lead or centre and he can do his work. 
A near-horse in a team with bad back can be changed with the 
hand-horse, the saddle removed and a single strap placed so as to 
avoid the sore over the back, for the support of the traces. 
Collar galls are more difficult sometimes to deal with and avoid if 
you still want to keep the horse in draught. The position of the 
wound will sometimes allow breast harness to be used, and at others a 
pad is useful. A ready method of making a pad is this—and I have 
found it superior to any leather one, though it may not look so neat. 
Take a horse-rubber and roll it up with some grass, which you can pick 
by the road side, inside it. Fasten it on with some string ora thong 
from the collar-maker. It is far softer than a leather pad, and equally, 
if not more efficient. 
For a horse that brushes, in spite of his shoes being altered, make a 
boot as follows: take apiece of horse-cloth or stout flannel eleven 
inches wide, fourteen inches long; sew a piece of tape lengthways 
two inches over the half breadth of it; make a hole about five inches 
from one end so as to allow the one end of the tape to pass through it ; 
and tighten the whole round the leg above the fetlock, narrow part 
downwards; having secured the ends of the tape, turn the top over 
so as to cover the bottom. This will guard the fetlock well. A leather 
boot frequently works round, 
REMOUNTS. 
When remounts arrive, having, as is mostly the case, only been a 
few months in the country, care is requisite not to feed too highly with 
gram at first. They have never been accustomed to it; much un- 
healthiness therefore will ensue if this precaution is neglected. 
Three lbs. of gram, seven lbs. of bran, with some green food with 
their grass, is plenty to begin their troop discipline with. The dealers 
in Calcutta feed almost entirely with bran, oats (mostly crushed) and 
little or no gram. 
ConcLusion. 
Before ending may I be allowed to add that the above hints are 
prepared for Australian horses, such as are used so much in batteries 
and regiments in India at present. An Arab is a hardier animal, and 
much in request for service on this account. 
