I note that the more disastrous practices are those of tradition and custom, and are difficult to trace if one is seeking authority from the Regulations and authorized manuals. These are framed in a most reasonable spirit, and allow wide discretion to the Commanding Officer. So far as my experience goes, experience and research has not only been tolerated by the Authorities, but actively encouraged and helped. [Sidenote: Equipment] EQUIPMENT. The application to Army use of a saddle made for falling off seems a little eccentric until one begins to reason. The idea is not without value, because an Army in time of peace is really a school of manhood, which needs extending until every youth has been made into a man before he gets a vote as a citizen. At a cost of life not greatly exceeding the death-rate from closed windows (phthisis) we have under stress of war an {236} actual national training in manhood which has averted the fall of the British Empire. Moreover, the British military training manufactures a gentleman who can be trusted by the enemy with the care of his wife and daughters. If it is useful in the making of his manhood we should not grudge him a saddle for the prevention of riding. Morally, such a saddle is as good for Tommy as it is for the rich folk of the hunting field. [Sidenote: Equipment for mobility] It is when one begins to consider mobility in the field that the pleasure saddle seems an odd selection. Why not a skipping rope? Troops using the English equipment have rarely averaged twenty-one miles a day. Troops using the stock saddle have rarely gone so slow. The old war saddle has a record of nine hundred years in every kind of warfare; and has survived the extreme test of the stock range in replacing the English saddle with the Mounted Police, and mounted troops of Canada. Only the mistaken energies of sportsmen in the British Army displaced the practical equipment designed by soldiers. A return to the old saddle would increase the mobility of all mounted troops. HORSEMANSHIP. A hundred years ago the recruit came from a farm and had been raised {237} on horseback. Even the riding masters of the period could not quite spoil his natural horsemanship. To-day the recruit comes from a town, looks on the horse as dangerous, and lacks the muscles of hip and thigh which must be developed before a man rides well. [Sidenote: Military methods]