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THE HORSE
AND THE WAR
CAPT. SIDNEYGALTREY
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THE HORSE AND THE WAR
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On the Road to Victory.
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The Horse and
The War
By
CAPTAIN SIDNEY GALTREY
ILLUSTRATED FROM DRAWINGS BY
CAPTAIN LIONEL EDWARDS
AND FROM PHOTOGRAPHS
WITH A NOTE BY
Field-Marshal Sir DOUGLAS HAIG,
K.T., G.C.B., G.C.V.O.
LONDON
PUBLISHED AT THE OFFICES OF "COUNTRY LIFE," 20 TAVISTOCK
STREET, COVENT GARDEN, W.C.2, AND BY GEORGE NEWNES, LTD.,
8-11 SOUTHAMPTON STREET, STRAND, W.C.2.                     MCMXVIII
RIJKSUNIVERSITEIT UTRECHT
BIBLIOTHEEK
DIERGENEESKUNDE
UTRECHT
1471 0887
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To
THE OUARTERMASTER-GENERAL OF THE FORCES
(Lieut.-General Sir John Cowans, G.CM.G., K.C.B., M.V.O.
OF WHOSE IMMENSE DEPARTMENT
OF OUR ARMY ORGANIZATION
THE REMOUNT AND VETERINARY SERVICES
ARE BRANCHES.
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CONTENTS
CHAP
War-Horses (by G. M. Jeudwine)
I. Introductory .......
II. The Raw Material . .
III.     Buying British Remounts in America (by Brig,-Gen. T
IV.     The Finished Article          .....
V. The Gallant Mule
VI.    The Crossing Overseas .....
VII.    Base Remount Dépôts in France—I ...
VIII.    Base Remount Dépôts in Franxe—II
IX.     On Active Service ......
X.    Work at the Front ......
XI.    Triumphs of the Army Veterinary Service
XII.     Horses and Mules in Sickness ....
XIII.     Treatment in the Veterinary Hospitals .
Canadians (by W. H. Ogilvie) ....
XIV.     "Cast and Sold" ......
XV. Percheron Horses in England.
The Remount Train (by W. H. Ogilvie)
PAGE
12
19
27
30
43
54
61
70
76
B3
90
96
104
110
ni
122
131
Bâte)
R. F
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ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
On the road to victory .......        . Frontispiece
Landing of American horses at an English Port
From the ship to the Remount Dépôt
The Field Gun Horse from America.
Testing an alleged riding-horse before a British Government purchase
Branding a British Government purchase in N. America
Method of loading a remount train in America
Picketed in the open and fully exposed to the weather
The " Finished Article " recognizes " Feed "
The right-shaped and wrong-shaped mule
The wrong and the right way of leading a mule
Often a little more serious than " a certain liveliness "
Tying a bucking mule close to the head of a quiet mule
Mules in their paradisc
Top deck passengers
A quiet crossing to France
The transport safely docked
A scène in the Indian Base Remount Dépôt
First prize winners at a divisional horse show
New issues at a Remount Dépôt
Watering at a base Remount Dépôt in France
Remounts trekking from a base dépôt
A winter's scène on the road to the Front
A summer's scène off the road
Crossing the Yser ......
The phlegmatic mule is impervious to adjacent shell bursts
An old trench will make a capital stable when the sun shines
Cavalry in movement .......
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ILLUSTRATIONS
10
Packhorses carrying ammûnition
Heavy draught horses bringing up reinforcements
Horses being treated for mange
A glimpse of a Veterinarv Hospital in France .
A victim of sarcoptic mange ....
The same horse two months after the dip treatment
The mange patient ......
The pack mule getting on with his job .
A team of gallant American greys charging through the mud
Expériences in mud          .....
An opération in a Veterinarv Hospital
A long range of warm stabling in an old brickyarcl
The uses of camouflage at a tented Veterinarv Hospital in Fr;
Branding cast horses with a " C " on the near shoulder
On the road to the place of sale ....
" Who'll give me another half-guinea ? " .
Good enough looking and well enough bred, but------
The start for the " Caster's " new home .
To celebrate the bargain or to effect a quick re-sale
An American Percheron sire .        .        .        .        .
A grey French Percheron mare, now in England
A second example of the grey Percheron from France
An inspection of newly-landed Percheron mares in Englancl
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From the Commander-in-Chief
of the British Forces in France
The power of an army as a
striking weapon dépends on its mobility.
Mobility is largely dépendent on the
suitability and fitness of animais for
army work.
1 hope that this account of our
army horsen and mules will bring home to
the peoples of the British Empire and
the United States the wisdom of br*eeding
animais for the two military virtueo of
hardiness and activity, and I would add
that the best animais for army purposes
are also the most valuable for agriculture,
commerce and sport.
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WAR-HORSES
By G. M. JEUDWINE
l/J/E combed you ouf jrom happy silences
''           On thymey downs ;
From stream-veined meadowlands alight with crowns
Of buttercups, where, for you, shapely trees
Mode spacious canopies.
Nom (day and night) unsheltered, in the mud
You droop and ache ;
While ruthless hands, for human purpose sake,
Fashion the complex tools which spill your blood
And ours in rising fioocl.
No deputation (yet) your wage controls.
Ungauged, unpaid
Your overtime. The war blast leaves no blade
Of green for you—poor ghosts of happy foals !—
Munching your minished doles
In ravages by human frcnzy mc.de.
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CHAPTER I
Introductory
It was a pleasure to me to findfrom the admirable condition of the horses and
mules of the various units I inspected that the new Armies fully uphold our national
réputation as good horse-masters.—H.M. the King in his letter to Field-Marshal
Sir Douglas Haig, dated France, August 13, 1918.
THIS volume is not the outcome of a solemn and virtuous résolve to write
a book. It was not started with any idea that it would one day be
a volume. It had modest beginnings even though it was conceived of a great
subject such as no other writer in the fascinating history and lives of horses
has had to comtemplate. It was just the writer's great good fortune, since
war had to be. Those modest beginnings took t-he form of a contributed
article, then another, and so on, until the séquence seemed to insist on being
shaped into a cohérent whole, which now émerges as a book on the hundreds
of thousands of horses and mules that hâve been gallantly aiding the Empire's
Cause. As I glance through the pages now I expérience a sensé of satisfaction
that its original character remains. It was intended to be, and, indeed, could
be no other than, a fleeting narrative of the vast and wonderful part played
by our war-horses without which our Armies of millions would hâve been
immobile and impotent. The self-appointed task was not without its difh-
culties and could hâve been approached in no other spirit than that of dimdence.
The former were made less difficult by reason of the writer's own war service,
which brought him to terms of easy intimacy with the subject ; the latter
simply had to be overcome with a consciousness that there might perhaps
be too much dimdence in continuing to ignore this important aspect of our
making of war.
For it is certain that the people of this country, of our Empire, and of
the countries of our Allies know little or nothing of what this book professes
to tell—of the horse and mule that help to move the gun, the transport wagon
loaded with food, ammunition or stores, and in hundreds of ways keep
Armies moving and make them formidable in offence and sure in defence.
Surely the volume needs no better justification than this ignorance of the
people. They could not well be otherwise, for I hâve failed to notice that
our war-horses hâve had their agents of propaganda. The people only learn
when failures are exposed and things are revealed. Our war-horses and mules
hâve been bought, literally, by the million, and the taxpayer has contributed,
and will contribute, to the many millions they hâve cost the State. Informa-
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THE HORSE AND THE WAR
14
tion and publicity bureau? hâve eau ed even the Silent Navy to break its
silence so that the people should know of its existence and history-making
doings. Land and Air Forces hâve wisely been exploited by experts and
laymen appointed for the purpose, and one cannot doubt that every one is
better for the little knowledge thereby imparted. But the silent, plodding,
uncomplaining horse or mule, each bearing the brand of national ownership,
hâve never yet failed, and so they hâve never been heard of outside the Armies.
May I hope this volume will bring them some little crédit, some little gratitude
for the debt, ever mounting higher and higher, we may never pay, simply
because we may never realize how great it is.
I wonder if people understand that in order to keep pace with the require-
ments of our Armies we hâve had to buyjhorses and mules running well into
seven figures. I wonder ! Can you, for instance, imagine that whereas the
Army possessed about 25,000 horses on August 4, 1914, we must now own at
least a million ? And in the interval of four years that million and many
more—for, of course, we must allow for the heavy wastage from death and
disease which has gone on in ail the théâtres of war from day to day—hâve
had to be bought in ail parts of the world and brought by our ships to
Europe and the East. We hâve bought colossal numbers in North America,
and others in South America, Australia and New Zealand, India, Spain,
Portugal, South Africa, while camels, oxen and donkeys hâve been purchased
for use in those théâtres to which they were peculiarly suited. We may assume
that the four or five hundred thousand bought up to date in the United King-
dom and the seven or eight hundred thousand bought and shipped from North
America hâve been employed in this country and France in the same way as
horses from Australasia would naturally be most conveniently used in Egypt,
India and Mesopotamia.
You may ask if it is not a fact that motor haulage has largely displaced
horses. Obviously after the figures I hâve given above it has not done so. To
a limited extent it has unquestionably done so or there would be no reason for
the existence of 1 he bewildering growth of the Army Service Corps Motor Trans-
port Companies, the immense " parks " of motor lorries in France and those
other countries where the Allies are fighting, and, again, the tractors which are
now part of ail heavy siège artillery units. But what of the horses ? Again
let me emphasize the significance of the figures which, by the way, are neces-
sarily vaguèTfor reasons that must be well understood, without being too vague
to convey no real meaning. I, at any rate, hâve often heard the remark :
" But surely horses hâve ceased to be in modem warfare. One never, or ver y
rarely, hears of cavalry. And isn't ail the rest done by motors ? " The belief
is typical of he^folF left behind. Hence there may be at least one virtue in
the appearance of this volume, if it should succeed in shattering the absurd^}
notion by which our brave war-horse is denied the crédit that he is so fairly
entitled to.                                 ^^ma^^^jX ^
What is the artillery that preponderates in modem warfare ? The field
gun, of course, which is the weapon of the Royal Field Artillery and Royal
Horse Artillery. Each must hâve its own team of cenditioned horses, and
so when you count up the guns in a battery, the batteries in a brigade, the
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INTRODUCTORY
15
brigades in a division, the divisions in a Corps, and the Corps in our Armies
on ail the Fronts you arrive at a first calculation of the vital necessity of
horses and mule in many tens of thousands, the wastage among which has to
be watched with the greatest care in order that the establishments prescribed
may be rigidly maintained. For easy mobility and flexibility in rapid
movement are vital and essential in the making of successful warfare.
Then with the Artillery of every Division there must be a Divisional
Ammunition Column, which means several hundred more animais, and again
there is the Divisional Train Transport, chiefly horsed by weighty draught
horses, while you must also bear in mind that every battalion of infantry has
itsown transport of at leasthalf a hundred animais. Think also of the tremen-
dous variety of other Units (especially those connected with Machine Guns
and 1he Royal Engineers) whichgo to make an Army in being, each having
horses or mules, or both, alTotteci to it. One has in mind Labour and Road
Construction Companies, Railway Companies, Forestry Companies, units on
Lines of Communication and the Médical Service.
What of the cavalry ? There is an idea that it has ceased to exist since
those early days when it did invaluable work in the retreat from Mons.
Undoubtedly it seemed to pass into the limbo of things forgotten and out-of-date
during the years of trench warfare, and no doubt both first and second Une
cavalry were put to more active uses than merely watching and waiting for
the word to dash into the break in the barrier that never really came. I am
writing, of course, of the era of trench warfare.
Was it not Mr. H. G. Wells, that genius of imagination, who wrote during
the era reîerred to that the day of cavalry had gone for ever ? It would be
paying his genius and réputation a poor compliment to say that many people,
both in and out of khaki, were not influenced by his pronouncement. Yet
Jérusalem would never hâve been entered but for General Allenby's Cavalry ;
the crusade into the heart of Palestine was distinguished by the fine exploits
of Yeomen of Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Buckinghamshire, and Berkshire ;
but fer Indian cavalry Allenby's brilliant coup by which two Turkish armies
were smashed would not hâve been possible ; while the success and gallantry
oî the Dorsetshire Yeomanry at Matruh in the Senussi fill a sparkling page in
near Eastern military opérations. The advance to Baghdad and beyond along
the shores of the Tigris was not made possible by guns and infantry alone.
So, too, in France, when comparatively open warfare displaced the stalemate
of trench warfare, we had cavalry coming into its own again. With an
enemy in retreat cavalry must be présent to direct, aid, and hurry the victorious
sweep onwards. In my opinion the day must come in the closing stages of the
war when cavalry will play its own great part. It will operate at the endasit
did at the beginning but with this différence, that cavalry when used in an
advance in conjunction with modem methods and engines of war must be
more vitally important and essential than when used in defence.
If, therefore,.I hâve p%de it clear that horses and mules are necessarily
taking a big^ârem the burden of this gigantic war it will surely be appropriate
that I should sketch briefly the methods adopted by our Army Authorities in
dealing with the arriving crowds from across the Atlantic preparatory to their
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i6                               THE HORSE AND THE WAR
going fit and well on active service to France and elsewhere. In this con
nection it will interest the reader to draw some comparison between require-
ments in the South African war and the vast demands on the world's horse
population since August, 1914. For instance, I find the average strength
in horses and mules in South Africa was approximately 150,000. I shall not
be far off the mark if I say that the strength in 1916 of animais engaged with
the British Armies is close on a million. There is a startling différence between
the 70,000 horses which were bought in the United Kingdom during the South
African war, that is, from October, 1899, to June, 1902, and the 450,000 which
the United Kingdom had furnished for the: Army between August, 1914, and
the middle of 1918.                                                                        oji^wk^
I am permitted to say that actually 165,000 horses were irrtpressed in the
United Kingdom in the first twelve days of the war. That was a great achieve-
ment for which the Remcunt Department of the War Office must be given
ample crédit. Its organization proved effective when thus highly tried, and
though I daresay numbers of horses were bought which were not really suited
to military uses, the fact stands out in history that the despatch to France of
the original Expeditionary Force and the reinforcements which were immedi-
ately drafted over were ne ver once delayed for want of horses. And in spite
of casualties, sickness, and ever-swelling demands commensuraï e with the
astonishing growth of our Army, immensely augmented as it was by the
arrivai of Impérial Forces from overseas, the splendid war-horses and mules
hâve always been forthcoming. This surely points more eloquently than any
words can do to the foresight, " bigness " of outlook, and judgment of the
Quartermaster-General of the Forces and his Director of Remounts.
The reader must take a big view if the real meaning of the horsing of our
Forces at home and abroad and ail the organization and cost to the nation
involved is to be appreciated. You hâve to think not in tens of thousands
but hundreds of thousands, contemplating in passing the cost of each indivi-
dual horse and mule and the immense shipping tonnage which was necessary
for the transport from America to the United Kingdom or the Mediterranean
of, shall we say, seven or eight hundred thousand animais. An odd hundred
thousand or so seems to matter so little ! Think also of the tens of thousands
sent from Australia and China to India for our doings east of Suez. Remember
I am writing in th.3 Autumn of 1918, when the machinery of supply is still
running so that the gaps created by the dreadful wastage of devastating war
shall be filled and new units and ventures properly equipped with animais.
Thank goodness the marvellous réservoir over the seas shows no appréciable
signs of running dry, and therefore I am at any rate spared the ordeal of
having to discuss an alarming eventuality of the kind. It may, of course, be
otherwise after the Americans hâve helped themselves liberally in their own
land. Naturally their animais must be in proportion to the vastness of their
great Expeditionary Force to Europe.
I shall not be far wrong if I suggest that of the total brought to this
country, the horses were in the proportion, roughly, of three to one mule. On
the other hand they were chiefly mules that were sent direct to Salonika and
Egypt, both théâtres of opérations being better suited to the hybrid than
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INTRODUCTORY
!/
to the horse. Apart from them we must bear in mind the many thousands
which were brought over by the early Canadian Contingents, the thousands
that came with the Australians and New Zealanders to Egypt, and the thou-
sands again that accompanied the Indian Divisions which landed in France
late in 1914 and early in 1915. If I told you of the hundreds of thousands
that hâve crossed the English Channel to France you would be astonished,
and yet it follows that the shiploads from the United States and Canada were
destined in due course for France. Has it not been the case that for four years
past there has been an almost daily stream flowing from England to France—
ail finished and fit horses and mules ? South Africa sent many thousands of
horses, mules, donkeys and oxen to East Africa for the prosecution of that
campaign, and India, drawing on Australasia, China and the Argentine, has
equipped our Forces in Mesopotamia.
In England the system instituted at the outset and perfected with time
and expérience has been to take in the new arrivais from overseas at three
large receiving dépôts. Each was conveniently situated close to an important
point of arrivai. Remember that thèse new-comers were unfit, untrained, and
" raw " in every sensé. The fact is emphasized in a later chapter, and it is
merely mentioned now in order to point out that it was the function of thèse
large receiving dépôts to begin the work of^leaning up,/4rimming out, and
■y training of the animais. They would then be distributed among smaller
Dépôts, and especially among Reserve Artillery Brigades, and Reserve
Batteries. Thus they would take the Light Draught horses and mules, while
riding-horses of the trooper class would find their way to Reserve Cavalry
Dépôts. It is the task of thèse Reserve Units to train both men and horses
in order to provide the drafts for overseas. At Dépôts, which specialized in
the interesting work, ofhcers' chargers of the incomparable thoroughbred,
hunter, and polo pony breeds, such as no other country in the world can
produce, were made to complète their " schooling."
In meeting the demands from France, therefore, the Remount Directorate
at the War Office would call on the Reserve Units to provide each a quota of
fit animais in proportion to its total strength in animais. As the fit animais
were withdrawn so their places would be filled by unfits. It is the practice
to-day, and it is why remount work has extended and expanded from the
limits of the Department's own Dépôts to thèse important units included
among the Forces in Great Britain. A large issuing Dépôt has been the
collecting station of ail animais earmarked for France. It, too, is situated
close to the port of embarkation and may be well likened to the neck of the
bottle through which ail our war-horses and mules must pass on this the last
stage of their long journey from the Western States of America and Canada to
France.
If I admit at the outset that this book is incomplète and no more than
one of impressions, based, however, on first-hand observation, I can at any
rate advance the very good excuse that it is being written while we are still
at the crisis of the war. There were obvious difficulties confronting any
writer undertaking the task. They were difficulties conséquent on not being
able to survey the whole history from start to finish, in having things rather
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THE HORSE AND THE WAR
out of perspective through the necessity of having to keep close to the surface
of things. There were facts I might hâve revealed which must be kept sealed
for sound military reasons. Wonderful things and amazing figures will be
available for the light of the open book when the end cornes. Till then I
hâve to beg the reader's forbearance with any attempt to.pièce together certain
es ential détails in narrative form, beginning with the purchase of our war
horses and mules, continuing with their préparation for active service, and
concluding with their subséquent welfare in health and sickness in the main
théâtre of war.
After ail, however, four years hâve passed during which much has happened
to more than justify this modest volume of praisc of our animais and those
who hâve had to do with their management and employment. It will prove
more than justified also if ail in uniform, from the highest to the lowest, who
hâve the responsibility of our war animais in their charge spare no endeavour
to exercise every possible care in order that wastage shall be kept at the
lowest possible mark. We must realize that the world's horse supply is not
inexhaustible and that the drain on it since 1914 has been stupendous. The
efhciency of our Armies dépends on the préservation of our horse supply, and it
is due both to ourselves as a nation and to the horses themselves that the fact
should be understood. I believe that every soldier who has to do with horse
or mule has come to love them for what they are and the grand work they hâve
done and are doing in and out of the death zones. I want the public who hâve
had no opportunity to know to share that admiration. If I despaired of their
doing so I should not, in the midst of strenuous times, hâve voluntarily and
most willingly taken up my pen. Circumstances brought me into intimate
touch with them, and because I felt that the outside world ought to know, and
indeed wanted to know, I begged for the opportunity to assume the task.
