The reflection on our British cavalry made, we believe, by a cavalry officer, that it was well drilled but badly instructed for war in 1899, appears to be a genuine and well-founded one. How to escape it in future must be our squadron leaders’ chief concern. Napoleon said: “It is not my genius that suddenly reveals to me, in secret, what I should say or do in an unforeseen circumstance. It is reflection, it is meditation. I always work at dinner, at the theatre; at night I wake up to work.” Above all, let us study in our instruction how best to make _moral_ go hand-in-hand with method; without this what army can do great things? Have not civilization, education (conducted on our own lines), the insidious lessening of animus all conspired against our soldier’s _moral_ in war? How much simpler and more effective was the _modus operandi_ of the Zulu Impis clearly enunciated in their war chant, “If we go forward we conquer, if we go back we die”; their ruler invariably putting to death all who returned from an unsuccessful expedition. CONCLUSIONS 1. That interest must be sustained. 2. That with cavalry above all arms, there is a need for a very stern discipline. 3. That only a really good man can lead a cavalry squadron. 4. That flat-catching must be sternly discountenanced. 5. That a wise delegation of certain points of instruction and horse-management to section leaders will have valuable results. CHAPTER XIX THE TRAINING OF THE HORSE We have only to consider the contingencies of service in the cavalry to come to a conclusion that the officer or man who begins a campaign on a well-trained horse has many chances in his favour against him who enters it riding an indifferently-trained animal; and no more striking instance of this can be brought forward than the circumstances of the Prince Imperial’s death in Zululand. The horse in this case was ridden by an excellent horseman, but it was well known to be awkward to mount, with the result that, when suddenly attacked by a rush of Zulus, the Prince was unable to mount and get away. But the chance in the rider’s favour[92] is not the only consideration; the work which a well-trained, well-balanced, equably-minded horse will do, and the accidents of all kinds, leading to disablement and time spent in the sick lines, which it will itself avoid and also allow its master to help it to avoid, are well exemplified in any day s hunting in a rough country. There is the so-called unlucky horse, who never goes out without hurting himself or his master. This unlucky horse is associated in our minds with a narrow forehead with a bump low down on it, a rapidly shifting ear, and a small eye showing too much white. The really ill-tempered horse is not fit to mount a cavalryman, whose life may depend on the behaviour of his horse; though here it must be confessed that some horses with very bad characters have been trained by real masters of the art to be good and reliable animals.