To be clear, I got the sense that these horse (Royal Scots Greys?) simply defaulted to their morning rituals (rather than any retraining) once they were healed - and that is where the good Doctor's wonderment (along with others) originated.
@Waterloo50 can probably whistle up post-1800 British Napoleonic daily stable calls better than I can, but I'd not be surprised if squad drills were not a daily performance after the first stable call and/or breakfast.
I believe that the standard morning routine of British Cavalry hasn’t changed from the 1800s, 6:00 AM roll call, 6:20 stables, mucking out, followed by grooming, exercising the horses, feeding and more grooming and stable work. The horses are exercised together, some changes are made to the morning routine especially if the regiment is on ceremonial duties.
As for squad drills post 1800, I don’t believe there were any, the reason being that officers led from the front, officers of that period viewed their responsibility as organising the cavalry formation on the battlefield field, giving direct orders and leading by example, simply put, officers followed British Napoleonic Cavalry doctrine which meant that many officers viewed training as a waste of time and effort. Even the introduction of an officers college (Sandhurst) couldn’t make a difference, less than 4% of all cavalry officers bothered to attend college, they didn’t need to, they could buy a commission, which pretty much explains the massive flaws in cavalry tactics.
If you do a bit of digging about, you’ll find that the Duke of Wellington was a big part of the problem, he tried to maintain a tight grip of control over the cavalry brigades but the brigades pretty much did their own thing, it’s just not possible for one man to keep his eyes on the cavalry, very often he’d issue an order and the eager cavalry would charge off into the distance without any idea of what they were supposed to be doing.
Here’s a great comment made by a French observer of British Napoleonic cavalry. ‘
Your horses are the finest in the world, and your men ride better than any continental soldiers; with such materials, the English cavalry ought to have done more than has evert been accomplished by them on the field of battle. The great deficiency is in your officers, who have nothing to recommend them but their dash and sitting well in their saddles; indeed, as far as my experience goes, your English generals have never understood the use of cavalry. The British officer seems to be impressed with the conviction that he can dash and ride over everything, as if the art of war were precisely the same as fox hunting”.
So there you have it, the British cavalry looked great, had the right tools to be effective but they were led by a bunch of muppets. Civil war cavalry on the other hand in my opinion was far more effective and far better applied on the battlefield than the British Napoleonic cavalry ever was, the difference being that civil war cavalry had a far better command structure and a better understanding of cavalry tactics and training. I appreciate that the civil war cannot be compared to the mass cavalry charges of the Napoleonic era but even the civil war mounted infantry was put to better use than the British Napoleonic dragoon’s.