Standard of proficiency--Riding, the old and the new system--Instruction in care of horse--Most difficult to teach or check--Result of a bad system--Napoleon’s cavalry in Russia--The care of horses must be the result of system--Long rides for recruits as a method of instruction--Riding to hounds--Care of horse now more necessary--Shooting--Is good, but fire discipline is essential--The personal weapon--Method of instruction--Mental and muscular development--The handy man--Influence of sports--Swimming--Pioneering-- Cooking--Seaside work for a cavalry brigade--Squadron competition--Regular soldiers and colonials--The practical instruction--Theory--Instruction in _moral_-- A Japanese view--Demonstration--Intercourse between officers and men--Grumbling Page 202 DIAGRAMS NO. PAGE I. Defensive and Offensive Flanks 40 II. The Two Forms of Attack 43 III. Column of Regimental Masses compared with Column of Squadrons 45 IV. The Formation for the Attack 47 V. Squadrons _en bondes_ 60 VI. Cavalry Brigade in Action 64 VII. The Passage of a Defile 67 VIII. Cavalry Attack on Dismounted Men holding a Kopje 104 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY “We study the past to foresee the future.” In these bustling days of headline-up-to-date newspapers, one shrinks from reminding one’s readers that Xenophon gave excellent advice to cavalry trainers and leaders--advice which a cavalryman will recognize is quite as applicable to-day as it was in those distant ages; since details with regard to grooming horses on hard stones, exercising cavalry in rough ground, and so on are by no means out of date. There is every reason to believe that Alexander, and later Rome and Carthage at their zenith as military nations, had proportionately as highly-trained cavalry as is possessed by any nation of to-day. Those who have fought in rearguards and running fights realize that the Parthian method of fighting must have required the highest training and _moral_. The cavalry of the predominant nations were drawn from those who kept horses for their own sport and amusement, and for the gratification of their pride, and who felt they were better fighting men on a horse. The descendants of the horse-lovers of those ages are with us to-day; they are those who love danger, excitement, and pace, and who find in the blood-horse an animal which shares their love for these, and will generously sacrifice its life or limbs in the co-partnership.