The importunate man succeeded at last in enlisting the help of the War Office
without which the necessary facilities for first-hand knowledge of the subject
in ail its phases would not hâve been forthcoming. So' it is that I offer my
grateful thanks and acknowledgments to the Quartermaster-General of the
Forces (Sir John Cowans, G.CM.G., K.C.B., M.V.O.), and to my own Chief,
the Director of the Remount Department (Major-General Sir W. H. Birkbeck,
K.C.B., CM.G.), for their practical help. To Sir John Cowans, the most
distinguished and brilliant administrator of the war, I am further indebted
for permission to dedicate the volume, thereby imparting unique distinction
to it.
At my request Brigadier-General T. R. L. Bâte, who held a high position
with the British Remount Commission in the United States and Canada, and
now holds an important post elsewhere, has kindly contributed the chapter
on the methods of purchase in those countries. It is a pleasure to acknow-
ledge that "The Horse and ihe War " owes much to the beautiful illustrations
by Captain Lionel Edwards, whose fine work must unquestionably gain in
value from the fact that as a Remount Officer of much expérience he has
sketched from life and actual knowledge and not from imagination and
hearsay.
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CHAPTER II
The Raw Material
w
E shall win the war. Of course. It may be sooner or later ; but
though, as the Prime Minister once suggested, the road may be rough
and stony, the vista of peace be still obscured by thick mists, and the climb
to victory tortuous and anxious, we shall win. And when that greatest
day in history cornes, and praise and honours and medals are being lavished
among the armies of the victorious nations, will a thought be spared, one
wonders, for the horse and the mule in their tens and hundreds of thousands
that hâve contributed to the victory ? Assuredly the vast and wonderful
burden they hâve borne will touch the horse and animal lover. He will
realize how indispensable they hâve been to victory, how vital to the Allies'
successful prosecution of the war. But the gênerai public in the land of the
pre-eminent thoroughbred may never quite realize, because they hâve never
understood, the importance of the horse for war purposes. When they begin
to realize how the horse and the mule hâve been as essential in their way to
defeating the Huns as " shells, shells, and more shells," they will begin to
understand something of the debt they owe.
They will understand why in years gone by the horse-breeding societies
of the United Kingdom begged the State to aid the breeding of horses for the
Army. So, too, it will be accepted as évidence of Britain's unreadiness for
the World War, if such évidence be necessary, that the country's resources
for horsing the Expeditionary Forces, apart from the original Expeditionary
Force of " contemptibles, " were hopelessly and ridiculously inadéquate.
How, therefore, was the tremendous deficiency made good ? Whence did the
millions of horses and mules come ? And what has been the manner of their
coming and going to and from the United Kingdom ? My object is to convey
some idea to the reader of how the problem of the nation's horse supply for
the armies was solved ; to tell something of the conquest by the imported
horse and mule from North America ; and why it is that of ail the breeds and
cross-breeds of horses in the world the one from the United States and Canada
has proved paramount and incomparably the best.
What we should hâve done had not North America's vast contribution
to the world's war horse supply been a real fact, goodness knows. It is an
uncomfortable reflection which, fortunately, need not be dwelt on. What
we do know is that the amazing resources were known to exist—they were
known in the South African War—and that in the early days of this war
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THE HORSE AND THE WAR
20
they were tapped by British Remount Commissions with astonishing speed and
prodigality. There could never hâve been any half-hearted buying, or the
flow to Europe would hâve been interrupted with disastrous conséquences.
And this, too, quite apart from the fact that France has bought as extensively
in America as we hâve, in addition to Italy's purchases ! After ail, apart from
the great part played by motor transport—think of France's taxi-cab Army
that issued from Paris and virtually decided the battle of the Marne !■—the
horse and the mule were essential for the guns, the transport, the ammunition
columns, and ail arms of mounted troops. The horse supply in ail the théâtres
of war had to correspond ad libitum with the bewildering growth in numbers
of men and guns.
Let me invite the reader to meet the "horse and the mule as they arrive
at a port in the United Kingdom and endeavour to give some idea of their
personalities, their characteristics and, as impartially as may be, examine their
merits and demerits. For, surely, it cannot fail to be of absorbing interest
to know ïomething of a more or less intimate nature about the horse that
has made a great réputation in this war, that has saved the situation where
the horsing of the armies is concerned, that, in short, has most convincingly
" made good." Some day it will be revealed exactly how many horses
were bought by agents of the Remount Service in the United Kingdom, and
astonishing figures will be forthcoming, when the proper time arrives, to show
the great numbers imported. Then it will be realized how immensely we hâve
been dépendent on the imports, and what a debt is owing to them, and at the
same time to what a desperate pass we should hâve corne had those imports
not been available.
Let it be understood that in discussing the war-horse of to-day the
individual in question is the animal officially classed as the " Light Draught."
He is the outstanding success of the war. The other conspicuous success is
the mule, but he is not a horse. He is just a mule—a law and character unto
himself—and, therefore, calling for separate treatment, and to be judged
only from his own unique and peculiar standpoint. We in the United Kingdom
hâve produced our breeds and classes for war purposes. The Shire horse by
size, weight and physique naturally filled the rôle of the heavy draught. The
thoroughbred, the three-quarter and half-bred thoroughbred just as naturally
hâve played the part of the charger, and no horse ever bred in America can
beat the British riding-horse with thoroughbred blood in his veins. The
pony bred in thèse islands has been a valuable asset, and hereafter many a
man will bear tribute to his charger which has been a pony and classed for
service purposes as an officer's cob. The Hackney horse has been utilized,
but this breed produced but a " handful " as it were of the hundreds of
thousands bought for our Armies.
The point to bear in mind is that, though America has sent us chargers,
troop horses and cobs, that country must always be gratefully remembered
for the light draught. He is the horse which has corne in numbers quite out
of proportion to other classes. He is the horse most typical of the millions
of imports. Hardiness, placidity of temper, strength and power, virility of
constitution, with what is called " good heart," versatility and extraordinary
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Landing of American horses at an English Port.
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THE HORSE AND THE WAR
22
activity for his size and weight—thèse are characteristics that hâve impressed
themselves for ail time on ail who hâve had to do with him. The riding-horse
from America is on the whole deceptive. He is usually high in the withers,
suggesting that the shoulders are sloping and that he must carry the saddle in
the right place. The truth is that the shoulder is straight more often than
not, and the scapula narrow with a conséquent loss of freedom in
action which the riding man perfectly well understands. There are, of course,
exceptions, and, perhaps, what is lost in positive correctness of action is
compensated for by that measure of comfort to be derived from the " lope " or
" tittupping " gait of the Yankee saddle horse.
But, whatever the class of horse, the fact remains that when they arrive
in this country they corne to us raw and rôugh to a degree, unkempt, ragged
and mère caricatures of horses. We may pass over the time they spend in
the large réception and " Seasoning " Dépôts in America—that period during
which they are brought together for inspection and purchase by the accredited
buyers of the Remount Service, with their subséquent rail journey to a port
of embarkation on the east coast of the United States—and introduce ourselves
to them as they are first met on the transport which has brought them to the
English port of disembarkation. As the war has gone on the arrangements
on shipboard hâve improved with expérience ; and we may be sure that
everything possible has been done to make the voyage as bearable as possible
for the animais, so that loss should be avoided if humanly possible. Such
minimum loss has been made possible, we may take it, through the employment
of painstaking, conscientious and intelligent individuals in charge, judicious
feeding to suit the unnatural conditions, and the observance of sanitary and
hygienic conditions.
The results in such cases hâve been splendid. Take a récent example
which came within the personal expérience of the writer. A ship arrived
from a port in the United States, having occupied about twenty da~ys on the
voyage. She had sailed with 1,270 animais, including nearly 1,000 mules,
and some very bad weather had been experienced. Only one animal was lost
on the voyage, through a sudden seizure which could not be combated. Let
us, for example's sake, take note of thèse 1,269 animais, for they are typical
of the war-horse in the rough state, before the horse-masters of the Remount
Service hâve " ironed " them out for their work in France.
She is a big ship, and her length, except for the interval occupied by her
engines and boilers, is used to accommodate the live cargo. The great thing is
that she has corne safely through danger zones and that she is at last alongside
the berth at her destination with the welcome aliens ready for immédiate
disembarkation. There is no time lost. " You can begin to unload now,"
says the naval officer to the Remount Officer, and the latter's men are on
board and leading ofï the first horses and mules in less time than it takes
to write this. The ship has been about twenty days on the journey, and bad
weather has been experienced, necessitating the closing down of hatches.
Moreover, the cleaning-out has had to be carried out under difficulties which
hâve grown more formidable as the voyage has lengthened. Below decks the
atmosphère is heavy and unhealthy, and the fumes of the disinfectants mingle.
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From the ship to the Remount Dépôt. A night-time hurried veterinary examination of the new-comers.
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THE HORSE AND THE WAR
24
with ammonia gases. The horses are obviously used to what they hâve
helped to create, and their keenness and alertness show that they hâve suffered
no more than temporary inconvenience. They seem to know that something
unusual is going to happen. There is no motion on the ship ; the engines
hâve ceased to throb, and the movements of the animais in their narrow
stalls or pens seem more insistent. They know as well as we know that they
are going to émerge from their imprisonment into the sweet, fresh air and the
blinding light of day. The horses know. The mules are distrustful, because
it is their one thought and principle in life to be suspicious and apprehensive.
They fear more trouble.
So, out of the unsalubrious, gas-laden air and the forbidding gloom of
the decks below stairs the first of the horses corne quietly and with marked
docility down the sloping " brows," or gangways, on to a foreign soil. They
blink in the sunshine, shake their heads and neglected mânes, and quietly
submit to the first requirements of their new military existence. Some are
sullen and soberly matter-of-fact, seemingly devoid of ail excitement and
émotions of any kind ; some are nervous and distraught, wild-eyed, and
betraying fear as if they cannot understand the violent upheavals that hâve
occurred in their usually uneventful existences. Thèse latter snort like the
ancient war-horses were supposed to snort and breathe fire on the threshold
of battle. The war-horse of the twentieth century, if he be not placid and
unmoved, is at least mildly démonstrative when first " joining up " in England.
Perhaps he is too " used-up," too weary of the sea, to protest too much ; and
perhaps, also, what we took to be a snort of annoyance and a dilated eye of
appréhension were really nothing more than normal excitement that one
unpleasant phase was over and that something unknown was being entered
upon.
But the calm and placid new-comer is in an overwhelmingmajority. He
carries himself bravely in spite of a soiled and unkempt appearance that
suggests anything but the idea of bravery and the chivalry of battle. Shall
we who saw and handled him then ever forget the impressions made by his
coming ? He came in several sizes and weights—the narrow, lightish-boned
rider ; the heavy " light draught," which is not as heavy and imposing as the
heavy agricultural horses of the United Kingdom ; and the light draught
with bone, size and activity for the Field Artillery and quick-moving horse
transport. This latter is the war-horse that has made history, and probably
there were twenty of him to one of any other kind. He would not hâve
impressed you then as he moved softly and quietly off the " brow." You
would, perhaps, hâve laughed at anything less beautiful and inspiring, and
you might hâve wondered at the boldness and seeming incompétence of our
buyers on the other side. He was shoeless, long-haired, tousled-maned,
ragged-hipped, and he almost dragged his tail on the ground, so long and full
and caked with dirt was it. His neck had gone light and mean, his backbone
stuck up like a knifeboard, and his ribs were pushing through his neglected
hide.
Such was our war-horse in the rough, a true and faithful représentation
of the raw material rendered thus unpresentable by the flesh-weariness of
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The Field Gun Horse from America on his arrivai—" shoeless, long-haired,
tousled-maned, ragged-hipped."
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The same Field Gun Horse ready for France— " the well-fed,
clean and healthy horse."
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26
THE HORSE AND THE WAR
irksome and exacting existence on board ship. Yet, through it ail, as he
stamped and fretted to be free, and as he stepped on shore, he flung out a
challenge to his new masters. He was willing to be born again. Blacks and
greys there were in abundance. They were obviously the prevailing colours,
and there were also, of course, bays and chestnuts ; but the colour scheme
afforded a contrast to that to which we in this country are used. Blacks and
grgys^are by no means the dominant colours hère. Then, after noïîng the
"ïïoïours, you would rcmember that the Percheron, stallions of France are
chiefly black and grey, and that the war-norse from thë"TJnited States and
Canada is first and foremost the progeny of the Percheron hor se s that were
imported from France through ail the years.
Certain characteristics belonged to them ail. Take the black horse that
has just stepped jauntily off the " brow " and which has neighed with a
lustiness and inquisitiveness betokening health and a vitality quite opposed
to his ungentlemanly appearance. He is 16 hands, and the first and last
impression is of his thickness and sturdiness of physique.
This idea of thickness seems to belong to him in every respect. His
head is plain and thick across the jowl ; his neck is short, cresty and thick,
and it passes abruptly into straight shoulders. Then his middle-piece is
thick and capacious, and, though the croup is short, he is thick across the
quarters because the loins are wide and inclined to be ragged. He stands
on sound, clean legs, showing very little hair about the heels, but the legs are
not orthodox as we would hâve them. The hocks are slightly away from
him and he shows a tendency to be back at the knee ; while the feet are big,
flat and saucer-like in shape ; too big, one would think, for the rest of the
animal. Still, those ail-important legs hâve splendid bone.
Yes, this black horse we are looking at is undoubtedly a stranger—a
" Yank," as we hâve learned to designate him ; but h? is the greaj: utility
horse of the war, useful rather than ornamental. Through him and ail of
them the stamp of the Percheron in the breeding stands out clear and
distinguished. It is there in the power of the quarters, the shortness and
crestiness of the neck, the clean, sound legs, the hard constitution and good
temper, and the willingness to work.
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CHAPTER III
Buying British Remounts in America
By Brigadier-General T. R. F. Bâte.
AS quite two-thirds of the horses and practically ail the mules used in the
British Army in France and the other théâtres of war come from the
American Continent, it will, perhaps, be of interest to trace the history of the
Army horse and mule from its source on the other side of the Atlantic till it
reaches the remount dépôts in the United Kingdom.
It is interesting to know that the first batch of American and Canadian
horses arrived in England in October, 1914. In the-early stages of the activities
of the British Remount Commission in Canada and U.S.A. practically the whole
continent was covered in the search for suitable animais. Later expérience
proved that it was more profitable from every point of view to centre ail
activities in the middle western states, which are par excellence the draught
horse producing area of the continent.
The proposition in front of the Commission was to produce a steady flow of
horses and mules to England at a rate varying between 25,000 and 10,000
a month. This proposition may roughly be divided under three headings :
(1) The actual purchase ; (2) care after purchase, including railway transit ;
(3) and embarkation.
Before describing the actual method of purchase it will be as well to make
a brief analysis of the fortunes of the animal before he cornes before the officia]!
purchaser. It has been found time and again that in purchasing such large
numbers of animais as are in this case involved it is imperative to buy only from
well-known and reliable horse dealers. Such dealers hâve their show-yards in
large towns where the livestock business is a big concern. The chief centres
used by us are Chicago, St. Paul (in Minnesota), Sioux City and Des Moines in
Iowa, St. Louis, Kansas City and also, in the earlier stages, Toronto and
Montréal in Canada. In each of thèse centres one, or perhaps, in some cases,
two or three firms of reliable dealers engage to show to our purchaser so
many horses a week.
Now, the big dealer buys most of the horses he shows, both buying himself
and sending out agents among the farmers, among whom he has a regular
clientèle. The dealer who cannot afford to put down a lot of ready money for
purchase outright allows smaller dealers and also farmers to show horses under
27
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THE HORSE AND THE WAR
^8
his, the dealer's segis, the small man having to pay the dealer so much on every
horse bought by the Government inspector. Such horses are known as subject
horses. This latter method, though in many ways undesirable, cannot be
■entirely eliminated. When it has been arranged with a dealer to show horses
to one of our purchasers he is given a description of the class of animal required
—height, weight, etc. After a few days' expérience with the purchaser the
■dealer gets to know the type of horse that will be taken, and tells his buyers
accordingly ; and very soon, if he is a good dealer, the " rejects " should be few
and far between.
Dealers do not find it worth while to keep horses a day longer than neces-
•sary before they show them to the purchaser. I hâve often known horses taken
off the train by the dealer in the morning and shown for purchase in the
afternoon. In this way purchasers are confronted with the task of selecting
suitable horses from animais in every sort of condition—some over-fat and
soft, others hard and fit, while many are in very poor condition. This brings
us to the actual method of purchase—our purchasers hâve ail, or nearly ail,
been selected from men who hâve had lifelong expérience in buying and hand-
ling horses. Each buying centre has its allotted one or more purchasers, each
purchaser buying from one or more dealers, and each having his own veterinary
officer. The procédure is always substantially the same, differing only in
matters of détail.
At a suitable place in the dealer's yard there is a " show alley " where the
purchaser stands. Each horse is walked up to him. Unless immediately
rejected, it is then walked away and trotted, and if passed by the purchaser
as désirable as regards conformation, it is handed on to the veterinary officer
io be examined for soundness—including being galloped (cavalry horses
ridden, draught horses driven) for wind. If passed by the veterinary officer it
is put in a pen alongside—under the eye of both purchaser and veterinary
officer—until the pen contains seven or ten horses, when the lot are branded
with a broad arrow, purchaser's brand, etc. Mânes of draught horses are
hogged, tails trimmed, shoes, if any, removed ; after which the animais are put
in the pens reserved for purchased animais. No animal is considered actually
bought until it is branded ; and, in the case of heavy horses, the formality of
weighing is insisted on before branding.
It may be interesting hère to touch on the much debated question as to
the number of horses one man can buy in a day before he loses his " eye." Few
men agrée on this point, and no doubt some men can buy more than others ;
but after seeing many thousands of horses and mules purchased the writer is
-strongly of opinion that, as regards horses at any rate, there are few men who
•can buy more than ioo a day without laying themselves open to a strong
probability of their " form " deteriorating.
Having now got to the period when the animal has become the property
of the British Government, we corne next to that stage of his existence which
includes safe transportation to the Atlantic seaport, and ail the machinery of
organization which this entails. Before entering on such a descriptive itinerary
it will be as well to discuss briefly two main principles, either of which it has
been possible to adopt.
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Testing an alleged riding horse before a British Government purchaser.
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30                                THE HORSE AND THE WAR
An even perfunctory knowledge of the map of North America will enable
any one to realize the enormous expanse of country which has to be traversed
between the purchase area in the middle western states and the embarkation
area on the Atlantic seaboard. One of the most serious factors which has to
be contended with in the horse business in North America—a factor which I
venture to think is anything but widely understood in this country—is shipping
fever, which, speaking untechnically, is a sort of influenza constantly resulting
in pneumonia or similar pulmonary diseases. It is a déplorable, but indisput-
able, fact that over 70 per cent, of horses moved over rail contract this shipping
fever—some directly and others a considérable period after detraining. So
far, though researches are continually being made, only qualified success with
préventive sérum has been achieved. We hâve two possible principles to
adopt : Should we keep the horses in the country a sufncient time to let them
get over their shipping fever before embarkation ; or should we embark them
with the least possible delay—the latter alternative meaning the contraction
of the disease on board ship and after arrivai in the United Kingdom ? The
former alternative has been adopted, and, in the writer's opinion, there is no
doubt whatever that it is the soundest plan. It will be seen easily that the
adoption of the principle of keeping the animais in America till they are
" salted " entails the upkeep of considérable organization, besides that of
purchase on the other side of the Atlantic.
It has been found that the minimum period of détention from time of
purchase till date of embarkation is seven weeks, and, though circumstances
cannot always be such as to allow of this being adhered to, this procédure is
adopted as closely as possible. A glance at the map will show that the area
in opération is most simply divided into two zones—the purchasing zone
and the embarkation zone. In each of thèse zones there is a System of
remount dépôts—situated as far as possible in places with suitable railway
facilities.
