Dismounted
A facet often ignored in books, movies, and shows portraying horse cavalry of any era was the downfall that, whenever fighting dismounted, you could not simply allow your precious horses to mill about or else you may never see them again.
This meant that typically as much as 25 percent of the force would have to take the other horses to the rear with the gear, leaving the dragoons now seriously understrength.
A portrait of such an evolution is Fredric Remington’s circa 1890 painting, “Dismounted: The Fourth Trooper Moving the Led Horses.”
From the Clark MuseumÂ
Dismounted: The Fourth Trooper Moving the Led Horses, Remington