Obviously it took large amounts of food and supplies to maintain a calvary unit in the field.

I have read accounts of men being ordered to prepare food enough to last for 3 or 4 days.

Would this indicate that food was cooked in camp,packed in saddle bags or haversacks and carried by each individual soldier? If so what type of food was prepared...and how was spoliage delayed. Did tainted food cause direara and other physical ailments that hindered operating of the Calvary unit?

Where animals fed from forgage gleaned from the country surrounding the march...or were there supply wagons carring food for the animals?

Were most horses and mules shod or were they unshod for the most part. There must have been blacksmiths (farriers) attached to each calvary unit. How was the tools of their trade transported?

The reply posings should be very enlighting.