It may be mentioned hère that the chief sources of infection of shipping
fever are dealers' yards, stockyards and railway cars, ail of which, owing to
their continuai fîoative population, become so infected as to be almost hopeless
of satisfactory sanitation. Consequently, horses, once they are purchased,
are kept as brief a time as possible in any of the three. There is a law in the
States which forbids any horses being kept on a train without off-loading,
watering and feeding for longer than thirty-six hours. As most of the journeys
from the purchasing zone are of several days' duration, it has been found
necessary to form subsidiary remount dépôts at suitable points on selected
railways, such dépôts being used as off-loading and feeding stations. AU
thèse dépôts—purchasing area, embarkation area and off-loading stations—
require and possess their necessary staffs of executive and veterinary officers
and subordinatc employés.
Now let us come to the movement of the animal itself. We left him just
purchased walking out of the dealer's yard branded with the broad arrow,
etc., and the property of the British Government. At some purchase points
there are dépôts in the vicinity, and the horses are walked over and come under
the supervision of the dépôt officer on the very day of purchase. At others the
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Branding a British Government purchase in North America with the broad
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THE HORSE AND THE WAR
3-2
dépôt may, through force of circumstances, be located a short train journey
away. In the latter case the purchasing officer has to make local arrangements
until he has collected a sufficient number to fill a train, which varies from 300 to
600. In either case the animais get a rest for a week to ten days or perhaps a
fortnight before starting on their real journey towards the embarkation area.
During that time they are malleined in accordance with the glanders test.
Those which show any symptoms of sickness are segregated, and from day to
day the fittest are eut out and put into pens in which only those fit to travel,
colloquially known as " shippers," are kept.
Every dépôt has its veterinary hospital and staff, into which serious cases
are put. Now let us imagine we are starting off with a trainload of " shippers "
from a dépôt in the purchasing area. First, we note that every horse on our
train has had its température taken as a final précaution, and any found exceed-
ing 1010 are rejected and retained till another occasion. We are going on
a journey of about thirty-six hours. If in winter, probably in a température
of 25°below zéro ; if in summer, it may be no0 in the shade. We are now
entirely in the hands of the railway authorities, but our departure and probable
time of arrivai, with the numbers and classification of the animais on the train,
hâve been wired on to the commanding officer of the off-loading dépôt, where we
are looking forward to having the horses taken off, rested, watered and fed.
Let us arrive ! We are met by various members of the off-loading dépôt,
probably including the C.O. and his veterinary officer. Off-loading is a quick
process, and probably in half an hour every horse is out of the train. They are
put into pens alongside the railway, when the sick and seedy-looking ones are
again segregated from the fit, and hospital cases are taken off to the veterinary
hospital. This, I venture to think, gives a gênerai idea of how transportation
is organized and carried out.
The next stage or stages are worked on exactly the same plan ; always
remembering that every horse is examined and every horse has his température
taken before starting on any railway journey. Theoretically this should mean
that only fit horses arrive in the dépôts in the embarkation area. Practically
it means that, though it is impossible, or appears impossible, not to receive
some sick horses in the embarkation dépôts, at any rate every possible précau-
tion has been taken to make the number of sick as small as possible. No effort
is spared to try and keep the embarkation dépôts free from being clogged with
numbers of sick animais. In the embarkation dépôts the animais get a final
rest of several weeks, which, with a System of extensive runs, makes a sort of
finishing process before going on board ship.
Embarkation itself requires little or no description except to remark that
the final sélection for fitness of animais from the embarkation dépôts for sending
on board ship is made with even greater care than former inspections. In this
connection it must be mentioned that the adequaten^ss of the arrangements
on board ship, for which the embarkation officer—also a remount officiai—is
responsible, is a priceless factor in the matter of the condition of the animais on
their arrivai in the United Kingdom.
So far little or no mention has been made of the différent types of horses
which are purchased for the Army, nor has the mule been more than barely
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Method of loading a remount train in America to hold^l400 animais.
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THE HORSE AND THE WAR
34
mentioned. Either of thèse subjects is worthy of more space than can be
devoted to it in this chapter, but a brief description of both would appear to be
désirable. Broadly speaking, three types or classifications of horses hâve been
purchased and exported from the United States and Canada—cavalry, light
artillery, heavy artillery. Experts hâve known for some time, and our purchas-
ing activities hâve proved beyond contention, that the cavalry horse as we
know him in England does not exist in North America in any numbers which
are appréciable for modem war requirements. What hâve been bought as
cavalry are the best that can be procured, but that is ail. The cavalry horse
is not a commercial factor in America, and that, in a nutshell, is the reason
of the scarcity of the type.
The light artillery horse is the commercial equine article of the country,
and has proved himself good through and through. It is a remarkable fact that
after the export of hundreds of thousands of this class of horse the high standard
is still being maintained. The requirements for the light artillery horse are :
Height, 15 h. 2 ins. to 16 h., weight about 1,200 lb., short on the leg, short in the
back, strong in the neck and quarters, and as much quality as procurable.
The best of thèse horses are bought from the states of Iowa and Illinois. The
strains of Shire, Clyde, Belgian, Normandy and Percheron are the prédominant
types, and it is a matter of contention which is the best. One can only give
one's opinion that, from what one has seen, a predominating Percheron strain
appears to give by far the best results.
Heavy artillery horse production in any quantifies in America has been a
récent innovation, and it has been, and is, a very difficult matter to procure an
appréciable number of such horses which possess the requisite weight. Two
classifications hâve been purchased sofar : thoseof a minimum weight of 1,400 lb.,
and those of a minimum weight of 1,500 lb. It must be remembered that
American and Canadian breeders hâte hair on the leg, and consequently the
so-called heavy horse of North America with practically clean legs never looks
the weight of his cousin in this country. Complaint has been made that the
American heavy horse is too light ; but when the writer left America in March,
1918, there were then coming in many heavy horses which would compare
well with our heavy cart-horses. In this class, again, Iowa and Illinois are
prédominant, though many good heavy horses hâve been bought in Canada.
The same strains are prédominant, and, though the Percheron maintains his
high place, the Shire blood runs him very close.
At long last we corne to the mule, which, though he occupies this tardy
position, is probably the most serviceable and satisfactory animal used in the
war. Indeed, the writer, who has had expérience of both horses and mules with
a battery in two théâtres of the war, would unhesitatingly say that if he had the
remounting arrangements for any future war, mules would supplant horses to
the greatest possible extent. Though for purchasing purposes mules in America
hâve been divided at différent times into several classifications, as a gênerai
principle mules may be regarded as being divided into three main catégories—
heavy mules for heavy artillery purposes in Eastern war théâtres, light draught
mules which hâve practically taken the place of horses in wheeled transport
other than artillery, and pack mules for pack transport. The heavy mules run
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BUYING BRITISH REMOUNTS IN AMERICA                 35
to a height of 16 h. 2 ins. or even 16 h. 3 ins., and weigh about 1,300 lb. The
light draught mules are between 15 h. and 13 h. 3 ins., and weigh about 1,100 lb.,
while the pack mules are under 15 h. down to 14 h. 1 in. Ail thèse types of
mules are found in the middle western states of Missouri and Kansas, and the
southern states of Tennessee, Texas, Alabama and Georgia, though one does not
get the larger type much out of Missouri and Kansas.
In the earlier stages of the war cotton, for which industry the mule is
entirley used, was down to 6 cents a pound and mules were easy to get and
procurable at reasonable priées. Now cotton is up to 27 cents a pound, sugar
and other agricultural industries are at a premium, and owing to thèse causes,
coupled with the fact that the capital number of mules available was never
an inexhaustible quantity, the supply of mules is daily becoming more dimcult.
In conclusion, it is only fair to describe a few of the sterling qualifies of
this often vilified and still more often caricatured animal. The mule is practi-
callyimmunefrommanyof the diseases inhérent in the horse—notably he suffers
less than half as much from shipping fever. He, as a gênerai rule, has sounder
legs than the horse. He can certainly stand more hardships. He eats less
and is less particular about his food, though more particular about his water.
He thrives on work. Great as has been the success of the American gun horse,
still greater, though perhaps less appreciated, hâve been the war qualifies of the
American mule. Long may he thrive !
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CHAPTER IV
The Finished Article
IF more were required to justify the Allies' splendid war-horse, it is the
firm conviction, which cannot be emphasized too insistently, that the
light draught of American origin has corne to stay in this country. Heaven
forbid that the world shall ever again be racked by the agonies of such another
war as this, or, indeed, of war at ail, so that the question does not necessarily
arise of establishing big breeding dépôts throughout ihe United Kingdom at
which the type shall be bred and reared in readiness for another day. It is,
nevertheless, safe at this stage to prophesy that the Percheron-bred light draught
horse will surely be introduced to this country as a permanent institution.
Actually I wrote this prior to the formation in this country of the British
Percheron Horse Society. Already now there are in England pure-bred
Percerhon stallions and mares, which hâve been imported from France.
They will take their place in history as the pioneers of the light draught breed
in the United Kingdom, just as will the best and most typical of the thousands
of mares that will be brought back to us after surviving the rigours and périls
of active service. Clearly such mares will be recovered and retained so that
they may perpetuate their fine characteristics. For, apart from their value
as war-horses, they must attract the employer of the gênerai utility horse.
After ail, they are a distinct type. Some may be better than others, and
some may be heavier in physique than the vast majority, but thèse latter are
as if they had ail corne out of the same mould. By comparison the British
light draught is a nondescript, a misfit. He could be anything—a half-bred
Shire or Ciydesdale, a Welsh cob, a heavyish Hackney, a Cleveland bay, or
a heavy-weight " hunter " without true hunter lines and action. Ail thèse
odds and ends of horse-flesh we hâve seen pass through remount dépôts en
route to the théâtres of war. They were classed as light draught because
they were neither heavy draught nor riding horse. But the Yankee was
essentially and absolutely a light draught horse, true to type, varying not at
ail in character and very little in the non-essential détails. He is the rea]
equine hero of ihe war, and by his triumphs, which must be as real in peace
time as in war, he simply must take his place, and an important one, too, in
the horse population of thèse Islands.
Some fu ther light may be shed on his personality if we résume our associa-
36
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A scène reminiscent of early days in the war. Picketed in the open and fully exposed to the weather.
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38
THE HORSE AND THE WAR
tion with him at the point at which we left him in the last chapter. He had
then stepped ashore—a stranger, indeed, and an obvious alien—from the
steamer which had been his stable for about three weeks. We may remind
you of his dishevelled state, and a critical onlooker, having no knowledge
of his virtues, might hâve been excused for promptly arriving at wholly wrong
conclusions. Let it not be forgotten that a horse thus " cribbed, cabined,
confmed " on shipboard must inevitably lose condition and show signs of
physical wastage. Some, of course, will do so more than others. It is a
question influenced as to degree by tempérament, for the nervous animal
must worry and fuss more than his phlegmatic and stoical companion. Then
the feeding is not conducive to the rétention of condition. Normal feeding
on hard corn would quickly produce fever in the feet and intestinal complications
in a horse which is denied ail chance of exercise and which must stand in
a very narrow stall in an unhealthy atmosphère for three weeks. Thus
it is that the diet, chiefly of bran and hay, must be low to suit the unnatural
conditions. The visitor is now the property of the British taxpayer, and
progress is commenced the moment he enters one of the remount dépôts. He
has to be made fit and trained for his new career. If he were not such a good
and sensible horse the work of remount officers would be made ever so much
more arduous than it is. It is their good fortune that the material is so pliable
to the methods adopted. Think of the complications if the process of accli-
matisation, where thèse horses are concerned, were long and tedious, or of
the delay if their tempérament were less placid and yielding than it is. We
may think that conditioning and acclimatisation, as apart from training, are
hurried ; but we are at war, and what would be idéal in peace time is made
impossible by the ruthless and inexorable exigencies of war. What a good
thing, therefore, that he cornes on as quickly as he does ! Training the
American light draught is the least difficult of ail the détails to be observed.
Rare indeed is the animal that is a confirmed shirker and jibber in our
artillery harness, and even he surrenders in time. Vice is found in very
infrequent instances, but more often than not it is the product of cruelty and
m isunderstanding at some time rather than of nature itself.
See now that raw-boned, dishevelled horse that stepped ashore only a
week before. He has had a few days' rest and a change of diet, his feeds
containing something more palatable and satisfying than bran and hay. The
clipping machine has caused him to discard the guise of rags and tatters ;
the tangled mane is off and the outline of the cresty, strong neck stands out
clear and distinct ; the tail is no longer flowing and bedraggled, but has
been neatly squared off to about the depth of the hocks ; while the spreading
hoofs hâve been shaped and now carry shoes. His eye is clear and healthy,
and he is taking a quiet and intelligent interest in life, especially at feed times.
For the " Yank " is a rare " doer." A month hence and the angularities
are distinctly less acute. He has lost the " ribby " appearance, and is
undoubtedly thriving on the none too lavish rations authorized by Government.
He is being regularly exercised now, and, if his progress has not been checked
by those troubles that beset the horse when compelled to endure what are
practically out-of-door stable conditions, he is certainly well on the road to
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THE FINISHED ARTICLE
39
France. He takes his place in the gun team with a duck-like partiality for
water, and every day that passes he thickens and muscles-up in a way
that gratifies the représentatives of the Remount Service. This rapidity of
acclimatisation and fluent adaptability to entirely new conditions as regards
stabling, and his stout résistance to ail ills of the flesh, excepting, perhaps,
certain skin troubles more or less indigenous to the land of his origin, are
features of his apprenticeship to the making of war. No doubt the idéal
thing would be to give him plenty of time in which to acclimatise, for the
reason that his improvement is probably more apparent than real ; but in
war-time ideals must be scrapped or adjusted and shaped by circumstances.
That is why the Yankee light draught is passed out of his novitiate in this
country and is ready in an incredibly short time to résume his interrupted
journey to France.
Hère I am reminded again of the colour question. He is, as already noted,
chiefly grey, steel grey or black, sometimes bay, and infrequently chestnut.
Shattered is the notion that greys are not désirable for modem war because
they are too conspicuous. This is the era of camouflage, with its devices and
weird tricks to deceive. Colour does not possess that importance which
attached to it before the advent of the camouflage officer.
To see him as one of a team of gun horses is to enjoy a delightful spectacle.
He is active, willing, under instant command, and he is imposing. Ask any
officer of Field Artillery and, where the Hghter kind of horses with galloping
conformation are concerned, any officer of Horse Artillery ; they will, I am
sure, give him an excellent " chit." Ask them which type of horse has best
withstood the rigours and exhausting expos are of active service in Flanders,
and they will unhesitatingly déclare in favour of our friend from America.
The heavy horse of this country has succumbed while the half-bred Percherons
hâve still been resisting mud, wind, rain, gruelling hard work and pneumonia.
And the extraordinary thing is that in the fifth year of war America can still
supply them and that the quality is as good as ever. Certainly it is just as
well that this should be so, since it is quite certain that no European country
could hâve maintained its armies for a three years' war except by purchase
abroad. The mystery is how America came to hâve so many horses available,
and how they were broken and utilized over there.
Apart from questions of conformation, weight and tempérament, the
real test of the war-horsc must be one of endurance, of the capacity to resist
exposure and hardship, to survive longest the trying conditions imposed by
pickcting on mud and in the open behind the fighting lines. It is the crucial
test, and the horse which has answered it best is the American light draught.
There is nothing in exténuation to be said for other draught horses after that.
The " Yank " has beaten them ail. It is reasonable to infer from this that
while the transition of the stable-kept English horse to the mud and exposure
of France is a doubtful one, the same thing, where the American is con-
cerned, is made possible by reason of the conditions under which the latter
has been bred and reared on the " runs " of the United States and Canada.
Every horse bought for the Army must of necessity be introduced straight-
away to some degree of exposure as compared with his pre-military career.
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40                                THE HORSE AND THE WAR
That is due to the " exigencies of the Service "—a most convenient phrase to
use in many more instances and sensés than this one—and simple necessity
of having to legislate for thousands and tens of thousands. Thus the four
largest Remount Dépôts in the United Kingdom are arranged on the principle
of long rows of stalls of fifty or a hundred apiece, open to the weather except
for the not unimportant fact that they are roofed. The same principle obtains
in the Dépôts and Veterinary Hospitals in France, though much is done in
the matter of extending the roofs well beyond the quarters of the horses, and
in the érection of wind screens as some rough protection against the weather.
It will be understood that in this way every opportunity is given to the
latest-joined equine recruit to harden itself and so prépare for probably more
severe exposure in the actual théâtres of war.
Remount officers must take this war-time feature of stabling into serious
calculation in the feeding and training of ail classes of horses. They hâve to
be made fit, and the process cannot be made easy by abundance of food, a
warm box knee-deep in straw and heavy rugs in winter time ; such luxuries
hâve no place in war. The semi-exposed lines, whether they be those of
Remount Squadrons, Cavalry Squadrons or of Field Batteries, are the first
home of the war-horse and mule whether they hâve just arrived from over-
seas or hâve been bought in the United Kingdom. Obviously a horse which
feels the cold very much and has délicate respiratory organs is not going to
do well. His acclimatisation is going to be slow and graduai, but even he
will " corne " in time. Apart altogether from military necessity there ma}-
be much to recommend the principle. The sudden transition from stable
to semi-open lines will frequently induce catarrh and coughs. They hâve to
be carefully guarded against lest serious pulmonary troubles should supervene.
It was such troubles that found out the weak spot in the heavy Shire
and Clydesdale horses which were bought in large numbers during the first
three years of the war. They simply could not battle against the conditions
of Army stabling. Once, however, the catarrh has disappeared the Remount
rapidly becomes hard and fit, and when his time cornes he is far better able
to " keep a-going " under active service conditions than when he was
apparently fit before the hardening process had been entered upon.
Mr. Wayne Dinsmore, the very able Secretary of the influential Percheron
Horse Society of America, has given us a reason why the American light
draught horses survive the weather test so well. They are more or less
hardened by the nature of their life from birth, and the fact, of course, is not
peculiar to one génération. Of our English horses the charger class with
thoroughbred blood in them, either whole or in part, hâve done well, though
the principle would not be the one ordinarily adopted when dealing with our
hunters and high-class riding horses in peace time. They hâve required a
good deal of nursing and watching, and wanted ail, if not more than, the
ration of hay and corn allowed them. The maximum amount of self-created
bodily warmth is essential to make up for open stabling, which is often swept
by chilling winds. A horse at liberty in a field can exercise himself in the
hardest weather ; far otherwise is it with him when tied up in a semi-open
stall. Really it is wonderful how they hâve adapted themselves to the drastic
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The "Finished Article" recognizes "Feed" when sounded on the bugle.
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42                                THE HORSE AND THE WAR
change. No blankets to wear when they travel, no knee boots and tail
bandages as a protection against possible disfigurement, but instead they are
sent to their destination on the first stage of their journey overseas eight or
nine in a truck. Once that same truck carried cattle, sheep or pigs to a market
town. Now it is the équipage de luxe of the charger or the mule.
Every horse should hâve his proper job in the Army. That there may be
misfits is a matter for the buyer's conscience. Those at the head define the
types required and issue instructions accordingly. If an animal is neither a
heavy draught, a light draught, a charger, an officer's cob, a cavalry horse,
an artillery riding-horse nor a pack-horse, then there is only one class remaining
for him. He is a nondescript. He may hâve his uses in civil life, but most
certainly he should never hâve been bought at the public expense for some
obscure military purpose. I suppose it is numan nature for one commissioned
critic to say contemptuously of the Remount buyer : " Whatever was he
thinking about to buy a thing like that ! " Yet when you come to think of
the hundreds of thousands bought hère and abroad the number of nondescripts
or bad bargains has been extraordinarily few. And, of course, an animal
may degenerate, and frequently does, after wear and tear. Take the case
of the cavalry horse that develops faulty action. He becomes dangerous
to ride by reason of his susceptibility to lameness. His limited physique
does not fit him for transport, and he therefore loses his usefulness because
it is quite évident he would be too tall for pack purposes. One could pursue
this line of thought indefinitely, but after ail there is far more satisfaction in
following the doings of the horse and mule while they are in training for active
service and later when they actually embark upon it. The same serious
attention must be paid to the riding-horses as to the draught animais. The
former hâve to be schooled just as the latter must learn their team work in
the batteries, or the wagons of the Divisional Ammunition Column, or Army
Service Corps Train Transport.
