Many British officers in the Peninsular War were mounted on fast thoroughbreds, which were their own property. A French officer who served in the war wrote the following account.
The English have a habit of sending single mounted officers to watch the movements of a hostile army. They get within the enemy's cantonments, or cross their line of march, always just out of range. It was vain to give chase to them. The moment the British officer saw any such approach, he would ride off at such a speed that our men lost sight of him, and perhaps saw him soon after a league further on, note-book in hand, at the top of some hillock, continuing his observations. This practice might have saved Napoleon at Waterloo by affording him a warning of the Prussians' arrival.
半島戰爭期間，不少英國軍官的坐騎，都是飛快的純種馬，本為他們私人豢養。一個法國軍官曾參與半島戰爭，有以下記述。
英軍習慣派遣軍官，單人匹馬，去觀察敵軍行動。他們會走進敵軍駐紮地，或橫越他們行軍的路線，卻總是在射程之外。追捕他們只會徒勞。他們一見我們來追，就會策馬絕塵而去，迅速不見蹤影，但我們走不到三、四英里，也許又會見到那個軍官，立馬小山崗上，拿着筆記本，繼續窺看。拿破崙假如也有這樣的安排，在滑鐵盧戰役之中，事先知道普魯士軍隊會來參戰，或者就不會戰敗。