The Big Sandy news. [volume] (Louisa, Ky.) 1885-1929, 1889-06-06
CAVALRY RIDING DRILL
An Er Trooper Tells How Raw Recruits
Ave Put Through Their PAGES

CAVALRY RIDING DRILL
An Er Trooper Tells How Raw Recruits
Ave Put Through Their PAGES
The first riding lesson usually takes
place in the .'riding-school," where. as
the floor Is covered with .'tan," the
recruits who come of will fall softly.
The military authorities don't want
their recruits laid upin hospitals The
lesson consists OF leading the horse
around the riding-school; SO that the
axiom OF learning 10 creep before walk
ing is slightly modified here. for the
recruit learns TO walk his horse before
riding him. When he has led his
horse around for awhile. the horses
head is brought in from the boards
ii. e.. the walls OF the schooD, and the
recruit is taught to ''stand at ease
and to step from side TO side OF his
horses fore feet In measured PAGES.
Then comes the mount" and usually
the unfortunate recruit has no sooner
got up on one side than he rolls over
on the other, owing to the vagaries OF
his horse, who knows that he has a
recruit in hand. and takes advantage
OF it Presently the order is given TO
march," and away file the horses
around the school walls, many OF
the pupils thinking horse1esh is
very perverse in rubbing its side
against the school wall with a recruits
leg for buffer. The day when l got
my first riding lesson many OF us
started of by pulling ON our horses
mouths. and got Ito quote our rough
rider) ''all over tho shop like pack OF
sheep" After few turns round
during which the rough taught us
the aids to horsemanship in the pre-
liminary stages of the ''walk"-we
learned that we were not to ''pull our
horses heads of. but to handle the
reins gently By feeling them with our
wrists and not with our whole arms.
All we had to do 1--WE were told) was
TO sit there and keep our bodies up
right with our chests. forward. by hol-
lowing the back and drawing in Our
stomachs, as well as TO keep our
"chins of our stocks" and our heads
up We began to see that learning TO
ride was no trifing job When it came
to fixing our legs. getting them well
back, raising our toes and sinking our
heels. we got more to do than we ever i
for. Your teacher is a hard
man to please; and I'm sure that by
sheer practice recruits at Canterbury
have got all their stomachs pressing
up against the diaphragrns Other
wise how do they muster such small
waists and such pigeon-like chests?
The fact is that lungs, heart,
liver, stomach and spleen are all
packed together chestwards. like tin
Of Australian mutton. Whether nature
ever intended such n examining is a |
question that the military authorities
don't study. Make your men as wooden |
rs possible-never mind nature, Is \
heir dictum; and certainty they are /
listened to. After we had done little
around the riding school we
got more confidence; and thought, no
ioubt, that we should like a bit OF a
''trot.n just TO see what that was like
When it did come to trottinE many Of
Is fell of. or nearly fell of. and went
lobbling around the school-to quote
our rough-riding again "like lot OF
stuffed dolls riding yer horses from
lose to Group" And certainly many
# us were more often on our horses
yithers and launches than on the
enter OF their backs. and we had our
rims more often round their necks than
FOLDING our reins- The rough called
Is to halt. and even here we were
i fault Some of US pulled too
much, or we pulled too little. or we
,ulled awry, with the result that our
Iorses were ''all over the shop"
1t last we had stopped, our friend the
rough again let us know bit OF his
mind about our first appearance as
avalrymen. He never saw such
looming lot OF asses in all his born
avs; my old mother could ride better
han YOU" etc. He had probably told
he same yarn to generations of re-
ruits; but really we believed that we
rere set OF out-and-out buffers,
After few months riding drill the
avalryman learns TO ride his horse at
u PAGES; and when he can take him
trough the turns. circles and wind {
lgs Of the menage drill, and knows !
ow to use his farms" mounted, he is '
t to call himself real cavalry-man,
nd is ready to go on and fight his
ountrys wars when he gets the {
nance II the reader wants to learn
ore of cavalry equitation, he had !
stter join. A few months drill will I
ach him all he viii care to learn. I
ondon st. James Gazette.