The day cornes, and that soon enough, when the gun horse is ready for
active service. Orders come for his transfer to France, and in pursuance
of them he is assembled at the great dépôt which is contiguous to the port
of embarkation. Actually, as well as in theory, he should now be fit for
the real thing. He is the finished article, the well-fed, clean and healthy
horse which has emerged from that steamer-soiled and ragged créature that
was put ashore hère two or three months before.
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CHAPTER V
The Gallant Mule
MULES are a fascinating subject, whether dealt with on paper by the man
with a pen or by the artist with a brush. Most men who wield neither
a pen nor a brush would désire no other acquaintance since they hâve no under-
standing of the fascination. Perhaps I should not say " most men." Most
men are in the Army, and what gentleman in khaki has not some slight noddingr
acquaintance with his mule confrère in the Army ? They are both battling in
the same cause, both living on Army rations, and both, no doubt, longing for
victory and the end of war. Many men, therefore, do not despise the mule—
only the few who do not know him and do not want to know him. The diffî-
culty, from a writer's point of view, is to know exactly how to treat him.
Seriously or lightly ? As a beast of burden and haulage which has assisted
enormously the Allies' waging of war and will continue to do so until the closing
of the book ? Or as an animal with more eccentricities of character and
undeniable virtues than any other créature on God's earth—as, in fact, just a
mule ? Where to begin and where to end ? It seems to me that one is forced
into a compromise, and that a middle course is the only one to take ; for if you
must dilate on his extraordinary utility you must of necessity take into the
reckoning his oddities and delineate those donkey characteristics that defy
temper and patience and more often than not transform your serious attitude
to mirthful mocking and weird despair. How can you treat consistently a
conglomerate mixture of stolidity, stubbornness, slyness, willingness, temper,
sullenness, humour, contentment, waywardness and cunning with no knowledge
of which vice or virtue is going to assert itself next ?
It is no use wondering how many tens of thousands of mules hâve been
brought to Europe from North and South America, chiefly the North, since
August of '14, ail conscripted in the Allies' cause. The figures must be an
after-the-war révélation, but I know many of us would like to possess, say, war
bonds for as many as we hâve seen and handled. And we are still alive to tell a
taie of admiration ! Perhaps if I say a quarter of a million I shall not be very
wide of the mark. If the real horse of the war has been the light draught from
America, the mule has been, and is, just as essential in his own peculiar way.
Often and often he has done what the horse has failed to do. He has survived
and outlasted him, and, maybe, has shown his perversity by apparent enjoy-
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THE HORSE AND THE WAR
44
ment of the awful din of battles, the deep mud and piercing cold of France, or
the heat and Aies of the East. His temper and constitution hâve remained
whole, while the spécimens of his mother's branch of the species hâve cracked
and fallen by the wayside. Given his liquid refreshnient and his humbler
rations it takes a lot to put a mule out of action. He has even kindled enthu-
siasm among ardent horse-lovers who were once prejudiced against him and
The right-shaped mule.                                  The wrong-shaped mule.
despised the donkey in his outline and demeanour. So in time they hâve
corne to say : " Give us mules for this job of war rather than horses." A
strange and yet true conversion !
Again, as when writing of the American light draught horses, one marvels
that America's supply should hâve been so abundant. They are coming still,
travelling well over the much troubled seas, and picking up rapidly on arrivai
in a way which says much for their sangfroid and entire indifférence to new
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THE GALLANT MULE                                        45
surroundings, strange white faces, and the conditions imposed in a country at
war. They hâve been reluctant to step aboard ship on the other side, but,
when once packed in steep holds and breathing a gassy atmosphère, too pungent
for ail humans—except callous and leather-lunged muleteers—they soon
become reconciled and contented to the point of being outraged and annoyed
when asked to quit again. The acme of perversity, you see, but nevertheless
quaintly characteristic.
They vary, of course, in this regard. Some are so mournful and devoid of
expression, too unconscious of their own existence, that they climb the gangways
to the main deck and descend the " brow " to the shore with ail the solemn good
sensé and tractability in the world. They are the good mules that never want
to slip into wrong-doing, that take a cuff or a blow as unresponsively as they
do a mark of affection, that gaze vacantly on the shoeing-smith when he is
tinkering with their donkey feet, and only show a spark of consciousness when
they see food and are unable to reach it. The bad mule, not because he is
really wicked, does not like to be hurried, worried or interfered with if at the
psychological moment he happens to be feeling more like a donkey than a
horse, or, maybe, is concentrating on the vices of both and the virtues of
neither. He gets " worser and worser " and in the end will submit only to the
joytiter in re rather than the suaviter in modo methods of those who from expéri-
ence hâve not corne to meet him unequipped with a long rope and a breeching
with which to haul him among his tribe already on-shore. At the moment he is
hating everybody and everything. He is distinctly nasty. He will kick
unkindly at his neighbour in that susceptible area between the fore and hind
legs. He may even endeavour to eat the rope by which he is being led, and
his new khaki-clad acquaintance has to admit that his heels hâve an uncom-
monly long reach. Nor are his forelegs to be ignored. A mule can box and
strike with them most unpleasantly. But in ninety cases out of a hundred he
is not always going to defy disciplinary methods, especially when quietness is
judiciously mixed with firmness. Never crack whips or shout with a sensitive
mule. He will only get worse. The foundation of ail successful methods with
thèse uncertain tempered créatures is quietness. The man who makes a noise
does so because he is afraid of the mule and really hâtes him at sight. The
mule also hâtes him then and always.
If this were anything more than a chapter of impressions gained at first
hand I might be expccted to deal with the mule from a scientific point of view,
dwelling on his hybrid origin and the ban placed on him by nature to reproduce
his like as a distinct species. One might enter on a vast neld of conjecture as
to why there should be freakish colourings and markings and distinct sugges-
tions of the wild ass and zébra. The prevailing colour of the tens of thousands
purchased on behalf of this country is brown, but you will also see a f air percen-
tage of bays, chestnuts, greys and duns, and an occasional " smoky blue."
Most of the duns and a few chestnuts hâve a strongly defined black line running
the length of the neck and back right into the tail, with dark zebra-like bars
about the shoulders, knees and hocks. Some hâve had white legs, but they
hâve been very rare.
Then you will be told on some authority that successful mule breeding
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46                                THE HORSE AND THE WAR
cannot be carried on above certain latitudes north of the Equator and below a
certain line south of the Equator. It is why, the experts say, the United
States does so much better than her neighbour, Canada. The point, however,
is not one I am prepared to develop. But the suggestion, seriously put forward,
that one nigger can get more work out of a team of mules than any white man
may be true enough. The theory seems to fit in with the weird psychology of
the animal. " A fellow-feeling makes one wondrous kind ! " Clearly a mule
takes a deal of understanding, and the inference is that a white man's brain is
scarcely equal to the strain. For, after ail, the best meaning of our soldiers who
hâve had to do with them are constantly being rudely checked just when they
imagined they had arrived at a perfect understanding.
The artist has, for instance, noticed quite a common incident. There is
the wrong and the right way of leading a mule to water or to any place where his
présence may be required. The man who looks at the mule while he tugs at
his head cannot appreciate the animal's unwillingness to move along with him.
" Don't look at 'im," shouts the N.C.O., " 'e doesn't like yer face." And the
recruit, feeling rather hurt, turns away to hide his blushes. The mule at once
moves off after him. The ridiculous créature will not be pulled at. He is a
sure winner at that game, just the same as when he wants to go east and the man
on the rope lead wants him to go west. Both go east until the man adopts new
methods. It is wonderful how bull-headed an obstinate mule can be. I hâve
seen him draw two or three men whither he willed, ail of them hanging on to the
rope lead and the head collar. The same mule works ail right in harness and
never does wrong, only he is conscious of his own strength at inconvénient
times and a horse is not ; or, perhaps, the latter is too dignified to indulge in
such unseelmy capers.
I hâve known few mules that were not suspicious that someone was
plotting to do something unpleasant to them. There is about them an ever-
present sensé of appréhension. Pass along a line of mules, either head in or
tail on, and they regard you furtively and with deep distrust. Obviously they
do not like the look of you. The ears swing significantly, together or inconse-
quently, and each mule never takes his sullen eyes off you. Did a horse do the
same you would say that he had been ill treated at some time. Really a mule
talks to his neighbour with his ears. It is a kind of signalling ; and if you learn
to read the language of those long uprights, winking and nodding, you will
really begin to know something worth knowing about mules. I hâve seen
a line of mules in single file walking quietly towards the " brow," which is the
gangway between the dock and the ship. The first one steps confidently on the
" brow " and half-way up he puts one ear back and cocks the other one, at the
same time pushing his toes into the flooring. He is not quite sure about what
he is doing or being done by.
Of course, his remonstrance cornes at an awkward time ; but the trouble
is that the mule behind has seen the one ear go back, and as he does the same
thing to the fellow immediately in his wake, and so on right down the line, the
whole lot are very soon in a state of quiet revolt. Do not shout and bully
them or the ship may be delayed sailing. Dévote ail your attention to the
leader, and when the donkey in him has given way to the more aristocratie
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The wrong and the right way of leading a mule. He prefers your back to your face.
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48
THE HORSE AND THE WAR
side of his parentage the procession will be resumed. They will follow like good
sheep that dislike being separated.
Sometimes one doubts very seriously, but on the whole I am inclined ta
believe that the " moke " has a distinct sensé of humour. So many funny
things hâve been said and written about him that the gênerai public undoubt-
edly believes him to be a funny beast, that is, when he is not a savage one.
Roth ideas are exaggerated. The idea of humour probably arises out of
fe
Often a little more serious than " a certain liveliness."
inquisitiveness. When not working he must be finding something to do with
legs and mouth. I am reminded of an incident in an advanced mule line near
Ypres. A number of our friends were tethered in the open on a long rope, and
a farrier was engaged in shoeing one. The mule thus being attended to stood
quietly enough, and the stooping farrier was performing his task so conscien-
tiously and well that he was naturally astonished when the next mule endea-
voured to take a mouthful from the seat of his breeches. Of course, he turned
round sharply, as one would on being stung in a particularly susceptible part
of the anatomy, and, while his back was turned once more, the mule he had
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THE GALLANT MULE                                        49
been shoeing gave him a sly kick on that same unoffending seat. Was that
savagery ? Of course not. Jack and Jenny were not vicious ; they just
wanted something to do.
If mules were really as wicked as popular belief suggests, think of the
havoc they could work in our great Remount Dépôts, where the men are not
physically fit for combatant units, but may hâve been, say, piano-tuners,
paper-hangers or fried-nsh merchants before King and Country called—or
fetched—them. You can hâve courage which is the product of ignorance of
what you are taking on. In the same way you would hâve seen the be-
spectacled piano-tuner rushing in among the hungry animais at feeding times
coming out unscathed and in no way conscious that he has escaped contact
with heels that were being uplifted for fear that the feed might be taken
away again the next instant to being given. Another man may hâve hesi-
tated and shouted—fatal preliminaries—and from that moment he and the
" donkeys " lose no love between them.
The grudge which thus has small beginnings does not give way to feelings
of tender regard when after patient grooming he sees the perverse créature
takc the first opportunity of roUing in sand or mud, the sandier and muddier
the better. How can they live amicably together after the man has been
blamed for inefficient grooming ? Actually the height of mule joy, next to
satisfying a healthy appetite, is to roll. Why this should be so I do not prétend
to know except that the disconcerting habit doubtless cornes of the donkey
blood in his veins. Is it not among one's earliest mèmories of learning to ride ?
From a military point of view there is much to censure in the irregular proceed-
ing ; for they almost always do it before you hâve time to remove their packs
and very often just as you hâve restored the packs to their backs. I hâve said
that he gets into mischief for want of something to do. A long railway journey,
for instance, bores him horribly. Hence you will find when the trucks arrive
at their destination that each has made a slow meal off the other's rope halter
and head rope. They hâve then made a start on the woodwork of the trucks.
Now, it will be understood that he must hâve great merits in war as a set-off to
thèse pernicious habits.
Most mules can buck, but few in my expérience are really bad ones in the
sensé that they are vicious and therefore dangerous. Take the average one
that bucks. Not only will he do it without previous warning, but often with
his ears pricked. I am sure those pricked ears mean something. You would
think it impossible for one to buck so thoroughly and skilfully as to get himself
out of his saddle without breaking the girths. Yet it has been known. My
illustrator has been good enough to show the simplest method of settling the
bucker ; for, unlike the bucking horse, which is practically incorrigible, the mule
quickly gives in. The head collar of the offender is tied close to a quiet old
mule of unimpeachable character, and he is then mounted. Short of lying
down he is unable to dislodge the rider because he is unable to get his head
down to buck.
How often you hâve seen illustrations in the papers during the war of
mule races behind the lines on the various fronts. Almost invariably they hâve
been treated in comic vein, but it is nevertheless true that the animais can jump
D
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THE HORSE AND THE WAR
50
cleverly and well over fences, and at a fast pace too. As far as we hâve come
to understand modem warf are, the mule has not come to be regarded as a cavalry
remount, so that his jumping proclivities hâve not been developed in a serious
way. But the fact remains that he might be thus schooled.
There is no need in concluding this chapter, to write of his admirable quali-
fies in the work of transporting food and munitions to the troops holding the
trenches. I hâve before me as I write a letter from a transport officer in
France, who remarks : "I cannot speak too highly of the mule as a most
!/••■
By tying a bucking mule close to the head of a quiet mule the vice can soon be
conquered. He cannot get his head down to buck in really serious fashion.
valuable and useful beast." It is the opinion of ail who hâve to do with them
in the many ways in which they are employed. The life of the mule at the
front is longer than that of the average horse because he can better adapt
himself to disagreeable things and tasks. He can endure more, exist on less
and plainer food, and the machinery of his constitution does not run down so
rapidly or so often. He just wants to be understood and treated accordingly.
And, though the idéal type of draught mule—his body built on the lines of a
horse, square, with the legs coming out of each corner, wide in the chest and
barrel, with short, powerful legs—is a splendid beast of burden in modem war,
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MUSINGS OF A MULE                                         51
the other type shown by the artist has his many uses. The latter may be
well bred on the dam's side because he is weedy, with a horse's fine coat and
shorter ears ; he is also light of bone, too long in the leg, flat-sided, and both
forelegs seem to corne out of the same hole as it were. Yet it is true of mules
that they work in ail shapes ; for if it were not so there would be no place for
the many that do not correspond with the artist's conception of the idéal type
of draught mule. One of the many wonders of the war has certainly to do with
the tens of thousands of mules transported from the Western to the Eastern
Hémisphère and now actively pursuing the big part assigned them in the Great
Adventure.
Musings of a Mule
I am only a common or garden mule
Who was bred in the U.S.A.
I was born in a barn on a Western farm
Many thousands of miles away
From where I am munching a Government lunch
At Great Britain's expense to-day.
With dozens of others I knew, and hâve seen,
In my Little Grey Home in the West,
Where the grazing was succulent, luscious and green,
And Life was a bit of a jest,
I hâve sniffed the sait breeze blowing over the seas
And I've landed in France with the rest.
The journey was horrid—a horrible dream
Was the loading—its shindy and row
And the people expecting a moke to be keen
To swarm up a frightening " brow "
And slither down ramps that were greasy and damp
To a standing unfit for a cow.
They packed us like herrings 'way down in the hold,
With never a thought nor a care
For animais worthy more Government gold                                     >
Than ail of the rest who were there ;                                              /
And the best spot, of course, was reserved for the horse,            I
Who had to hâve plenty of air.
Well, we jibbed and we strafed and we kicked the Light Draught
And I planted my heels in the hide *^**-
Of a man on the ship who was flicking a whip
And whose manners I could not abide ;
But I've travelled so often since then in the trucks
I hâve learnt how to swallow my pride, A~ U
And I go where I'm put without lifting a foot
For a rag song and dance on the side.
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THE HORSE AND THE WAR
Many months at a time I was up on the Somme
In the rain and the mud and the mire :
We were " packing " the shells to the various Hells
In the dips of the vast undulations and dells
Where the field guns were belching their fire.
It was very poor sport when the forage ran short
First to eight and then six pounds a day,
But we managed to live on the blankets they brought,
Though blankets I now think, and always hâve thought,
Are but poor substitution for hay.
I remember a week when we played hide and seek
With the shrapnel the Boches sent over :
I remember the night when they pitied my plight,
And pipped me, and put me clean out of the fight
With a " Blighty "—then I was in clover.
For they dressed me and sent me quick out of the line
To a hospital down at the Base,
Where the standings were good and the weather was fine
And the rations were not a disgrâce :
There, just within sound of the Heavies I found
La France can be quite a good place.
And now I've recovered—I'm weary and thin
And I'm out of condition and stale,
My ribs and my hips are too big for my skin
And I've left ail the hair of my tail
On the middlemost bar of the paddock I'm in,
For they turned me out loose, as I'm frail.
Now the life in a paddock according to men
Is a sort of a beautiful song
Where animais wander around and can squander V^V
The time as they wander along,
With nothing to worry them, nothing to do
Except for food intervais daily ; but you
Can take it from me they are wrong,
For paddocks are places conducive to thoughts
That settle unbid on the brain,
And often I find them to follow a kind
Of a minor-key tune or refrain
As I doze for an hour in the afternoon sun
Or I stand with smy rump to the rain
I dream of the barn on my Illinois farm
And I long to be back there again.
—L. L. L. L., Base Indian Remount Dépôt, B.E.F., France.
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-"
Mules in their paradise: liberty and freedom to roll.
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CHAPTER VI
The Crossing Overseas
THEY passed out of the gâte and away to France in threes. " Eyes
right ! " commanded the squadron leader as the files of threes came up
to the Commanding Officer, and the man riding the near side horse did as
ordered and looked high authority full in the face. The Colonel solemnly
acknowledged the tribute of respect for the King's uniform, but his eyes were
focussed on the horses, not on the man. For there was being enacted the
last scène at the remount dépôt in England, the dépôt which has made so much
horse history as a receiving and collecting station for ail the horses and mules
from the scattered training remount dépôts throughout the United Kingdom.
They were the animais destined for their important part in the war zones
and they had come in as fit for overseas. Ostensibly they were fit, too, since
both in theory and practice there should be unanimity as to what constitutes
fitness. That unanimity does not always exist is another story. One can
never account altogether for the part human nature, with its weaknesses and
vanities, must play.
You must believe, therefore, that when the files of threes passed by the
Colonel and out of the gâte to their unknown destiny they were physically
fitted for the ordeal of war so far as conscientious horse-masters and veterinary
science could make them. Conscience, we may admit, is an elastic thing,
and the few may approve, where fitness is concerned, of staring ribs and soft
muscle, without being absolutely conscienceless. Honest endeavour and an
ever-present thought for the welfare of those who will later make use of the
horses and mules, and sometimes, perhaps, dépend on their physical condition
for the saving of their own lives and the lives of others, hâve surely been the
guiding thought in approving of their final transfer from England to France,
and thence to théâtres beyond.
" Fifty light draught horses, twenty-five heavy draught horses, and
twenty-five draught mules, ail properly branded and shod, sir," says the
squadron leader to the Commandant as he introduces his party for embarka-
tion. So squadron follows squadron, and, as the files of threes lengthen, they
make a long winding column which reaches far out on the way to where the
big ships are. It is up to the Commandant now to legislate for the armies
overseas. The onus is upon him if unfit animais are sent to those battery
commanders, cavalry divisions, horse transport, and ammunition columns
54
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Top deck passengers. Interest in the hay ration.
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56
THE HORSE AND THE WAR
so urgently needing fit ones. So it may be that now and then a peremptory
order to " hait ! " breaks in on the slow march past, and the Colonel makes
a closer inspection of a cumbersome heavy horse or a shuffling mule. He may
be " tucked up," " split up," or rather " dried-up " looking—pretty expres-
sions that mean something not quite compatible with fighting fitness. " Pull
him out, and give him a little more time," observes the critic-in-chief, and the
" heavy " goes back to the lines to stay awhile yet in Blighty. Some chargers
go out, too, and many a thoroughbred has filed past this same spot to do
crédit to our incomparable breed. Cavalry horses may hâve their place
in the procession, or their turn may be due on the morrow ; and if they hâve
gone to France, they may also hâve gone further towards the rising sun. For
the cavalry hâve accepted chances in the more distant théâtres.
