TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword
Preface
CHAPTER I
Section I - Leather
Origin
Tanning
Classification
Section II - Agents for Cleaning and
Preserving Leather
General
Cleaning Agents
Preserving Agents
CHAPTER 2
Section I - Care of Leather
Equipment - General
- Service Requirements
- Equipment in Storage
- Equipment in Service
Section II - Cleaning Methods
- General
- New Equipment
- Use of Repaired Equipment
- Equipment in Service
- Storage of Leather Equipment
SECTION III - Care of Other Riding
Equipment
- Metal
- Wood
- Horse Covers
- Saddle Pads
- Saddle Blankets
- Cinches or Girths
- Use of Ammonia
CHAPTER 3
Section I - Conclusion
The Cavalry School
Fort Riley, Kansas
August 1, 1940
Foreword
In our Cavalry a few officers have been interested in the scientific
care of leather equipment but generally speaking interest in this important matter has
been of a routine character. Commanders are frequently urged to condemn leather issued
from stock as unserviceable because it is unsightly through lack of proper care. By
scientific methods this same leather can have its beauty restored and its useful life
prolonged. To teach the student officers and noncommissioned officers the proper method, a
practical course in the care of leather and riding equipment has been introduced at the
Cavalry School with the hope that the knowledge and interest acquired by the student will
spread throughout the service.
This pamphlet has been prepared by First Lieutenant James 0. Curtis,
jr., of the Department of Horsemanship, the instructor who conducted the course. In it are
embodied the ideas and experience of many officers.
ROBERT C. RICHARDSON,
Brigadier General, U.S. Army, Commandant.
The Cavalry School
Fort Riley, Kansas
August 1, 1940
Preface
To the cavalryman, the care and preservation of horseflesh is a duty
that in the last analysis amounts almost to a fetish. Above and beyond his love for horses
and his interest in their well-being, the cavalryman knows that his life, the reputation
of his arm, and the fate of his country may depend upon the application of his knowledge
of horsemanship and horsemastership. He knows that in war the supply of remounts is
definitely limited, for horses cannot be bred and raised by rapid production methods. He
overcomes this great disadvantage, or does his best to do so, by exercising every possible
care to conserve animal strength, and rightly so.
Regarding the care of the other items of his equipment, the same thing
to a greater or lesser extent is also true. Certainly, his arms, - the pistol, the rifle,
and machine gun, - are well cared for, as, habitually, is his clothing, for he has been
taught and trained, and has been allowed sufficient time to care for them. Paradoxically,
however, this does not seem to be true in one very important respect, - the care and
preservation of his leather equipment. Why this is so, is not known. From any viewpoint,
(money value, preservation of being, personal comfort) leather is an important item of the
cavalryman's equipment. Like horseflesh, good leather cannot be supplied by rapid
production methods in a national emergency, nor has any satisfactory substitute been
devised for it in all categories. Experience has also proved that forces operating in the
field are only as efficient in combat as their equipment is serviceable. Therefore, it
behooves every cavalry commander to exercise all available means to maintain the leather
equipment of his organization in its highest state of serviceability. As a step forward to
the accomplishment of that end, this pamphlet is devoted.
All unit training programs should provide adequate time allotments for
instruction in, and the care of, leather. It is the responsibility of organization
commanders to utilize such time to the end that recruits are properly instructed, and that
others put into practice the best available knowledge in caring for and preserving leather
equipment.
DORSEY R. RODNEY,
Colonel, Cavalry,
Assistant Commandant.
