d to direct training for the demands War must make upon us.
We can practise again, and confirm the men in the fundamental
principle of dressing in motion, the exact squareness of the horses to
the alignment and rallying, with which one had already commenced in
the early months of winter, before being driven into the schools by
frost and snow; and, further, take advantage of fine days and similar
circumstances to practise men in taking jumps, scrambling, etc., the
development of the regulation drill gallop (fifteen miles an hour),
whilst still maintaining the control and standard of equitation for
which the school training is specially adapted. The winter exercises
in field service duties, which, as long as they are allowed constantly
to interrupt the formal lessons in equitation, do more harm than good,
can be postponed to this period, when the recruits will now be able to
take part in them--a point of essential importance in case War breaks
out. Above all, the time thus saved must be devoted to individual
riding and single combat.

Our Regulations (Sections 129 and 324) lay special stress on this
latter point, and in most regiments it is constantly practised. The
results, however, are sometimes questionable, and many Squadron
Commanders are of opinion that such training can be overdone. Nor is
this view without foundation. If single combats are carried out in the
regulation way on imperfectly broken horses, the horse is not only
spoilt, but the rider also, and a clumsy rider will very soon make a
good horse hard in the mouth and refractory.

Now, since we have neither ideal horses nor riders at our disposal,
there is much danger in overdoing these exercises, because the method
of their execution is often thoroughly unpractical. The combatants
ride round one another in unnatural circles, one retreats, the other
pursues, and both tear at their horses' mouths to turn them sharply
about, all things which, except the latter, they never do in action.

Nor should we overlook the really imminent danger which lies in
teaching the men to run away before an opponent. Few of them are
'Horatios,' and if, in fact, they once turn about, it is, to say the
least, highly problematical whether, in a real fight, they will ever
stop again. In the field matters are very different. If one has but
one adversary, one tries to ride him down, and, if unsuccessful, then
after one turn about both get locked together, turning only on the
fore ha