So the long Une of three hundred or sô has been completed, to be followed
by another an hour later, and still another after that. With the conducting
officer at the head, and each man mounted and leading two horses, they hâve
made a move through the streets to the docks. Each horse has been provided
with a canvas nosebag, for us;, it may be, on the boat, certainly for use in
France. How many tens of thousands, one wonders, hâve passed along
those streets and hâve filed through those dock gâtes ? How many more
will do so ? For four years now men, horses, and material hâve been
steadily, hour after hour, day after day, hurried France-wards, through those
j same gâtes. To meet what fate ? People in those streets hâve long ceased
: to wonder at the almost daily processions. Familiarity strangely deadens
interest. Once they stood to admire the noble outline of the heavy gun
horse, and they marvelled at the numbers of field-gun and wagon horses,
and the mules in their thousands from across the océan. They wondered
more and more where they could ail come from, and how soon it would be
before the réservoir had been drained dry. But the processions came up
and went by almost day after day, and the people gave up wondering, as being
useless and tiresome. Still they are coming and going.
They hâve finished their last journey on English soil now, and they are
tied up in a great dock shed. They may share it with troops detraining and
stores awaiting shipment. A skilled veterinary officer is making a final
inspection prior to approving them for embarkation. A very few he keeps
back. He detects a high température and the beginnings of respiratory trouble.
The last three-mile walk has developed and made évident what had not been
suspected until then. The animal thus attacked must wait for another day.
So, also, must one which shows symptoms of skin irritation—anathema,
indeed, and feared greatly for its devastating conséquences if disregarded.
And after thèse last necessary formalities hâve been observed they are ready
for shipment.
" Mule_s first," is the order. That is because they are just mules. Out-
laws of nature they may be in spite of their tremendous utility and value as
aids to the carrying on of modem war, and so they are made to travel steerage
as it were. They hâve to go " below stairs " in the stalls in the dark lower
holds. To get there they must descend steep gangways from the main deck.
Their descent is necessarily undignified, though, after ail, could anything
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THE HORSE AND THE WAR
58
look undignified where no dignity attaches to an animal ? The greatest
admirer of mules—and who that has worked them in the Army does not
admire them ?—will not concède dignity to them. They are just mules.
They would not be mules did they not show extraordinary shyness and distrust
of the water troughs at which they are invited to drink before being led on
board. They are thirsty and really want water, but they must think in their
queer thinking machines that some one has poisoned the water, and so they
will not yield to cajolery to drink. They believe ail the world is against
them, and they especially do so when they are reminded that they must
not spend the rest of their lives looking at the gangway or " brow " before
venturing along it from dock to ship. They do not snort or get excited as a
horse does when he makes up his mind £o " jib " and be unpleasant ; they
just push hard on their toes in the ground, and refuse to be led any further.
Of course, they hâve to surrender, because there are ways and means, and
the war has lasted long enough to convince our English muleteers that the
obstreperous mule is not invincible and that a long rope with a breeching to
haul on is the " high explosive " with which to gain victory.
In that way our long-eared friends are dragged across the threshold, and
thereafter they go without more ado to their quarters below—stumbling,
slipping, and sliding, but always avoiding falling. Thus to their quarters and
close companionship for twenty-four hours or more. Next corne the horses,
with the heavy horses as near the top deck as possible, for they want fresh
air ; and, moreover, the shorter the time they occupy in getting on and off
the ship the better. From now until they are landed at a port overseas and
handed over to the care of base remount officers it is the duty of the conducting
officer and his men to look after their welfare. That ofïïcer obviously has
responsibility, but it is certainly lightened by the easy way his animais travel,
even though the waters of the English Channel are often troubled and unruly.
He also takes certain wise précautions to lessen risks. He is not sparing
of water, and he does not feed on hard corn, because he knows that a diet of
oats could soon induce colic and other ills of a horse's digestive system. He
wisely feeds on hay, and knows, too, that if horses are kept picking and eating
slowly they will not get into mischief and be inclined to worry, kick, and
bite each other. Then, when the day is drawing in and night cornes on
to cloak the wonders of the Naval Service and Admiralty transport across
those perilous waters, he has the animais tied up short. In that way he
reduces the chances of trouble should the crossing be bad.
Ail night long a strict vigil is kept by the conducting party. True,
the horses are not resting, but they are not giving trouble. They are fidgety
and nonplussed as if wondering what new, strange destiny awaits them. They
do not settle as resignedly as do the perverse and illogical mules. The latter
may hâve rebelled at embarking, but, once on board, they become the acme
of good manners and immaculate behaviour. A ship's hold might hâve been
their home from foalhood. They never heed the steady pulsating throb of
the ship's engines. They could not know of the anxious vigil high up on
the bridge, in the look-out on the foremast or on the gun platform, or of the
sleeping troops covering ail the space of the mess decks.
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The transport safely docked. Keenness to land in France.
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THE HORSE AND THE WAR
6o
Hâve you ever thought, one wonders, of thèse four years of silent,
dead-o'-night traffic from shore to shore of the English Channel during
vvhich hundreds of thousands of war-horses havc been carried across in safety ?
of the Remount Service which has brought them together from a far distant
land, and is now distributing them again into the battle arenas ? Has the
average Englishman given more than a passing thought to the wonderful
organization of the Navy which has protected our transports on their ever
risky errands ? or of those gallant Captains Courageous and their splendid
crews who hâve braved for ail this time the lurking périls and navigated their
ships from safety, through danger with the ever-present chance of disaster,
to safety again ?
Certainly the Remount Service is coUscious of uninterrupted triumph
over hidden foes, a triumph which the protecting escort of destroyers and
careful navigation in face of extinguished lights hâve done everything to
secure. When you hâve stood through the night by the side of a Captain
Courageous you will hâve understood something of the nervous and mental
strain borne night after night by those who hâve supported a great burden of
responsibility. It is not a time for talk—just quiet deeds and orders given
and executed in hushed tones ; fréquent glances by the Captain in the privacy
of his chart-room at the course as laid down in secret Admiralty instructions,
observations to port and starboard, and always the hiss of the bow waves as
the ship hurries on at full pressure to beat the coming light of day. You can
imagine in some small way the tension of the long looks ahead and abeam,
and the always présent anxiety to solve the mystery of the darkness. The
escorts you know are there, frequently changing their guardian positions,
and, when necessary, winking out messages of instruction and extra caution.
The thought stiffens your courage and especially when the blessed wireless
reads in those disquieting messages of " Government war warnings," of the
présence on and under the waters of the vicious enemy. You know that
every précaution to save ship and many lives is being taken. Again the
thought is comforting. The night may seem long, though, sometimes, not
long enough ; for the first grey streaks of dawn are fast paling into another
day before the ship is safe, where wind and \ ave are silent and where danger
dares not follow. A little while more and the night's work and strain are
over. The gallant destroyers hâve messaged a " good morning ! " and are
speeding on their return. The French pilot has been picked up and the ship
cornes to a brief rest again. That is how an instalment cf our vast army of
war-horses cornes to France. They, like the men that stream in day after
day, are only just coming to grips with the grim realities of active service.
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'
CHAPTER VII
Base Remount Dépôts in France—I
IF I say at the outset of this chapter that at the time of writing there are
towards half a million horses and mules on active service with the British
Forces in France, I may possibly excite the reader's doubt. Yet he must
banish his doubt, for the figure would be on or near the mark were a census
of war-horses and mules to be taken to-day. Then there are great numbers,
which are ever growing with amazing rapidity, issued to the American Forces.
Most of them hâve passed through the British Remount Service. That
Service primarily exists to horse newly created' war units, to repair wastage
in war, and to receive and issue to fighting units and the many and varied
units on Lines of Communication those sick and worn animais, now restored,
that hâve passed through veterinary hospitals. Many of the vast total, which
is creeping so near to the half-million, came out with the Forces—with artil-
lery, light and heavy, cavalry, infantry, and ail the various kinds of transport
that follow in the wake of armies. So it happens that from the beginning of
the war until 1918, well over a quarter of a million horses and mules came to
France from overseas as remounts. With very few exceptions, say, about
5,000 " waler " horses from Australia and a few mules landed direct from
America, the whole of thèse remounts were received from the United King-
dom. I hâve shown how most of thèse originally came from America and
were made fit in the interval in the British dépôts.
Omitting the small contingent from Australia, the whole of the remounts
were landed at five base remount dépôts situated at intervais along the north
coast of France and within comparatively easy reach by train and road of
our armies in the field. It follows, therefore, that it was part of the function
of thèse base dépôts to issue as directed those animais, as well as others that
came to them again from veterinary hospitals and convalescent horse dépôts,
after having done work with the armies. Some of those " others " may hâve
corne from the front, via the hospitals, more than once, even twice or thrice.
You will readily understand this when it is stated that up to the end of January
last the issues to the front from the dépôts were over half a million. Then in
addition considérable numbers of horses and mules hâve been despatched
to other théâtres of war so that the total of animais that hâve passed out
from base remount dépôts from the beginning of the war to the middle of 1918
61
-ocr page 62-
THE HORSE AND THE WAR
62
is well over the half-million. It is of those base dépôts that I would like to
write now, because, apart from their great importance, they obviously repre-
sent the starting-off point in the career of every gallant horse and worthy
mule on active service.
It would seem an obvious thing in the well-ordered séquence of transit
from the Remount Dépôts of the United Kingdom to the advanced field
sections, where the guns never cease their dread din and clamour, to start with
the various Base Dépôts in the North of France. From them the horse which
was once, perhaps, helping to carve out the straight furrow amid surroundings
undefiled by war, or was not long ago running half-wild on the grass plains
of the Middle and Western States of America, really émerges into the stern
realities of battle. We will certainly in due time keep company with him
in his march nearer and nearer to the Line, and, when wearied and worn
or wounded and scarred, follow him to those splendid hospitals and rest
farms from which he eventually issues re-invigorated for more of the almost
unbearable strain.
For the présent, however, let us pass directly from the North to somewhere
else in France. There also is a Base Remount Dépôt, which in character is
wholly unlike any other existing from a line a few miles west of Suez. It
is the Base Indian Dépôt. Its beginnings were on a modest scale, the per-
sonne] landing on November 25, 1914. At the outset there was a long period
of marked activity and usefulness. Then it gradually lost its importance
until it was on the point of flickering out altogether when circumstances
arising out of events in the Near East and Northern Italy caused it to assume
bigger proportions than ever before.
So, at the time of my visit, I found the establishment deeply interested
in its re-birth. It was brimming over with activity and the hurly-burly of
strenuous days. Makeshift had of necessity crept in to stem the torrent of
increasingly incessant demands on space and personnel. Polish and " eye-
wash " there was none. There was no time for either. Kraals for mules and
long lines for horses had corne up in a night as it were, and when day came
there was much to do. Every day was an object lesson of " drive " and
untiring restless energy.
One was bound to be impressed with the weird and odd contrasts after
being used to orthodox Remount Dépôts. I might, for instance, hâve looked
for neat and well-ordered Squadrons,—lines of stabling, carefully-erected
buildings, up-to-date feeding and watering arrangements, and pleasant enough
surroundings such as are associated with ail other Base Remount Dépôts of
my acquaintance. The contrasts, as I hâve said, were sharp, even vivid.
Spread over a considérable acreage were spacious kraals or paddocks. They
had that Indian bazaar-like suggestion of " makeshift," but, when a really
big emergency cornes and you successfully counter and overcome it, " make-
shift " is a thing to be proud of. And so it is ail to the crédit of the officer-
sahibs, the really admirable Indian ofncers, and those wonderful workers, the
syces, that they hâve done such fine things in promptly carrying out the
ideas and requirements of the Remount Directorate.
It cannot be too clearly understood what was demanded of the old
-ocr page 63-
A scène in the Indian Base Remount Dépôt in France. Horses exercising themselves around a " chukker."
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64                                THE HORSE AND THE WAR
concern. It was, as already explained, just about to flicker out of existence
after having apparently fulfilled its original useful purpose. Space it had
once covered had been taken over by the General Indian Base Authorities.
AU that and more had to be instantly re-claimed. Kraals for mules to run
loose in, fencing for the same, watering and feeding, tents for the personnel,
and a hundred other détails essential to the working of a Remount camp had
to be improvised. At the end of six months they may still be " carrying on "
under certain difhculties and with deficiencies as regards the weU-being of
men and horses still to be made good. But the great thing is that there
exists an ever-cheerful will to make the best of things as they happen to be,
to never admit defeat, and to wait for the day when the Royal Engineers will
hâve the labour available, and after that, the material, and after that again,
the authority, passed on from Authority to Authority, to build and improve
and make wholly efficient and sanitary a dépôt which looks like continuing
a vigorous existence until at last the " Cease Fire " sounds.
An ample ration and a splendid climate work wonders for the horses and
mules. They thrive and " do " in a way which is altogether unknown in the
north and on the English side of the Channel ; for, in that sheltered valley
amid the mountains that extend to the coast, biting winds and weeks on end
of drab skies and chilling rain are unknown. Instead the sun more often
than not streams out from lambent skies and kindles warmth and vigour and
health in raan and beast. Mules in particular do well when given the compara-
tive freedom of the kraals or paddocks. A heavy rain may make deep mud
in a night, but it is muscle making for the mule as he laboriously moves about.
And as the average daily strength at one time was about the same as the
biggest dépôt in the whole of the Remount Service some horses of necessity
hâve to be picketed on long Unes. It must be their ultimate lot as they
draw nearer to the real Une, so that the necessity at the Base has quite a useful
side to it.
Those with any knowledge of horse management in India know well
enough how thoroughly capable and dependable are the ftukka Indian syces
and sowars of native cavalry. There they form the nucleus of the native
establishment of workers, and one could not wish for better or more efficient
workers. But it so happens that there are not sufficient of them, and the
services are being utilized of those natives of India, who hâve been brought to
France to take their place on the Lines of Communication and at the Frcnt as
R.F.A. drivers in Ammunition Columns. They may hâve been anything in
India before being recruited and put into khaki, a view which is strengthened
when you see them introduced for the first time to our army horses and mules.
Theyseem at first so absolutely heart-breaking and hopeless as a Remount pro-
position, but they do—some do—make certain progress, and there can be no
doubt that their shaping into R.F.A. drivers is assisted by the help they were
called upon to give in the watering, feeding, and exercising of remounts.
Mules, one noticed, had the utmost contempt for them. To see a native of
this class stalking a mule in a kraal and the latter steadily and determinedly
walking away is a sight to make you forget there's a war on.
You could not doubt that thèse " followers," drawn as they were from
-ocr page 65-
First prize winners at a divisional horse show. Thèse splendid horses were issued from a Remount Dépôt, and were
actually in action a week before this picture was taken.
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66                                THE HORSE AND THE WAR
New issues at a Remount Dépôt. About to start for the Front.
ail parts and castes of India, were happy, if happiness can be said to dépend
largely on the well-filled stomach. Certainly their rations are bountiful,
since each man is entitled per day to 20 oz. of flour ; 2 oz. of dal or puise ;
3 oz. of ghee (clarified butter) ; 3 oz. of sugar or goor (Indian molasses) ;
\ oz. of spices ; 8 oz of vegetables ; 2 lb. of wood or coal ; 1 oz. of condensed
milk ; and, in the case of non-meat eaters, 7 oz.—the Jats, for instance, do
not eat méat—\ an oz. of tea ; and 8 oz. of méat to the méat eaters. Live
sheep and goats are issued to the native butchers, the Sikhs slaughtering with
one blow of a sword or tulwar, and the Mohammedans by cutting the throat,
at the same time saying a prayer.
It was after ail a pleasure and an instruction to see, so far west of the
Nile, this unique Remount Camp. It represented Ihe harnessing of the
forces of West and East in an eminently successful degree ; and when the war
is a thing of the past it will be interesting to recall the days when this parti-
cular spot in the South of France was a scène of great activity. One will
remember the perfect setting in the valley of vineyards, and the panoramic
glories of the guardian mountains, their peaks showing clear and defined
through vague and fleecy wreaths of morning mist. There will be memories
of the Indian bazaar, the sharp ejaculatory cries in Hindustani tongues, the
babble of the syces, the cooks, the bhisties, and the sweepers, and at ail times
the faint sickly smell of the burning ghee. Outlasting ail will be the link it
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BASE REMOUNT DEPOTS IN FRANCE                       67
represents in the quick-moving chain of British strength beyond the seas,
the part it played in aiding the capture of Jérusalem and the stemming of the
Austro-German hosts on the plains of Northern Italy.
Now let us return again to the North. A base remount dépôt, which we
will call " A," has, of course, easy access from the sea. From the spot where
it is situated you look towards an historical city, through which a river famous
in commerce, romance and tragedy, passes out on its ever-widening passage
to the sea. You contemplate that vista of ancient monuments mingling
with the tall chimneys of modem industry, and your imagination flits cen-
turies back to the distant âges when the Norsemen came, when English and
French fought as tierce opponents, asking and giving no quarter, and when
treachery, bloodshed, and swaying battles were part of the unhappy lives of
each succeeding génération. Odd contrasts indeed ! This dépôt may be
said to hâve had its origin half in York and half in Waterford, the divided
forces becoming united at their first French base on August 19, 1914. They
were there only a fortnight, and then at a time when the Germans were
Watering at a base Remount Dépôt in France.
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THE HORSE AND THE WAR
68
seriously threatening the northern coast of France they were hurriedly shipped
and put out to sea. For three days they were steaming for a destination
unknown to the voyagers until they again landed in France. For three
weeks afterwards they were strenuously engaged in supplying horses to the
front, including most of the thousand brought from Waterford. Then there
came the order to move. Another fortnight passed and eventually the dépôt
came to rest at the place it has ever since occupied. They were the first to
settle in what was then a fine stretch of parkland on the edge of a forest.
You can imagine that with the huge growth of the armies and their require-
ments little or nothing that is green is to be seen on the surface of that park
to-day, for hospitals, stores, rest camps, and odds and ends of necessary
military development abound and congest<
The dépôt began, as ail other remount dépôts began—on nothing ! AU
they possessed were the things that mattered, the horses. No neat and
orderly lines of covered stables, no well made metalled roads, no well designed
feeding and watering arrangements, and little or no comfort and convenience
for man or beast existed as is the case to-day. Horses were picketed in lines
on ropes. They had to stand on ground which rapidly became mud. They
had to be taken a mile or more to water. Ail thèse alarming deficiencies
and disadvantages only existed, however, to be gradually removed until, by
strenuous labour and real dévotion to the Cause, order was evolved out of
chaos.
To-day there are five squadrons, each capable in normal times of
dealing with 500 animais. Often at times of pressure far more are dealt
with, so that the strength in horses and mules averages 3,000. Thus, one
squadron will deal only with heavy draught horses for heavy artillery and
that class of transport which must hâve heavy horses ; another specializes
in the light draught horse which horses the Field and Horse Artillery and ail
manner of horse transport. You scarcely need to be told, therefore, how this
class of horse must preponderate. A third squadron is intended to handle
those riding-horses suitable for cavalry and yeomanry, and a fourth dévotes
each and every day's work to the charger.
Two-thirds of the animais corne from those veterinary hospitals in the
immédiate neighbourhood, and, on an average, close on a hundred a day
are received in this way. The remaining third corne directly off the ships
which arrive at regular intervais from the large issuing dépôt in England.
You will notice, therefore, how détails as to supply and demand are made to
dovetail. I hâve watched horses coming off ships after their short voyage,
and I hâve seen the daily arrivais from the veterinary hospitals. Obviously,
they are supposed to be fit animais whose résidence at the base should, theo-
retically, be of short duration. For the time being, however, they are at once
placed in their classes and différent squadrons by a spécial classification officer,
and it dépends then on the calls made by the deputy directors of remounts
with the différent armies as to how long they will stay at the base. It is the
D.D.R.'s, as they are called, who make the demands for the front. The
dépôt of which I am writing is primarily responsible for supplying the cavalry
divisions as well as the majority of chargers for the officers of those divisions.
