Doctrine and Reform in the British Cavalry 1880-1918

Doctrine and Reform in the British Cavalry 1880-1918
Author: Stephen Badsey
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
Total Pages: 386
Release: 2008-01-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780754664673

This book fills a significant gap in the historiography of British military thought, doctrine and practice for the First World War (1914-18) and the generation beforehand, including the Boer War (1899-1902). It investigates a major doctrinal controversy: what the role and tactics of horsed soldiers were to be in the face of increasing firepower and demands placed upon them by the expansion of mass armies. Contrary to widely held modern belief, the doctrine developed proved quite successful in dealing with the conditions that they faced on the battlefield.

Riding to Arms

Riding to Arms
Author: Charles Caramello
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
Total Pages: 310
Release: 2022-01-18
Genre: History
ISBN: 081318231X

Horses and horsemen played central roles in modern European warfare from the Renaissance to the Great War of 1914-1918, not only determining victory in battle, but also affecting the rise and fall of kingdoms and nations. When Shakespeare's Richard III cried, "A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!" he attested to the importance of the warhorse in history and embedded the image of the warhorse in the cultural memory of the West. In Riding to Arms: A History of Horsemanship and Mounted Warfare, Charles Caramello examines the evolution of horsemanship—the training of horses and riders—and its relationship to the evolution of mounted warfare over four centuries. He explains how theories of horsemanship, navigating between art and utility, eventually settled on formal manège equitation merged with outdoor hunting equitation as the ideal combination for modern cavalry. He also addresses how the evolution of firepower and the advent of mechanized warfare eventually led to the end of horse cavalry. Riding to Arms tracks the history of horsemanship and cavalry through scores of primary texts ranging from Federico Grisone's Rules of Riding (1550) to Lt.-Colonel E.G. French's Good-Bye to Boot and Saddle (1951). It offers not only a history of horsemen, horse soldiers, and horses, but also a survey of the seminal texts that shaped that history.