"Hence it follows that at the outside no furlough man
had more than 18 hours' riding drill, and only mounted his
horse for drill in the ranks 27 times, and no one who knows
what the difficulties of the matter are will complain that
this is too much time to bestow on such an important n^atter.
"But, it may be asked. How was it with the remaining
33 duty men — surely they must have all been perfect
centaurs? Unfortunately, from these we must deduct the
recruits and Freiwachters (those were men struck ofl: all
duties and allowed to work in the town at their trades).
There were 10 of the latter allowed by regulation, and as a
body they rode worse than the men on furlough, for they
only paraded when the regiment went out at its full strength,
and never went to riding drill at all. Of recruits there would
be an average of 8 annually, and since two years is the
least time in which to make a horsemen, there were 16 at a
time undergoing their training. So that of the 33 men only
,7 remain from whom one could with reason expect that they
should ride perfectly.
