y raw and unaccustomed to
work under the rider, often also of inferior quality. But these 13 to
17 horses per squadron by no means exhaust the situation. The field
squadrons must leave their youngest remounts--say 15 in number--still
too young and unbroken, behind them; for the experiences of the last
War proved abundantly that where this precaution was neglected the
greater part of them broke down under the hardships of the Campaign.
Taking even the most favourable time of year for mobilization--viz.,
in May--then out of the 15 young remounts of good material, and with
careful choice, not more than 8 will be found fit for the ranks; the
remainder will have to be left behind with the 'Depot' squadron, to
be sent on afterwards. Any other procedure would only lead to the
useless sacrifice of these valuable young animals. The places of the
horses thus left behind will, therefore, also have to be filled by
augmentation horses, thus bringing the number of these up to 24 and 20
respectively.

Then we still have to provide for the wants of the Depot squadron,
which has to train the recruits, and for these a further number of
trained horses, averaging 32, must be left behind, or another 8 from
each squadron; and, finally, another 2 per squadron will be required
for Staff orderlies and Staff guard duties.

According to this calculation, the Field squadron would have to move
out with from 34 to 30 augmentation horses (the sixty squadrons on the
higher establishment with 27).

The matter, however, presents a totally different appearance when in
peace five squadrons are in existence, of which one remains behind as
a depot. Taking away the 35 horses for recruits, and following our
previous calculation of 7 young remounts, there would remain on the
lower establishment 91 efficient horses to be divided amongst the
other four squadrons, or 23 each, so that these would take the field
with only 11, 7, or 4 'augmentation horses,' according to the
respective peace establishments of the regiments. With these numbers
the squadron suffers no reduction of its efficiency, for these few can
always be employed--in the squadron carts, etc.--at any rate, need not
be in the ranks.

These figures, worked out in the spring of 1899, are still
substantially correct, and it appears to me General von Pelet-Narbonne
deals too leniently with this proposal for forming the fifth squadrons
into new regiments, because many of the calls made on the squadron