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BASE REMOUNT DÉPÔTS IN FRANCE                     69
If you would better appreciate the work it has done under its past and présent
commandants, let me mention that up to the end of 1917 over 50,000 animais
had been received from the United Kingdom since the formation of the dépôt.
That total has been much swollen since then.
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CHAPTER VIII
Base Remount Dépôts in France—II
AT the mouth of a famous estuary is a second base remount dépôt which
we will call "B." Hère, too, is extremely well ordered and organized
accommodation for 3,000 animais. Often there are more, and it must be said
to the crédit of this dépôt that they hâve had a great deal to do, for they
receive more animais from overseas than any other dépôt. It is their function,
too, to receive the cured animais from neighbouring veterinary hospitals and
to send trainloads to the front, and one cannot doubt, therefore, that their
day's work is crowded in every sensé. Its marked activity will be better
understood when it is stated that at the time of writing nearly 200,000 animais
had been received and issued.
Next there is the base dépôt, called " C " for the purposes of this narra-
tive. It is certainly not the least interesting and well arranged of the quintet,
and as an example of what a unit of its kind should be it is hard to beat. Its
existence may be said to date from January 29, 1915, when the I7th Remount
Squadron arrived from Woolwich. At first the selected site was four miles
from the well-known port at which the horses disembarked, but the disadvan-
tages soon became apparent, and accordingly about two months later a move
was made to the présent admirable location. It, too, stands on high land,
and as the horses are well sheltered from keen winds they " do " remarkably
well, as is shown by the low figure of sickness. What causes horses and
mules on active service to go wrong quicker than anything else—to contract
mud-borne diseases, debility, and gênerai loss of mobility—are bad standings
and no shelter from piercing winds. Give them the shelter of any primitively
rigged screen and some dry ground to stand on and they will endure rain and
cold and other unpleasant weather. If they cannot hâve some comfort at
the base dépôts they will hâve small chance " higher up." I need hardly
say that considération of the kind is most certainly forthcoming ; indeed, in
this respect the horse is better cared for than in England before shipment
overseas.
This " C " base dépôt has a strength of six squadrons, five adjoining
each other, and the sixth a couple of miles away and under the command of
an officer who bears the name of one who was very famous indeed in polo. He
is essentially a horse-master, and it is his business, assisted by his small staff,
to receive those animais from convalescent horse dépôts and get them fit for
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Remounts trekking from a base dépôt to a division at the Front.
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THE HORSE AND THE WAR
72
A winter's scène on the road to the Front. Waiting for water.
issue up the line. In this way he may hâve anything from 500 to 700 animais
under his care, farm buildings, as well as covered lines, being utilized for
stabling ; while, when the grass is growing in the spring and the summer, the
poorer animais are given their absolute freedom and the reinvigorating feed.
In the summer months, too, it is the custom of this squadron leader to swim
his horses in the sea close by. I mention thèse détails because they will show
the care, thought, and enterprise of those who are giving ail their life-long
expérience and enthusiasm towards bringing the war-horse back to health
and maintaining him at the maximum of his strength and usefulness. I
will just add, in référence to " C " dépôt as a whole, that since its establish-
ment to the end of 1917 well over 100,000 animais had been received and
issued, the average per day of those coming from the veterinary hospitals
in the vicinity being 48, while, of course, the arrivais from overseas week after
week were substantial.
Passing along the coast there is, appropriately handy to a port, a fourth
base dépôt. It has its own particular désignation for Army purposes, but it
is politic that we should know it in print as " D." Its strength is considérable,
running to six squadrons, but you will perhaps better understand its size and
the activity of those associated with it if I say that it deals with an average
from day to day of between 3,000 and 4,000 animais. Like those others I
hâve described, it receives many horses and mules from England, the routine
being for an officer and a party of men to be at the docks in readiness for the
transport berthing. When once alongside and the " brows " fixed it is a
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BASE REMOUNT DÉPÔTS IN FRANCE
73
matter of only a few minutes for a few hundred horses to be disembarked.
They stream off loose in Indian file, each animal being taken by a waiting
man as it steps off the " brow " on shore. Thcn, when ail are ashore and
numbers checked, they are given the order to march off, and so they thread
their way through mazes of coloured labour and locomotion in the docks
out into a town bristling with khaki and activity and away to the base dépôt.
Çjuite pertinently it may be asked what is the order of daily work at a
dépôt such as I am referring to. Obviously, the main thing is to maintain
animais for war at the highest possible standard of robust health, and in order
to do so it is equally clear that exercise and cleanliness are vitally essential.
No one realizes this more acutely than those responsible for the direction of
the Remount Service. Where horses are congregated in large numbers and
where they hâve been so collected for a long time together, the tendency is
to make them more susceptible to disease. The ground has been fouled in
spite of the greatest care and, therefore, in order to combat such tendencies
the horse-masters of the Remount Service hâve set exercise and cleanliness
before ail else. Moreover, until animais are called for, which they majT be
at any moment, their muscles must not be allowed to relax, but rather to
develop and harden from healthy work either in transport or on those ingénions
long ropes which hâve gone far to solve the exercising of remounts with the
A summer's scène off the road. Grooming healthy and contented mules.
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THE HORSE AND THE WAR
74
minimum of labour, or on the roads in the vicinity of dépôts. You must
understand that the dépôts of which 1 am writing are not primarily intended
to get horses fit except those recovering from debility and exhaustion and
which are the output of convalescent horse dépôts. They are for maintaining
the mobility of artillery, transport and cavalry ; the point being that the fit
horses must be exercised just as the unfit ones must be given lighter work
according to the discrétion of the squadron leader. Exercise and grooming,
therefore, are essential to each day's work, almost as essential, indeed, as
watering and feeding. Needless to say, the latter are matters for the greatest
concern and vigilance. The remount officer at the base who studies the
individual horse or groups his squadron for spécial purposes in feeding must
inevitably show the best results. They are détails which crowd into the day's
work ; but when, apart from that, you hâve the big business of receiving
from the group of veterinary hospitals near by and the issuing of fit horses
to the front—thèse things being of daily occurrence—it will be understood
what a responsible link the base remount dépôts in France are in the whole
story of the war-horse. This " D " dépôt makes ail its issues to the front by
road, and it is characteristic of the commandant's administration that he
personally sees every animal received and issued. Units with divisions at
the front send parties for the horses allotted to them, and so they are marched
away, probably reaching their destination after a two days' march. It also
feeds " C" base remount dépôt, an admirable unit also, which in turn does its
share in maintaining the tremendous establishment of horses immediately
behind the Une and on the Lines of Communication. The figures relating to
the activities of " D " show that since 1914 over 150,000 animais hâve been
received and issued. " C " dépôt, which may be said to be nearer the northern
part of the line than any other, had, from June, 1915, to December, 1917,
received and issued nearly 100,000 animais.
It is extremely difficult to compress into a single chapter ail that happens
in the long day's work and goes to the crédit of thèse base remount dépôts
in France. They are not carried on without a show of real ability, zeal and
keenness to overcome worries and minor troubles. The men are well off
because they hâve not to share the burdens and périls of those whose job
it is to hold the long line ; but it is because they are a long remove from the
necessary physical fitness. They may not ail be up to the handling of horses
and mules, and there are not many of them, but dépôt commandants and their
officers pull through, the best évidence of their success being the excellent
results they show.
Just a few more words about those remount rest farms, the success of
which the remount directorate in France is justifiably proud. They are
situated in the finest grass country in this part of France, a long way behind
the line, and yet not too far away from at least three of the base remount
dépôts. It was, in the old days of peace, a great country for cheese-making
and cattle, and therefore its idéal qualifies for receiving weary, thin and
exhausted horses will be well understood. The Creator did not create horses
to stand in stables and be fed therein. He made them to live in the open,
in the wind, rain and sun, and to feed on the herbage of the fields. So the
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BASE REMOUNT DEPOTS IN FRANCE                       75
tonic effect of the rest in the quiétude of thèse fields in Normandy is won-
derful where debilitated remounts are concerned, and also in a larger degree
as regards the convalescents from veterinary hospitals. To them I shall
allude in due course when dealing with the great work in France of the Army
Veterinary Service. For the moment I hâve in mind two notable remount
farms, each under an untiring and enthusiastic major. Each will hâve 1,200
horses under supervision, and as they grow healthy and big and bright-eyed
in the fields they are brought in to the stabling, where, assisted in no mean
measure by German prisoner labour, they are got fit and hard again for their
war work. It is certainly interesting to state that the first of thèse rest farms
■—which can be referred to as " No. 4 " Advanced Remount Dépôt—-recelved
and issued roundly 20,000, while " No. 5 " received and issued a slightly
smaller number. Those are wonderful figures for " mère farms."
Two days' march away there is an advance remount dépôt commanded
at that time by a gallant major whose only aim in life seems to be to enjoy
the maximum of work and the minimum of sleep. His stabling is chiefly in
the old beet store sheds of a sugar factory, and he has to work hard because
the average strength of the squadron is 700 animais, constantly coming and
going to ail manner of units. And the great measure of his success is shown
by thèse illuminating figures up to the end of 1917 : received and issued,
some 75,000 animais.
But I am drawing nearer to the Une, and that interesting part of my
subject must be left for another chapter.
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CHAPTER IX
On Active Service
EVERY one in the Army has been learning and acquiring knowledge
during the war. Brains, when they were given a chance, hâve had
wonderful opportunities for activity ; and even when suppressed by the
sheer complexity and weight of officiai routine they hâve invariably triumphed.
It is true of the Chiefs of strategy, tactics, administration and supply and of
every one in a descending grade. Most certainly it is true of those who hâve
had to do with horses and mules in the war, which are my spécial thème.
Expérience has been the teacher, as it always has been, whether in success
or failure. Every one must inevitably hâve profited by his mistakes, just
as he must hâve been encouraged and spurred on to greater things by his
successes. One sees this so definitely where the horses are concerner! There
is an infinitely better understanding in 1918 between man and his dumb and
uncomplaining beast of burden in France than there was in 1914 and later
than that. Those who hâve had charge of him in health hâve learned better
how to maintain him in health against the unnatural rigours of hardship and
exposure and those other menaces imposed by modem warfare in country
constantly harassed and torn by shell-fire and bomb. And it is equally certain
that immense strides hâve been made by that splendid Army Veterinary
Service in coaxing back to health the debilitated and the exhausted, those
gashed and wounded by bullet and shell splinters, and in combating disease
generally.
There can be no fair comparison between 1914 and 1918. For one thing,
numbers hâve vastly increased ; so much so, indeed, that since the first of
our war-horses stepped ashore in France something like a total of three-quarters
of a million animais must hâve passed through France. That is a stupendous
figure. Then, while the " first hundred thousand " had to be dumped " any-
where "—literally anywhere—in the région of the long Une of battle, others
that followed hâve had the better conditions resulting from valiant efforts
to improve stabling and shelters. Time and expérience hâve corne to the
rescue, just as one would hâve expected them to do. But a factor of which
too much cannot be made has been the very real concern of the Field-Marshal
Commanding-in-Chief (Sir Douglas Haig).
His influence has been great and has penetrated from the vast users of
animais—the heavy and field artillery—to the smallest unit employing horses
or mules. He is known to be a sincère lover of the horse, and I am perfectly
76
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Crossing the Yser. Entering the battle zone.
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THE HORSE AND THE WAR
78
sure that the Ouartermaster-General of the Forces (who is primarily responsible
for the feeding of our war-horses), the Director of Remounts at the War Office
(who is responsible for meeting the demands of the armies in France and ail
the théâtres of war), and the Director of the Veterinary Service in France will
bear éloquent testimony to the incalculable good which is the outcome of
the " Chief's " personal interest.
That is why I say there can be no fair comparison between then and now.
I will go further and congratulate myself that I am writing in 1918, and not
twelve months earlier ; for one must hâve been depressed at that time by
the heavy wastage caused by the extraordinarily hard winter of 1916-17.
First, there were weeks on end of rain, then weeks of rigorous cold and icy
winds, and then rain again with the thaw. The greatest care could not over-
come the evils that followed on those dreadful conditions. Flanders and the
Somme country are appalling areas in such circumstances. The mud was
awful and literally engulfed horses. There were parts where wheeled traffic
could not go, and yet supplies had to be got to their objectives and the guns
moved as directed. So loads had to be carried as packs, and, in this way
weighed down, our war-horses and mules were pulled to pièces. Added to
this was a serious curtailment of the oat ration, which could not possibly
hâve been avoided, since it was due to a circumstance beyond the control
of our splendid organizers of supply. Thus it was that the combined resuit
of opérations in mud and short rations was to cause a wastage which, happily,
belongs to the past, and will, we hope, never occur again. In one month the
losses rose to 5 per cent., which is little under half the wastage of the whole
of the previous year. Matters speedily improved when the better weather
came and the full ration was restored, and animais were wonderful in the
vast improvement they showed. Most probably, the loss of their proper
food was mort1 harmful than the frightful weather,
It was about this time that the Commander-in-Chief showed his watch-
fulness and zeal for the welfare of his horses ; and one outcome, which I feel
sure has had most excellent results, was the appointment to each corps of a
chief horse master, who had under him subordinate horse-masters, each attached
to minor units. They were ostensibly what their désignation implies—experts
in horse and stable management ; and it has been their duty ever since to
watch those units employing horses and to give useful advice for the improve-
ment of the necessarily hard lot of horses and mules on active service close
behind the Line. Really efficient and tactful horse-masters hâve, I am sure,
done good, though the splendid condition of the animais in France to-day
has been primarily due to the better and milder winter. Then, the Director
of the Veterinary Service in France has abundantly aided the good work by
instituting at each of his hospitals a_ten-day course of lectures and instruction
for artillery and infantry transport officers. Tn this way 50 officcrs and
300 N.C.O.'s hâve takcn the course each month.
There was a time in the early days of the war when the horse knowledge
of such officers was more imaginary than real. For instance, an able and
génial Assistant Director of the Veterinary Service, who was working in a
particularly unhealthy part of the long Line, told me a true storv which amply
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The phlegmatic mule is impervious to adjacent shell bursts, and just plods steadily on.
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80                                THE HORSE AND THE WAR /y^UZrpUj* j, t+U**'
illustrâtes with a saving grâce of humour the square peg in the round hole.
In the course of his visits a young infantry transport officer—such an officer
may hâve about fifty animais in his care—complained of the poor quality
of the oats. " What's the matter with the oats ? " inquired the A.D.V.S.
" Well, sir," was the reply, " they are so small ; they get into the horses'
teeth." " Ah, well, that's bad, very bad. Perhaps you'd better indent on
' Dados ' [a person who is known officially as the Deputy Assistant Director
of Ordnance Supply] for some toothpicks " ! Of course, the zealous transport
officer meant well. But the best part of the story is that a day or two later
the boy was ordered to replace a casualty in the line, and the first time he
went over the top he won the Military Cross. Clearly it was a case of a square
peg having been in the round hole.
Then, again, this same A.D.V.S. was giving instruction to a class of
officers who were concerned with horses in the field, and one enterprising
member of the class volunteered the information that he thought he knew
ail there was to know. He had, for instance, carefully read Horace Hayes'
" Notes on Horse Management " and Fitzwygram's well-known book on
" Horses and Stables." " Then," observed the A.D.V.S., " I suppose you
can tell me how many bones there are in a horse's foot." " There are three,"
promptly came the reply. The interrogator was naturally rather startled,
and he had to investigate deeper and inquire the identity of the three. Our
gallant officer obliged at once. " They are," he said, " ringbone, sidebone
and navicular " ! He was not discharged the class that day.
I mention thèse quite true stories, not in an unpleasant way, but in order
to show that ail associated with horses in health and sickness must constantly
be learning and improving their usefulness to the betterment of the animais
themselves, and that the wisest among us may still go on learning.
It will, I think, be interesting at this stage to outline the procédure by
which remounts are sent from the base dépôts to the front. Remounts are
those horses and mules which repair the day-to-day wastage, and so maintain
the armies, where animais are concerned, at their allotted strength. In a
previous chapter it was pointed out how, since the war began, over a quarter
of a million remounts had been reçeived in France from the begïnning of the
war to the end of 1917. It will be understood how that total has greatly
increased since, especially since the advent of the American hosts. Those
figures convey in the best possible way the vast extent of this important
branch of the Service. It is, of course, a part of the enormous Department
of Supply in the charge of the Quartermaster-General of the Forces. In
France there is a Remount Directorate, at the head of which is Brigadier-
Général Sir F. S. Garratt, C.B., K.C.M.G., and its marked efficiency in every
respect is shown by the able way animais hâve unfailingly been supplied to
ail those combatant and non-combatant units which hâve to make use of
them in the proper prosecution of the war. With each army there is a Deputy
Director of Remounts, and he is " indented on "—the word is a military
one, and it is therefore the proper one to use—by every brigade, division
and corps in his particular army area. The demands are tabulated, and
after authentication he applies to the Directorate at their headquarters for
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ON ACTIVE SERVICE                                    Si
so many heavy draught horses, light draught horses and mules, chargers,
riders other than chargers, and pack animais. According to the proximity
of the Army and the whereabouts of the nearest base remount dépôt the
orders are given. Thus an army holding the northem part of the line would
naturally be supplied by a dépôt or dépôts situated nearest to it.
At one time it was the rule to hâve horses so ordered dispatched by spécial
train, each in charge of a conducting officer, who would be responsible for
An old trench will make a capital stable when the sun shines.
proper watering and feeding en route and the safe delivery of them to the
Deputy Director at railhead. This procédure in certain cases is still followed,
but whenever possible the animais are now marched by road and by stages
to their destination. The advantages are distinct. Rolling stock on the
railways is thereby spared for other urgent needs, while the steady march
is good for the animais themselves. It is good for them physicany, lor whèn
they arrive they must be better rather than worse for the road work they hâve
F
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82
THE HORSE AND THE WAR
done. And, moreover, the units to receive them make acquaintance with
them at the base, since a spécial party is detailed to proceed from their
positions at the front to bring them up.
It follows, of course, that they hâve been passed fit. for their ordeal. The
Commanding Officer of the dépôt has done his part conscientiously and with
strict regard to what will be required of them. My expérience goes to show
that there is perhaps greater strictness shown in France than in the United
Kingdom. It is quite right that the supervision in this way should touch
the highest possible standard, since it would be grossly unfair and wrong
to a degree to send indiffèrent animais to those who are fighting in the death
zone and who must at times rely on the activity and strength of their horses
for their own personal safety. So, also, it is with the veterinary officers. A
heavy responsibility lies with them, for to allow anything but the absolutely
fit in health to proceed to the front must be to choke the sick Unes with units
and the advanced mobile veterinary sections. Besides, neglect in this respect
does not give the horse a chance. But I am happy to say, as the resuit of
close observation, that ever}? officer in France in the Remount and Veterinary
Services is keenly sensible of this point, and that he never consciously allows
an animal to go to the front either too soon or too late.
On ail the roads that lead to the line there are staging camps where men
and horses are rested for the night. The journey may be of two or three days ;
usually only two days. Good water is handy, and our wonderful O.M.G.'s
Department has ensured rations being in readiness. They never fail to be
there. And so they progress to the last receiving place, where they are met
by the Deputy Director of Remounts attached to the Army Headquarters
concerned, and forthwith distributed throughout the area. Their life, doings
and welfare can best be told in another chapter. We are within sound of
the guns now.
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CHAPTER X
Work at the Front
IT is one thing seeing a horse or mule at the front—or shall I say, just at
the back of the front ?—in the bloom of good health, and quite another
seeing him away down the Lines of Communication in the horse hospitals
after he has " cracked up " on actice service. The one is at his full strength,
and the horse lover must feel heartened as he sees him pulling and hauling
and contentedly plodding along war's way while still retaining the grit and
stamina to do so. The other, which has begun to fail, is sick and sorry now.
The machinery which has kept him keyed up as a category "A" individual
runs down with a suddenness which is incredible when once he has started to
go the wrong way. He passes into sympathetic management and restful
quarters, and in due course we will follow his career during this phase of
temporary éclipse. For the présent let us keep company with the war-horse
or mule which is doing his bit, for the healthy are as in the proportion of
g to i to the sick.
