Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III FAMOUS GENERALS AND HORSEMANSHIP I HAVE referred to several of our present-time generals as being more than capable horsemen ; but good horsemanship was not a characteristic of some of the most brilliant generals of years gone by. In discussing this subject with a friend, he told me of a fact that does not appear in Sir George Arthur's book—viz. that Lord Kitchener, in the procession on the occasion of the Coronation of King George, rode the New Zealand bred winner of our Grand National, Moiffa, who was kindly lent to Kitchener by Major-General J. F. Brocklehurst, now Lord Ranksborough. It was to him that King Edward made a present of the gelding after he had failed, 'neath royal colours, to repeat the Liverpool victory he had scored in 1904. for Mr Spencer Gollan. I make mention of this because there are some folks who believe that if a horse has been trained and raced he is too apt to become unsettled and nervous and require a good horseman to ride him. This view, however, is very fallacious. In fact the reverse is actually the case, for the more experience a horse has the more knowledgeable and sensible he becomes. Lord Kitchener was no horseman. I have known men as tall and much of the same build as that great general who when riding looked like part of a horse; but K. of K. had an ugly seat and never appeared to be very comfortable when mounted. He had, of course, to take part in many processions, and I understand he looked best and enjoyed himself more when he was on the back of Democrat, an American bred and a remarkably well-named racer, being by Sensation out of Equality. I believe this horse was brought to this country by the late Lord William Beresford and eventually became the property of Richard Marsh, the King's trainer. It was Marsh who made a p...