British cavalry, film from 1917 (found by John M.)

[Pat Holscher]

http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/ ... 1060022860

[Couvi]

Interesting how they throw the rifle over the horse's neck to provide counter-balance and aid in mounting.

[Jim Bewley]

Interesting how they throw the rifle over the horse's neck to provide counter-balance and aid in mounting.

I think that might have been done to get the rifle out of the way in order to mount. They could use the same hand to hold the rifle and grab mane, freeing up the other hand and leg to mount. During the ACW, the carbine was tossed over the troopers shoulder, to hang on his back, held by the cross strap and then brought down once you were on.

[mnhorse]

Very nice bit of film.
I would have thought it would be easier to place the rifle in the scabbard before mounting.
Also, does anyone have any idea what the led horses carried?
Richard

[Couvi]

Very nice bit of film.
I would have thought it would be easier to place the rifle in the scabbard before mounting.
Also, does anyone have any idea what the led horses carried?
Richard

Machine guns, picket lines, etc.

[Larry Emrick]

.
That is a perfectly executed mount right out of the British 1912 manual of horsemanship for cavalry and mounted rifles. Notice how high the Enfield butt sticks out of the bucket, which makes it really difficult (lmpossible for old guys) to lift ones leg high enough when mounting to clear it. Also I suspect it had something to do with preventing a horse from bolting with a rifle in the bucket and the trooper not yet mounted.
Thanks to John for a great find.
Larry

[Couvi]

.
That is a perfectly executed mount right out of the British 1912 manual of horsemanship for cavalry and mounted rifles. Notice how high the Enfield butt sticks out of the bucket, which makes it really difficult (lmpossible for old guys) to lift ones leg high enough when mounting to clear it. Also I suspect it had something to do with preventing a horse from bolting with a rifle in the bucket and the trooper not yet mounted.
Thanks to John for a great find.
Larry

Also I suspect it had something to do with preventing a horse from bolting with a rifle in the bucket and the trooper not yet mounted.

That could get important very quickly!

[Pat Holscher]

.
That is a perfectly executed mount right out of the British 1912 manual of horsemanship for cavalry and mounted rifles. Notice how high the Enfield butt sticks out of the bucket, which makes it really difficult (lmpossible for old guys) to lift ones leg high enough when mounting to clear it. Also I suspect it had something to do with preventing a horse from bolting with a rifle in the bucket and the trooper not yet mounted.
Thanks to John for a great find.
Larry

Also I suspect it had something to do with preventing a horse from bolting with a rifle in the bucket and the trooper not yet mounted.

That could get important very quickly!

Yes, a thing like that could rapidly ruin your day.

I just started reading Horses In No Man's Land, by the way. I haven't read it far, but so far I'm really impressed. Anyone hear read it?

[Larry Emrick]

Hi Pat: I got it for Christmas and quickly read it twice because it has such a wealth of detail.
Larry

[Pat Holscher]

Hi Pat: I got it for Christmas and quickly read it twice because it has such a wealth of detail.
Larry

I've long thought that no accurate history of an event can be written close to the event. Earlier histories fail because the author and the audience are both in on certain sets of basic knowledge, and both influenced by certain basic assumptions and prejudices, so that certain things just don't get told, or get told inaccurately.

In the case of WWI, this may be particularly true as right after the war, it remained popular in some places, and became unpopular in others. Then the Second World War came and World War One was filtered through the thick filter of the second war. In some bizarre ways the combatants of World War One were faulted in all sorts of ways for failing not to see what would happen in WWII, and how it would be fought, or the war was just redrafted to take the second war into account. I think, therefore, that only very recently are we starting to get accurate histories on World War One, where it stands in its own right as a historical subject.