Not long ago I asked a highly-placed gênerai officer whose business it
is to know ail about our animais in the war what impressed him most about
the horses and mules at work in France, and he unhesitatingly replied : " Their
good condition." Well, you hâve to see to believe, and I can honestly say
that I did not see a single really unfit horse. A very few were probably
showing signs of the daily grind and might hâve been qualifying for a rest
and spécial feeding at the base hospitals or convalescent horse dépôts, but I
did not see a case of debility or exhaustion still being retained at the front.
And, of course, I saw many thousands of animais.
Why this should be so is still something of a mystery to me. You will
pass divisions either coming out of the line for rest or others going up. They
seemed to be miles long as the guns, limbers, and transport rumbled and
rattled over the pavé or newly-metalled roads. Without an exception their
animais were wonderfully good, and sometimes I thought the mules were
better than the horses, and then I would incline to favour the horses rather
than the mules. I visited hère and there, and quite unannounced, horse-
standings of some divisional ammunition column, Royal Field Artillery horses,
heavy battery horses, and so on. Some were within shelters just off the
roadside, others were among the ruins of a shell-blasted village. I looked
first for thin and debilitated horses like some of the wrecks I had made
83
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THE HORSE AND THE WAR
84
acquaintance with away down the line at the hospitals. I asked for them when
I could not fmd them, and was told that they did not exist. From where,
then, did the hospitals get their debility cases ? I can only infer that the
authorities concerned do realize that prompt évacuation of the sick and the
worn is the best policy, and that to hang on to them at the front too long
is to jeopardize the life of the horse or to delay his complète recovery so long
that his maintenance while out of action becomes a doubtful proposition
from a financial point of view.
Again I would emphasize what I wrote in a previous article, namely, that
gunner officers, infantry transport officers, D.A.C. officers, and the N.C.O.'s
working under them hâve undoubtedly acquired from expérience a far better
understanding of certain first principles essential to proper management of
horses in the field. The excellent results are what I saw. The horse advisers
hâve obviously done well, and in that sensé the experiment of establishing
them has been proved a success, even though it is true that hère and there
intrusion was not exactly welcomed at the outset. And, of very real import-
ance, I would specially note once more the great good following on the improved
standings and the provision of shelter and screens, however rough, against
wind and weather. It follows that a horse which must stand in mud and
slime until his fetlocks disappear is not going to remain well long. He will
develop foot trouble like laminitis, and " grease," the scourge of heavy, hairy-
legged horses, is inévitable and must, indeed, cause great loss of usefulness.
So you will understand what an advance has been made by the improvement
of standings and how it has reacted on the animais.
Of course, it is not always possible to provide what every man knows
is désirable. Supposing an advance takes place to a depth of a mile or two,
or even more, what then ? Horses attached to the guns, horses in the trans-
port with supplies, pack mules with food and ammunition for the infantry—■
they cannot remain where they were. They must make a corresponding
move on, and then, of course, they hâve to désert their old shelters and enter
a " No Man's Land." Such a land too ! A land of horrors underfoot, the
whole drab face of the earth nothing now but a racked and scourged wilder-
ness of shuddering pits and water-laden shell holes. Then is the time when
the stoutest-hearted horse and the plodding, uncomplaining " muley " are
tried to " cracking point." Their next bivouac is on the mud, which is the
beginning of most troubles and the original cause of the streams that trickle
week by week into the réception veterinary hospitals and those other hospitals
that radiate from them.
I hâve heard folk at home, who hâve never seen thèse things and therefore
do not know, express astonishment that horses and mules are still a vital force
in the prosecution of modem warfare. The motor lorry, the steam wagon
and the caterpillar tractors, they say, must hâve supplanted the horse. To
some extent they certainly hâve done so, and it is a reminder that but for
them no nation or assembly of nations could hâve carried on war on the gigan-
tic scale it now is had they ail the horses in the world at their command. We
hâve to remember that this is a unique war of enormous, unparalleled magni-
tude, and that horses are being employed on a scale which could never hâve
-ocr page 85-
Cavalry in movement. Passing round a huge mine crater.
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86
THE HORSE AND THE WAR
been dreamed of. They must still continue to do what motors cannot do until
the time cornes when war will be made wholly in the sky and under the
earth.
In a previous chapter it was mentioned that at the time of writing there
were in the neighbourhood of half a million horses and mules engaged with
the British armies in France. In the month of February there were just on
100,000 with the particular army I visited—approximately three horses to
one mule. At one time there were with this army about 150,000 animais,
every one being urgently required ; but I need scarcely point out that any
fluctuations must be a matter of adjustment of the Higher Command according
to the gênerai situation. Let me try and convey to the reader some idea of
what the 100,000 were doing. First and foremost, the roads by day were a
révélation. They were a révélation in the splendid control of the trafnc,
in the distinction made between fast and slow moving vehicles proceeding
in the same direction.
Take the Field Artillery proceeding up the line in relief, or, perhaps, com-
ing out for rest and a clean-up, or movement elsewhere. There were the
18-pounder guns, the 60-pounder guns, a siège battery of still heavier guns
of the "How" description, and with them ail, their limbers and transport ;
light draught horses, mostly of American origin of that greatly admired Per-
cheron-graded stamp—the stamp that has proved his excellence as a war-
horse in France over and over again—were in the lighter field gun, or there
were teams of mules, pulling stoically and philosophically at their own gait
as if nothing else in the world mattered. There were heavier Percheron-bred
teams from the United States in the heavier guns, ail in clean and hard
condition, and then, perhaps, variety would be given to the long unending
procession by the appearance on the scène of some howitzers of certain
calibre, each with a team of ten heavy draught horses. A big gun of the kind
would require more horses to move it in rough ground, but ten amply sufficed
along the level, well-laid roads behind this part of the line.
And what else dépends for their movement on horse and mule haulage
in the vast scheme of war-making as it is to-day ? A divisional train would
corne along made up of General Service wagons, limbered wagons with heavy
or light draught horses or mules, playing their part. An infantry transport
might be bringing up the rear of a battalion on the march, and you would
notice its wagons, its travelling kitchens smoking and emitting the savoury
odours of the coming meal, its water-carts, and its pack animais. Or, again,
a machine gun company's transport of limbered wagons is on the move, and
still another unit you recognize as the cable section of a signalling company.
So ail day and every day movement and push and drive go on, passing in
différent ways, like a limitless frieze, but ail intent on arriving at the same
objective—the winning of the war.
Think, therefore, how much dépends on the hundreds of thousands of
equine helpers and the necessity of keeping them in health and strength.
Most of them had still on their long winter coats, sojme^exe^arriallj^ipped,
a few only were fully clipped ; for there is a strong belief now among tnose
who should know that the most complète clipping of war-horses and mules
-ocr page 87-
Pack horses carrying ammunition can go where wheeled traffic could not pass.
A reminder of winter's mud in Flanders and in the Somme Valley.
Heavy draught horses bringing up reinforcements.
-ocr page 88-
88
THE HORSE AND THE WAR
at the beginning of winter is both a folly and a cruelty, since it must deprive
them of the warmth provided by Nature. They do say that the losses of
the winter and spring 1916-17 were assisted by the clipping which was gênerai,
and the laws of logic and nature would seem to confirm the theory. But it
is a point on which the expert and the veterinary specialists do not quite
agrée, and therefore there has been something of a compromise during the
1917-18 winter with certainly vastly improved re^ltsrv The point made by
the Veterinary Service, however, is quite intéflig ible. They say that the
growing of a long coat hides mange and other ssrious skin troubles until it
is too late, when eventually detected, to effect a speedy cure. Remount
officers and others say that total clipping must cause great wastage from
debility and death, and that it is better to clip, if at ail, in the late autumn or
very early winter. 1 am sure the veterinary officers agrée that it is unde-
sirable to deprive animais of their winter coats. It therefore becomes a
question of arriving at the lesser of two evils, and I am sure the compromise
of the fourth winter of war has been the right and sane one.
The voices of the guns, which some miles back were but a murmur
borne on the light wind of this late winter's day, had hardened into menace
and hateful insistency as one drew nearer to what is so lightly and yet so
significantly alluded to as " the Une." At disjointed intervais the " heavies "
were sending their screaming messengers of death away into the haze of the
grey distance when one " quiet " day I looked in on some animais whose
quarters were actually closest to our Une. Hère I saw field artillery horses
in waiting ; further away were the horses of a heavy battery ; and then there
were the horses of a D.A.C. section to see.
Hère were examples of the horse shelters dotted ail over the devastated
country, and I need scarcely add that they were within the range of Boche
gun fire. But they hâve what advantages of immunity can be derived from
camouflage, while the men tending them live in huts similarly guarded or in
dug-outs. Enemy visitations at night from the air are not unexpected ;
but when our men think of danger in that way they hâve also the comforting
knowledge that our brave boys in the air are " strafing " and doing as much
and more o' nights behind the enemy lines.
And the war-horse and his ever constant associate, the mule, just go on
living their lives as unconcernedly as if the country were not scarred and
burned so that its appearance is ugly, sinister and répulsive. They cannot
discriminate between a village which is dust and ruin and a church which
was once a monument to civilization and Christianity and is now but a skeleton
of tottering walls standing in mute condemnation of human hâte and savagery,
and a village and church which stand whole and beautiful in the pale sun
of this winter's day. Our dumb helpers may live in the ghastly ruins of
what was once a prosperous town, where the cries of little children at play
mingled with the peaceful work-o'-day lives of their elders. Death and
dévastation made it a hell, the awful fires of which hâve not yet flickered out.
So when you go out beyond and survey the duck-board tracks which lead
-ocr page 89-
WORK AT THE FRONT                                  89
to where our men are bearing the real burden and dangers of war, you think
of our war beasts of burden that night after night traverse that foui and
shell-torn country amid the loathsome vapours of the guns in performing
their share in " carrying on." Can you wonder that there is real affection
for the horse and mule, and that they are indeed the friends of man at this
tremendous crisis ?
-ocr page 90-
CHAPTER XI
Triumphs of the Army Veterinary Service
THE story of the doings of our war-horses and mules on active service
in France would only be half told were it to be brought to an end with
their work and welfare at the front and along the lines of communication.
So far as this narrative has gone it has been wholly concerned with their pro-
gress and doings from the time they are embarked in England to the day
when they come to be an active and essential pièce of the vast machinery
which is making war. Their réception at the base remount dépôts in France
has been described and, later, their issue to those fighting and non-fighting
units which must make use of horses and mules in order to secure their proper
mobility and usefulness. Obviously, therefore, we hâve been discussing
our friends in the full possession of their health and strength. There cornes
a time when they succumb to the rigours and dangers of modem warfare.
Some of them must fall sick and war-weary and so are no longer " service-
able "—to use a military expression-—and when that happens they become
the patients of the Army Veterinary Corps. When I remind the reader that
in the spring of 1918 there were over 30,000 horses and mules in veterinary
hospitals and convalescent horse dépôts, it will be understood what a large
part is being enacted from day to day by this very efficient branch of the
Service.
I am writing at the moment of France only. In every théâtre of war
where British armies are fighting, the A.V.C. is worthily maintaining and
steadily improving its standards. In dealing with this progress I may seem
to write with enthusiasm, but I would like to make it clear from the outset
that my impressions were gained at first hand and after some lengthy study
of the Veterinary Service in France—of its personnel, its institutions, its
methods, and its whole-hearted dévotion to the daily task of restoring the
horse from disease and exhaustion to health and strength. If our military
organization and administration hâve triumphed in many other directions,
they most certainly hâve in this particular one. The public hâve no concep-
tion of their splendid achievements, and it is due to them, equally as it is due
to those who hâve been toiling through the months and years so assiduously,
always learning something new and useful, and always profiting by their
lessons, that the story should be told.
Beyond ail doubt it has been a great war for the Veterinary Service.
90
-ocr page 91-
Horses being treated for mange in gas chambers with only their heads exposed.
A glimpse of a Veterinary Hospital in France.
-ocr page 92-
THE HORSE AND THE WAR
92
What it has had to tackie has been but a part of the products of savagery
and the common dévastation of war, but the progress would not hâve been
so marked had it not been so. Efficiency has marched with the accumulation
of problems and every new anxiety. It is well for our Army and for our
cause that this is so.
One wonders what
would hâve hap-
pened had the Ser-
vice been beaten by
those nefarious and
scourging diseases
which are the prim-
ary resuit of horses
b e i n g congregated
and handled in large
numbers, especially
in the open. Sup-
posing it had failed
to rise to the occa-
A victim of sarcoptic mange.
sion ! Supposing it
had failed to win in
the fight against the appalling disasters that could follow on widespread
mange outbreaks, other contagious diseases, and those ills which are the
resuit of constant work in mud with attendant exposure to the icy winds of
w i n t e r ! Artillery
and transport would
surely hâve had their
mobility seriously
jeopardized. But
the Service of which
I am writing has
done great things,
and now, after four
years. of war and
after ail that they
hâve taught, it is
consolidating its tri-
umphs and facing
each new trouble
with strengthened
assurance and con-
The same horse two months after the dip treatment,
rapidly becoming healthy and well.
fidence.
It will be in-
teresting if at this
point I set out the gênerai functions of the Veterinary Service as outlined in
Field Service Régulations. Thus the Service -is organized with a view to
preserving the efficiency of the animais of the Forces in the field :
-ocr page 93-
TRIUMPHS OF THE ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE 93
1.   By preventing the introduction and spread of contagious diseases.
2.   By reducing wastage among animais by means of prompt application
of first aid.
3.   By relieving the field army of the care of sick and inefncient animais,
the présence of which
hampers mobility.
4.  By the treat-
ment in hospitals of
animais removed
from the field army.
5.   By the re-
plenishing of veterin-
ary equipment.
Quite unneces-
sary is it to mention
hère that the welfare
of our men is the
first and foremost
concern of the Army,
but that fact does
not lessen in the
slightest degree the
désire to do every-
thing humanly pos-
sible for the horse
and mule in sick-
ness. The functions
mentioned above,
■•■■'
therefore, are carried
out with unceasing
zeal, the main idea
a 1 w a y s uppermost
'
being to keep the
front free of ail but
■
fit animais. There
must always be a
certain amount of
sickness there, but it
is of the trivial kind
The mange patient. Taking a plunge into the
calcium-sulphide bath.
which does not call
for évacuation to the hospitals on the Lines of Communication. Such slight
sickness represents about 2 per cent, of the whole, and is dealt with by the
veterinary ofhcers attached to units and at the mobile veterinary sections,
to which référence will be made in due course. It is quite true that the chief
enemy of our war animais is not the Boche with his shot and shell. He is
only responsible in the sensé that he is the cause of the animais being where
they are. The real enemies are the hard weather, the hard conditions under
-ocr page 94-
THE HORSE AND THE WAR
94
which they must necessarily work and exist, and those diseases which are
incidental to the collection and movements of horses and mules in great num-
bers. And that brings me to the subject of those diseases which are respohsible
for providing the Service with the bulk of their paiients in hospital.
It is well, in the narration of this important phase in the lives of our war
animais in France, that I should first convey to the reader some notion of
thèse diseases, their nature and their effects. A description of the hospitals
and veterinary methods of combating and curing can suitably follow. At
the outset, therefore, it is necessary to clear up the popular idea that a horse
is a robust animal. He is nothing of the sort. He is most susceptible to lapses
in health. Contagious diseases easily get a grip of him, his résistance being
astonishingly feeble. He readily feels changes of scène, environment and
feeding, and especially is this the case with heavy draught horses, their chief
trouble in this connection being respiratory. Thus fever and catarrh find
him an easy prey. I particularly noticed this during a fairly intimate con-
nection with Base Remount Dépôts. New arrivais off ships which were
fit when they embarked would frequently develop respiratory troubles, and
in France much of that class of sickness was confined to animais newly landed
from England.
It is, indeed, most singular that coughs, fevers, catarrhs, pneumonia
and pleurisy are so comparatively slight among horses at the front. The
fact says a good deal for the better management about which I hâve written
and the improved shelters of to-day compared with the early days of the war.
But it also proves that direct exposure, when once animais hâve become
acclimatized and hardened, is not the predisposing cause. Rather is it some-
thing spécifie and assisted in its spread by the assembly of animais in large
numbers at bases, on ground, too, which has never had a chance of recovering
from horse sickness. The exigencies of war do not allow of horses when on
active service being maintained in anything but large assemblies, and so the
veterinary expert must fight against a cause which he knows must prédispose
the horse to sickness.
At the présent time the two most serious troubles with our animais in
France are mange and other allié'd skin diseases, and ophthalmia. I saw many
examples of Doin, though The former is essentially aTwinter disease. When
you consider the conditions under which horses must live, admirable as they
are considering the circumstances, and when you think of the easy way disease
is carried and spread in spite of the most strenuous efforts to localize it, the
small percentage of sick animais in France is really astonishing. Of that
percentage about 12 per cent, are horses and 6 per cent, are mules. Their
trouble may be one or other, and sometimes both or more, of catarrh, gunshot
wounds, lameness, ophthalmia, ulcerative cellulitis and skin disease. At the
moment skin disease may be in the largest proportion. At another time
it may be some other trouble. The fact is, as I hâve said, that mange is a
winter disease ; and furthermore, disease invariably cornes and goes as a
wave. No sooner is one defeated than another gathers in force. To-day it
may be " skin " ; to-morrow it may be ophthalmia, and so on.
There are three forms of mange, of which the genus sarcoptic is the worst
-ocr page 95-
TRIUMPHS OF THE ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE          95
in its devastating effects and it takes longest to kill. The parasite burrows
xmder the skin and then lays its wretched eggs. If a horse thus attacked
has on its long winter coat the trouble has made serious headway before
•discovery. For this reason it was decided to clip horses as far as possible
before the advent of the cold weather, i.e., in October and November, and
to allow the coat subsequently to grow. By this means it was hoped to
reduce the risk of mange considerably, at the same time to permit a reasonably
long and protective coat to grow before the onset of the really cold weather.
How is the Veterinary Service tackling the mange trouble ? Not so long
ago it was the practice to apply by hand oily dressings of sulphur to the aff ected
parts, which were chiefly in the région of the mane, neck and withers, but it
was tedious, slow, and altogether unsatisfactory. Dipping is now the method
both as a prévention and as a cure. Dips were first employed in a campaign
during the war in South Africa, the idea being borrowed from Australia, where
baths suitable for large numbers of animais were originally introduced. Hav-
ing first discovered the offending parasite, by the aid of a microscope magnify-
ing fifty times, the positive case is relegated to the mange lines of a veterinary
hospital. Animais with whom he has been in contact become suspects and
musc accordingly be kept under observation. And so the mange lines fill
as the resuit of évacuations from the front, and opérations at the Dip, which
is now part of the equipment of every veterinary skin hospital become an
urgent necessity.
The dipping bath is in the shape of a long and deep well, so deep at the
entrance eiia tnat the animal is submerged when the sheer drop précipitâtes
him into the steaming creamy fluid of calcium sulphide. He swims a few
strides and then finds himself climbing and able to walk out at the other end.
The odours are anything but pleasant, and the most enthusiastic veterinary
officer will not say that his patient enjoys the ordeal, especially in the winter
months, in spite of the fact that the bath is heated. But the great thing to
remember is that the process has proved life-saving and has saved the big
population of Army horses and mules in France from being ravaged by the
scourge. Hundreds a day can be dipped, and the process has to be repeated
several times before convalescence is entered on. Meanwhile, we see something
of the unsightly effects on the poor animal. His skin, having suffered this
sub-surface érosion, has shed its hair, there are great bald patches, and it is
corrugated, hard and tough. For two months he is undergoing the cure.
In connection with mange treatment, ï saw an installation for
treating horses by means of sulphurous acid gas (S02), a process originated by
French veterinary officers. Horses are put into chambers, only their
heads protruding into fresh air, and their bodies are exposed to the gas for
two hours at a time. I believe the idea as suggested by the French has not
been perfected. The density of the gas is not sufficient, but there are possi-
bilities which are still being developed. It will, I think, be of interest to add
that mange more readily attacks horses than mules. The proportion is some-
thing like four to one. Clearly there is something about the mule's skin that
the parasite does not find to his liking, which is still one more virtue to the
crédit of the mule.
