TRAINING A WAR HORSE.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue LXXIV, 26 September 1918, Page 2

TRAINING A WAR HORSE.

NOT AN EASY MATTER

You cannot just buy an animal and put him into a cavalry brigade, says a writer iv an English paper. The real war hcise has quite a long education before he is proficient, aii education almost as severe and certainly as comprehensive as that of the recruit who ultimately rides him into battle. It was in no small way due te the mettle of the horses they' rode t!hat Lord French was able to say of the British cavalry at the first battle of the Mania that they were able to do as theyliked with the, enemy. The well-bred cavalry horse possesses a highly-strung nervous system, but when properly trained he will face barbed wire and even rush an entanglement when put to it, regardless of lacerated legs and flanks. But his education is begun care- | fully, or h e may b e ruined by a few i careless lessons.

His education must not begin too soon after being brought to camp or his legs will not stand the strain, and the first step is the most important. If he is terror-stricken, or if his temper is aroused, he may never get over th© inoident. He is walked around* free from the leading rein, and after he has been aeoustomd to have, a man mount rapidly on his sensitive back, he is taught to kneel with his rider.

This is an elaborate lesson. The first stage consists in getting. him to bend his forelegs slightly before .he gets to the stage of lying down on his side. He has to be taught to pull up in his own length from a gallop, to stand steady 't-'hile his rider fires from his back.-and w-lc still on the ground while he is being- used at* cover for his rider, who snipes over his side. One of the- most difficult things required of a war horse is: to get familiarised, with the sword in fighting from his back. Here the greatest care is taken or he may be frightened at first and never recover has nerve.' In real warfare it is a common trick for a cavalryman to aim his first blow at his opponent's horse. This is especially the case with lancers, for no horse will stand after being pricked on thq nostril or lip-

It is a peculiar fact, however, that when a horse knows his rider well he will fade blows if properly handled such as would, not usually b e expected of him. A brigade has' been known, for instance, to go through' three lines of bayonets and then through a barbedwire entanglement, trampling everything underfoot as if it were straw. Within the last year there was a case of a troop who charged two lines of German machine guns and rifles, wheeled and came back at them again, and rode through them for the second time, leaving a trail of dead and wounded Huns as a punishment. Seventy-five per cent, of the men who started on that charge we're casualties—rbut practically all the Huns were dead or dying. And the horses, stood it well, bles6 them.