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Originally Posted by Icelander
What does it say about training remounts? How long does it take for a trained riding horse to be acclimatised to battlefield conditions and familiar with drill?
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Unfortunately the book does only deal with the stuff of immediate use to the reservist and much is taken for granted. And of course I can't use the index properly as I don't know the military terms. Also, there are 7 pages missing - those dealing with travelling.
I've always wanted to know more about cavalry training so I have ordered a book with the title "Anleitung zur Ausbildung der Cavallerie-Remonten" which should cover this exhaustively. This will take several weeks. I've also ordered the Cavalry Field Manual of 1890. I hope this one has all the pages. As soon as I know more I will post it. But it seems like the US was held in high esteem when it came to cavalry training as even the ultra-conservative Austrian Ulans sent one of their trainers to the US and the Germans tried to copy the uni-color squadron of the 7th US Squad.
So the US should be pretty much state of the art in the late 19th, early 20th century cavalry training.
P.S.: I found a lecture on cavalry training. There the lecturer states that 3 year old colts were used. I am no horseman so my vocabulary is limited.
Training began in September.
September: accustoming the horse to the rider
October: Tact, "relinquishedness" (sorry, I am at a loss what "Losgelassenheit" means. Something like "less restraint")
November-February: More stuff I can only translate directly. Something with more "uprightness, dependence, and permeability" (Verbesserung der Anlehnung, des Geraderichtens und der Durchlässigkeit)
March-September: Accustoming the horse to military noises
October-December: Elan and collection
January-March: further training of collection
April: Horse is "mustered", at the beginning young horsed don't participate in bigger exercises