does "no one at the finish"mean "no one could reach the terminal point"? As shown in late-19th-century photographs, the entire school at Saumur—lieutenants, second lieutenants, and horsemen, black jackets and blue jackets (never pale enough for the men of the light-horse!), training horses, race horses and cavalry horses—whipped itself into a murderous frenzy while participating in notoriously difficult trials. It took a total of seventy-seven falls to make a cavalryman. Some Sundays at Verrie more spills were registered than starts. No one at the finish! Crazy officers. But what charm! What elegance! With their foulard caps, slender waists (corseted, some said), perfectly fitted jackets, and collars that could never be too high, men indisputably had the advantage in that fin-de-siécle era. Meanwhile women—with their overload of ornament— looked like haystacks.