72 NOTES ON GERMAN MAN@UVRES. 
manouvre. It is still considered by some that for field artillery to 
gallop is passing beyond their province, and it ig not long since that I 
heard an officer commanding a very smart field battery in India called to 
account by a General officer, for bringing his guns into action at a 
gallop, although at a critical stage of the fight. 
The manoeuvres opened with a very severe day for the cavalry, the 
whole of the eight cavalry regiments of the Guard Corps marching in 
one day from their quarters in Berlin and the neighbourhood to their 
billets in the villages around Frankfurt, a distance of over fifty miles. 
It was a heavy day and the horses looked a good deal tucked up after 
it, but the Veterinary Surgeon of one of the Ulan regiments assured 
me that there had been very few cases of sore backs or of horses 
rendered unfit for work from other causes. The horses of both artillery 
and cavalry in the German army always appear very fine drawn, but 
they are a tough lot of animals though hght and lanky in comparison 
with English troop horses, but the hard condition in which they are 
always to be seen, allows of their going through very severe work 
without injury. ‘The horses are, for the most part, obtained from the 
eastern provinces of Prussia, where they are bought when three or four 
years old, by the remount committees, from the large land owners. 
They are then sent to the remount depdts and remain there for a year 
or more, till they are sent to the various regiments as circumstances 
require. 
A great deal of trouble and time is expended in training the remonnts, 
most of them remaining in the school for a year at least, before they 
finally take their place in the ranks. A cavalry soldier, like the re- 
mainder of the army, now serves for two years only, during which time 
he has to learn everything connected with his work, it is impossible to 
make him a really good rider in that time, but by giving him a 
thoroughly broken horse matters are very much simplified, with the 
result that, although the German cavalry may not be good horsemen 
individually, yet when taken as a body they are able, thanks to the per- 
fect training and steadiness of their horses, to manoeuvre and drill with 
the greatest precision. No horses take part in the annual manceuvres till 
they are six years old, so none but seasoned animals are in the ranks, and 
much of that prematurely developed unsoundness, demanding casting 
at an early age, is avoided. ‘This causes the squadrons to be somewhat 
weaker than they would otherwise be, but the horses, though not actually 
in the ranks are always ready io accompany the regiment should mobili- 
zation on a war footing be required. The system provides good horses 
and is economicalinthelongrun, Itis only in the Saxon army that the 
mounted services are not supplied from the depdts, but it has always 
been the custom in Saxony to buy direct from the dealers, despatching 
the horses at once to the various regiments, the remounts thus pur- 
chased being consequently a year older than those obtained for the 
depots. The Saxon officers do not uphold their system, but it is hard 
to change from long established ways. 
* Bicycles are now being used to a very considerable extent for all 
kinds of orderly work, which can be done over roads. ‘T'wo or three 
bicyclists are attached to each brigade; on the march they move at 
