Parting Shot

Parting Shot

 

 

Grooming the Cavalry Way

 

“In basic training in the 1920s we were told that on Sundays we had the choice of grooming our horse or going to church. But God help the man who went to church and then neglected to groom his horse.”

- George Moseley, Fort Bliss, Texas, November, 1927.

 

As soon as his first cavalry mount was assigned to him, George Moseley led him over to a picket line next to the stable with the other 17 recruits and their horses where they would receive their first lesson: How to groom a horse.

 

Cavalry drill instructors were intent on forming a team, a team that was half man and half horse, and they knew that the daily grooming sessions were an essential part of the process, a process that was also essential for the general health of the mounts. While brushing his horse, talking to him while he worked, the recruit demonstrated that he was a man to be trusted.

 

First, Sgt. Gobel, their DI, introduced them to the grooming tools:

• Currycomb—Used mainly to clean the horse brush. Never applied to “bony” parts of the horse: head, face, lower legs. Never used on mane or tail. Used to loosen mud but sparingly and with care. The currycomb had a hoof hook hinged to one side. Always hold the currycomb in the hand away from the head.

• Horse brush—The principal tool. Keep the arm stiff, put some weight into it. As often as necessary, clean the brush with the currycomb.

 • Grooming cloth—Cut from saddle blankets.

 

Next, a corporal led Sgt. Gobel’s personal mount out of the stable. Sgt. Gobel pointed at and named all the parts of the horse, then told the recruits that they would have to have all that memorized by next week. The sergeant and the corporal then demonstrated how a mount was groomed by the numbers, the cavalry way.

 
Sgt. Gobel: “Stand to heel!” The corporal stood at attention three feet behind Big Prince.

 

“Commence grooming:” Brush and clean front legs from knees down, rubbing under fetlocks and around coronets with brush and hand. 2 minutes. On near side with brush and currycomb, groom.

 

“Change.” Hind legs from the hocks down. 2 minutes.  Neck, shoulder, arm, elbow, back, side, flank, loins, croup, and hind leg to hock. 4 minutes.

 

“Change.” Off side, groom neck, shoulder, arm, elbow,back, flank, loins, croup, and hind leg to hock. 4 minutes.

 

“Change.” On near side again, groom chest between forelegs, belly, and between hind legs. 4 minutes.

 

“Change.” Brush head, ears and throat, and with the hand rub the throat between the forks of the lower jaw. 1 minute. With grooming cloth, or a damp sponge or cloth.

 

“Change.” Brush mane and forelock.

 

“Change.” Brush out tail. 2 minutes; 1-2 minutes if the parts are foul. Wipe out eyes, nostrils, muzzle, dock, sheath, and up between hind legs.

 

“Change.” Clean out hoofs. 2 minutes.  Left front, left rear, right front, right rear. 2 minutes.

 

“Cease grooming. Stand to heel.” The corporal reassumed his position behind the horse.

 

Under normal circumstances, a cavalry horse was groomed in 20 to 25 minutes. Cavalry mounts were rarely washed, but when they were they were wiped dry as quickly as possible, never allowed to dry by evaporation alone. The exception to this was the tail, which was washed with soap and warm water.

 

Cavalry horses were groomed every morning outside on a picket line while the stable was being cleaned. They were cleaned after every workout when the pores of their skin were open and the grooming brush could truly do its job.

 

Grooming after exercise was never delayed. A trooper would run his fingers through his mount’s hair. If his fingers came away clean, he had done a satisfactory job. In the field or on campaign, a trooper always took care of his mount before he gave any thought to his own comfort.

 

Was all that really necessary?

 

Let’s go back to 1916. Pancho Villa attacked Columbus, New Mexico on March 9, and within days, three “flying columns” of U.S. Cavalry spread out across Chihuahua on his trail. Several small engagements were fought. Some troops rode more than 1000 miles in a month. Trooper E.A. Capen was 22 when he rode into Mexico. His troop lost only one horse, and Capen reckoned the mount foundered because it got into locoweed. Decades later, Retired Major Capen revealed what the troopers did to maintain their mounts during a tough campaign in hostile country: “We kept them clean all the time, and brushed them off, took care of them just like we would if we were in camp. You had to do that because if you were on foot you were in trouble.”

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