As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
Elizabeth Custer noted that both her husband, George Armstrong, and Nelson Appleton Miles, both Cavalry men were of the same lithe build in weighing in at 160 pounds and approximately 6 ft in height.
This was the prototype of an American Cavalry man in not being a burden to his horse, athletic in saddle, and having reach with saber, rifle and pistol in dealing with an enemy.
I discovered though a piece by Sir Richard Green Price of Britain in this late era, written under his pseudonym, "Borderer", a treatise published in the Baily's Magazine which was advocating an interesting use of British flesh.
To understand this, the British had suffered greatly in America due to exposure in 1776, Burgoyne being an example. Their horse was equally a problem in every war outside of Europe afterward. The British Thoroughbred or Shire was a pampered type, and it simply could not survive heat, no water, being underfed and exposure to disease.
To this the British started purchasing Syrian Arab crosses and later American Western horses for their wars. Save the American types, the Asian horses from Crimea to Mongolia were 14 hand horses, which were mere ponies.
A typically tall Cavalry type like Custer would be too much leg for horses as this, and a Napoleon was instead more suited.
That is what Sir Richard seized upon in calling for a Lilliputin Horse or Brigade, of light Cavalry, who could readily be dispatched over great distances quickly and be chosen from this prototype.
The Lilliputin would be a Trooper who was under 5 feet in height, and under 5.6 feet tall. They would weigh not over 11 stone, which would be again in that George Custer prototype of 154 pounds as a stone is 14 pound.
They would have good chest measurement, which might sound odd, until one knows that the chest is where the lung is, and a fighting man must have a good oxygen provider for endurance.
These would be nasty little stout war implements who would put the bugger into any wog.
It certainly made sense to put short people onto short horses, as their little legs would require twice the step in marching and shoe wear. It was a perfect fit really and the economy of feeding small men and horses was a great savings in keeping them in the field.
These horses could out distance the upbred horses of modern cavalry and time and again bested the British in the Boer War.
It was a brilliant military strategy, but of course where has brilliance ever been adopted by any military by the ruling regime.
In the study though of horses for husbandry of service, in most cases the 14 hand package and the short person are superior to the giant eating itself to death.
agtG