-ocr page 96-
CHAPTER XII
Horses and Mules in Sickness
IT is appropriate, in contimr'ng the narrative of veterinary work and enter-
prise among the horses and mules in France, to pause and survey the
situation as it was created after the German hordes had poured over the
basins of the Somme and reoccupied territory on which it had been hoped
they would never again set foot. Such a retreat, like that, for instance, of
the Fifth Army in the spring of 1918, must hâve involved the sacrifice from
wounds and exhaustion, perhaps also from capture, of a certain number of
animais.
So much is obvious. We know also during those days of acute tension
when the whole terrain was torn and afîame with devastating and devouring
gunfire and vast rear areas were searched by long-range guns and bombs,
that our gun and transport animais must hâve borne their share of the dreadful
shock of unprecedented battle. What was so along that far-flung 50-mile
battle line in the closing days of March must also hâve been enacted by day
and by night in the North when the mighty titanic struggle swayed in and
around Armentieres and carried Ballieul and Kemmel in its fierce bull-rush.
What of our horses and mules during those days of crisis and anxiety ?
They were a vital considération beyond ail question. That surely is under-
stood, without the mère writing of the words. The saving of our men's lives
in movements to the rear must in a large measure be dépendent also on the
saving of our horses' lives. They must live to préserve the mobility of the
fighting forces. They must fill their big and vital part in withdrawing the
guns from their forward positions ; in securing the mobility of the Army
Service Corps which must never lose touch ; in bringing up ammunition to
gunners and infantry ; in saving those transportable stores and munitions
of war which an oncoming enemy would advertise as " booty " ; and in a
hundred différent ways.
It is just natural to lapse at a moment like this into comparing pictures
deeply engraved for ail time on the mind. Imagination has nothing to do
with it, since only those who hâve seen and participated can understand.
Words, however éloquent, cannot convey reality to those who hâve not. One
recalls the short winter's day on the Somme with Albert left behind to the
westward, or a point farther north around which the hell of battle has since
raged. Our forward guns were lost in the poor visibility of the fast-ebbing
96
-ocr page 97-
The pack mule getting on with his job.
A team of gallant American greys charging through mud with supplies for the front line.
G
-ocr page 98-
98
THE HORSE AND THE WAR
day and the battery horses in their rough lines were not so far in the rear.
There was little suggestive of blood and tumult then. Only an occasional
thud of a shell-burst broke in on the daily routine of work and steady prépara-
tion. No one heeded it. The enemy was as inactive as he was invisible. A
sinister calm !
Horses and mules were familiar with their surroundings. Their lot was
being improved as time passed by. They stood on firmer ground and they
got their rations with unfailing regularity. This was peace in war behind
our old battle line of the winter of 1917-18. And then ... !
Open warfare, an Army in retreat, a war of movement in which horses
and mules helped bravely to stem the torrent which threatened to rush through
the gap in the barrier ! There were the Cavalry troop horses which essayed
the rôle assigned to that arm of the Service and they did not corne out
unscathed. The gun horses moved the guns from position to position or
brought them to the rear when our magnincent men fell slowly back, fighting
always grimly, heroically, defiantly. The roads were black with streams of
horse-drawn transport of ail kinds, salving this, safeguarding that, and in
countless ways preserving intact the mass of equipment and belongings of
a still unbroken Army.
What days and nights those were ! Many a brave gun horse and many
a tough old mule may never turn their heads to the West again ; for some
would fall by the wayside, stopped by shell or dropped from exhaustion.
Hâve you not read in the vivid stories of the war correspondents of shell-
riddled villages with only a few dead horses remaining to indicate the red
murder of the guns ? They, too, seem to tell their stirring taie of sacrifice
without which our heavily-pressed Forces would not hâve escaped the attacking
masses. That surely is true, and when, either now or years hence, you corne
to read of the defeat of great German Armies in their plans to crush and batter
the British out of existence, you will perhaps spare a grateful thought for the
horses and mules which in their thousands made our salvation possible.
They hâve suffered their share, as was inévitable. They suffered again
in our triumphant Autumn advances of 1918. The wounded, like the
wounded among our heroic fighting men, hâve been sent to fill the hospitals.
The exhausted and the debilitated from over-work and exposure, hâve been sent
" down the line " torest. And from hour to hour, day to day, it is still going
on—toi], sacrifice, and honour—and just as the men are found so also are the
animais to reinforce the battery and wagon lines, Ihe Cavalry units, and the
thousand odds and ends of an Army that must still rely on man's best friend.
Debility, the diagnosis of a horse's condition when his constitution fails
him, when he loses condition, appetite, and ail interest in life, when, in fact,
his machinery has run so low that it is threatening to stop altogether, is the
great hospital-filler. If there were no war there would not be this heavy
percentage of debility cases among the sick horses and mules, for the trouble
is wholly the product of war and the making of war. Very often it is the
origin of other troubles that go to complicate and prolong treatment. It
-ocr page 99-
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Expériences in mud, which is a pernicious carrier of disease among horses.
But the shells must get to the battery positions.
-ocr page 100-
ioo                             THE HORSE AND THE WAR
may make the animal more susceptible to those pernicious diseases of the
skin ; it may affect respiratory and digestive organs ; and, though the immé-
diate cause of the prevalence of ophthalmia in our horses and mules is not
known, debility is not unlikely to be partially responsible in the sensé that it
must prédispose to any other forms of sickness. Naturally, reduced vitality
means less résistance to contagious maladies and the hardships of piercing
winds and horrible clinging mud.
Only those who hâve seen the awful state of roads and a country which
lias been scarred and lacerated out of récognition by artillery fire can truly
understand what is at finies required of those animais that must be close on
the heels of the troops holding the line. I hâve especially in mind the light
draught horses and mules for the fieldguns and the animais used for pack
purposes when the haulage of wagons in bringing up supplies and ammunition
is quite out of the question. War as such is a stern and remorseless tyrant,
and the toll it exacts is reflected in the temporarily " broken " animais that
are humanely evacuated with the utmost speed. That toll has to be paid,
and it is in the paying of it that the Remount Service cornes in with its replace-
ment of casualties. It is a Service which has never once failed to maintain
our strength in horses and mules.
Obviously it is wise in bringing about the release of debilitated and ex-
hausted animais at the front to see to it that they are not allowed to get too
low in condition. Advanced cases must take a long time to bring back to
the full vigour of health in the rest camps, and especially is this so where aged
animais are concerned. We must not overlook the fact that the war has now
been going on for over four years, and that animais which had to be mobi-
lized in 1914 are nearing the time when they are necessarily failing from
natural causes, apart altogether from the terrifie strain of war conditions.
And in this connection I may point out that about 10 per cent, of the horses
now passing into veterinary hospitals are fifteen years old and over. It then
becomes a question whether they can be retained with advantage to the Forces
in the field, whether, in fact, it is good finance and sound policy to persévère
with them in their reduced and worn condition. It is hère that the Veterinary
Service also cornes in. Their primary objective is to cure and restore ; but
hard facts hâve to be faced, and more often than not our gallant allies, thus
permanently impaired, hâve to be given their discharge. They may be sold
for the easier and quieter life on the land with French agriculturists, or, if
they are past that, they are humanely slaughtered for food in the abattoirs
of Paris and other cities and towns.
There are times, of course, when debility sickness is more marked than
at others, as, for instance, in wet and cold weather, and after a " push," when
animais must advance after fighting forces over what was once a " No Man's
Land." Thus in the spring of 1917, when the weather was exceptionally severe
and military opérations were intense, the wastage from debility and exhaus-
tion rose to a marked extent, but happily this did not last long.
Let me further catalogue the sickness. There is that ophthalmia to which
I hâve alluded. It is a serious trouble and on that account is causing anxiety
both inside and outside the Veterinary Service. The first symptoms are what
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HORSES AND MULES IN SICKNESS
101
is known as conjunctivitis, a kind of inflammation of the membrane of the
eye which causes watering of the affected eye or eyes. In time an opaque
film seems to settle over the iris, causing partial blindness. Sometimes total
blindness follows, and in that case the animal naturally loses much of his
usefulness. He might, when blind, be used for easy work at the bases, but
in the majority of cases he has to be cast as being unserviceable.
How to account for it and why it should show a tendency to develop
are points not easy to détermine. There was a form of ophthalmia among
horses in the South African War, and the eye used to burst. The form in
France is technically known as irido cyclitis, and the belief is fairly gênerai
An opération in a Veterinary Hospital. The patient under chloroform.
among our leading veterinary officers that it may be induced by a state of low
constitution, exposure, irregular exercise and errors in feeding. The affected
animais show marked fear of the light of day. If it is difficult to trace the
cause there is also doubt as to whether the treatment at présent in vogue will
effect a permanent cure. " Causa sublata tolliteur effectus " may be the
admirable motto of those experts who would first remove the cause in
order to banish the effects ; but it is not absolutely certain that the cause of
ophthalmia is known.
It is known, however, that animais fed in America on cotton seed develop
a similar condition, and one seems to hâve an impression rather than a con-
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THE HORSE AND THE WAR
102
viction that the imported draught horses and mules from America are more
subject to it than others. What happens in the Ophthalmia Veterinary
Hospitals in France now is that the symptoms are found to be much alleviated,
even if they do not actually subside, by a hypodermic injection just above
the eye. There is no guarantee that the trouble will not recur, but it is certain
that the Service is making headway in the matter and that the trouble should
be got more and more in hand as time goes on.
I corne now to forms of sickness which are considered to be due almost
solely to animais having to work and stand about in mud. " Grease," cracked
heels, sloughing of the skin round the coronet and the pastern hâve been,
and are, a curse, especially where the -heavy Shire horses from England are
concerned. Has the reader, who is not a veterinary scientist, ever heard
before of ulcerative cellulitis ? I hâve an idea it is only recently that it has
corne into prominence. It is an ugly trouble which is helping to destroy
the usefulness of our war animais, and when on a horse's legs—generally his
hind ones—some running ulcers break out, they are diagnosed as ulcerative
cellulitis. The miscreant is a microbe which in time creeps higher until it
effects an entry into the body and attacks the kidneys. The sick horse is
doomed then and fit only for destruction.
The excellent laboratories for bacteriological research—there is usually
one attached to every hospital—must hâve the crédit for giving the Veterinary
Service the practical mastery of this disease ; that is, if the case is not too
far advanced when it cornes up for treatment. I happen to know that one
hospital I visited dealt with 1,867 cases from January to October, 1917, and
595 cures were effected. Since then the percentage of cures has steadily
risen, there and everywhere.
At another hospital, probably one of the best in France, the Commanding
Officer related a rather unusual incident to show that cellulitis does not neces-
sarily reveal its existence by ulcers in the leg. Among a new batch of sick
horses from the front there was one suffering from what seemed to be a simple
bullet wound in the loin. From the fact that there was a suppurating discharge
he concluded that the bullet was still lodged inside. He probed, and as the
instrument went in about ten inches, he decided to operate and search for the
bullet. At the second whiff of chloroform in the operating théâtre the horse
fell dead—only the second horse lost under chloroform at this particular
hospital since the beginning of the war, the other being a horse with a very
diseased heart. Naturally a post-mortem examination was made, and a huge
(viv*^ abscess was found in one of the kidneys. On examining the pus it was found
to be precisely the same as that Trom the cellulitis ulcer. The incident,
therefore, taught the officer two things : (1) That the trouble does not always
show in the legs ; and (2) that should he again see a punctured wound in the
loin with suppuration, apparently a bullet wound, he would just test the
discharge, and if he found it to correspond with cellulitis he would know
that an opération would be unavailing. The only course would be destruction
of the animal.
I think it will interest the reader if I say hère what the proportion of
disease is as between horses and mules. For instance, I hâve already men-
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HORSES AND MULES IN SICKNESS
103
tioned that mange attacks four horses to one mule. In the case of debility
there are 4-50 horse patients to one mule ; lameness is about equal, and it
is a curious thing that mules seldom recover from bone lameness. Eight
horses to one mule is the proportion in respect of digestive diseases ; cellulitis
is as four to one, and ophthalmia is as two to one.
Gunshot casualties naturally fluctuate according to what is going on at
the front. Veterinary surgeons do indeed owe much to the expérience war
has brought them. Especially is this so of those who, day after day, hâve
been engaged in the operating théâtres searching for and extracting the cruel
jagged shell splinters, shrapnel bullets and bomb splinters, and in many
différent ways bringing relief to the poor suffering créatures. Theirs has,
indeed, been humane and splendid work, for by their skill and knowledge
they hâve saved the lives of thousands that would hâve been doomed in days
gone by, when surgery was nothing like as advanced as it is to-day. Then,
too, their opérations hâve been assisted by the aseptic methods of steriliza-
t'on of wounds and instruments in place of the antiseptic methods once
favoured. One ofhcer I know is very proud of twenty-three pièces of shrapnel
of ail sizes which he extracted from one horse. That same horse was in due
time restored to active service. When I think of the great work being done
by the Veterinary Service, of the immense strides it has made forward in
research, surgery, and the study of disease, my wonder is that the authorities
hâve not established schools on the spot for the training of those who must
one day fill the ranks. The opportunity is unique. Certainly every veteri-
nary surgeon in the United Kingdom who is fit for service abroad should,
for his own sake as well as his country's, hâve a period of service in France.
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CHAPÏER XIII
Treatment in the Veterinary Hospitals
w
E at once get on ternis of peculiar intimacy with the Veterinary Service
and its splendid work in curing the sick and healing the wounded
among our hundreds of thousands of dumb helpers when we come to visit their
hospitals and learn something at first hand of the highly organized methods of
filling and emptying them. Contemplate for a moment thèse figures and the
unmistakable meaning they convey : 551,960 horses and mules admitted to the
veterinary hospitals and convalescent horse dépôts in France from the beginning
of the war to the middle of February, 1918, of which 394,768, or 71-5 per cent.,
were passed out as cured, leaving 34,327 still under treatment. In the same
period 16,215 died, and 106,650 were destroyed, cast and sold, including those
cast and sold to horse butchers. There was a time when 84 per cent, were
cured and sent back into the fighting line. The percentage dropped to 80, then
to 78 per cent., for it must be remembered that horses, as I hâve already
explained, are getting older, while another factor in increasing the number of
castings is the désire to retain in service only absolutely sound and workably
sound horses. I am assured that, for the sake of economy in the long run, every
possible care is taken to rid the Service of those worn and broken animais
which are not likely to be of any more use to the Army in any sort of capacity.
The reader is invited to follow the career of the sick or wounded animal
which the veterinary officer on the spot has decided shall be sent from the front
to the base. It should be understood that with every formation in the field
there is an Administrative Veterinary Officer, and Executive Veterinary Officers
are with the différent units of the formation. On falling sick or wounded—
" ineffective," as they would say in military language—an animal is sent
to a Mobile Veterinary Section, which is a very small veterinary unit, one
of which is attached to each cavalry brigade and each infantry division.
Thèse sections were introduced as the resuit of expérience gained in South
Africa, and, having seen them at work, I can vouch for their efficiency and
the important part they are playing in beginning the movement of the sick
from the front. It is their function to give first aid, and simple cases they
retain and issue into work again. Their real work, however, is to dispatch,
as often and as quickly as possible, the hospital cases to one of the large
réception dépôts?
There may be several such dépôts, and two which I saw yielded lasting
104
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A long range of warm stabling in an old brick yard.
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io6
THE HORSE AND THE WAR
impressions of what can be done by an administration which seems to hâve
mastered every détail in regard to the welfare of the horses and the care of those
men who constitute the rank and file of the Veterinary Service. The first of
them is in a town of fairly considérable size, and it certainly owes much to the
fact that it is chiefly housed in what before the war was a French artillery
barracks. Thus there is comfort at once for the sick and wounded that come
down from the front by road, rail or barge, and especially is this so in the old
riding school, which is now the temporary home of many " cases." The idea
of the sick arriving in barges is certainly unique. Five, each to hold thirty-five,
are employed on the canal in this way, and the journey makes for peace and
rest en route. The other réception hospital I hâve in mind is probably the last
word on such institutions. In ail manner of ways—in the utilization of clever
yet simple devices, in the observance of absolute cleanliness, in the maintenance
of clean and hygienic " standings " for the horses, in the provision of shelters
and wind-screens, in the careful study of feeding and gênerai horse management
—the hospital is just as perfect as brains, enterprise and abundant energy can
make it. Moreover, it is laid out on sandy soil, which is a boon of inestimable
worth.
Thèse réception dépôts hâve radiating from them other hospitals which
take the animais distributed to them. Each réception dépôt may be said to
be the mainspring of a group of hospitals. They are, of course, of very spécial
importance, since every animal arriving is at once put into a class according to
the nature of its sickness. Skin cases are sent along to a hospital which
specializes in the care of mange and kindred troubles ; surgical cases are sent
to where surgery is made a speciality of ; and ophthalmia may be sent else-
where. The success of the System is beyond ail question. It means that a
hospital commandant and his staff become expert in what they are made to
specialize in, though there may be a certain monotony in the institution whose
réputation dépends on the healing of mange. The treatment, for instance,
does not assist that smart and clean appearance which is always aimed at,
since mangey horses and mules are of themselves an eyesore and are certainly
no advertisement for efficient grooming.
I hâve in mind two specially fine " skin " hospitals—one close to the
réception dépôt I hâve been describing and partly accommodated in an old
cément factory, the other many miles away on the outskirts of a famous city.
It was at the latter hospital that I was much struck with the close attention
given to feeding. Every individual horse, most of them wasted in condition as
well as going through the mange cure, seemed to be considered. Then the
making of hay racks and partitions between stalls, ail made with the old wire
from baled hay, were items of clever contrivance. It was at this hospital that
the patients were dipped in an arsenical bath in préférence to calcium sulphide.
It is said to be more effïcacious, and is certainly less obnoxious. This hospital
has passed through 40,000 animais, of which 24,000 had been sent to the neigh-
bouring base remount dépôt and 8,000 to convalescent horse dépôts. Every
gênerai horse hospital takes spécial pride in its operating théâtres, in perfect
cleanliness, and in the refreshing and quiet stimulus of patches of grass lawn
hère and there. Everywhere an endeavour is made to secure rest and thorough
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The u§es of camouflage at a tente<J Veterinary Hospital in France,
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io8                              THE HORSE AND THE WAR
change for the patients. Everywhere, also, equipment is up to date and
scrupulously clean.
As auxiliary help the Veterinary Service appréciâtes nothing more than
the work done for the State by the Royal Society for the Prévention of Cruelty
to Animais. It is a fact, I believe, that this Society has made grants up to
date totalling £100,000 to the cause of sick and wounded animais in war by the
provision of hospital accommodation, horse ambulances and laboratory
appliances.
I hâve no impression of one hospital being better than another. Where ail
are so good I should indeed be sorry to single out one for spécial praise, but I must
not omit to mention one close to thecoas" because of the clever and resource-
ful way in which an old brick-works, its -sheds and its fields, covering an area
of about forty acres, hâve been adapted as a hospital. There I saw a surgeon
perform an opération for quittor, which is a form of sorosis of that portion of
the foot at the crown of the hoof. It is a very serious and fréquent trouble,
especially with heavy horses, and the old-time opération usually left an unsightfy
scar and growth with certain chronic lameness. The opération, introduced by
French veterinaries many years ago, involves the cutting away of the cartilage
affected, and this can be done by making only a very slight incision, with a
conséquent small scar when the wound has healed. The opération is proving
invaluable and causing a great saving in horses. This same hospital between
December, 1914, and December, 1917, had admitted 41,658 animais and had
discharged as cured 32,455.
It is impossible to do more than touch very briefly on those other most
essential departments of the Veterinary Service in France. There are the
convalescent horse dépôts, created in close proximity to the hospitals which
issue to them those horses that need the exercise that freedom in kraals gives
them, good feeding and professional care prior to being passed on to remount
dépôts. Thèse convalescent dépôts are wisely laid out on sand or sandy
soils, so that the strain of moving about in heavy mud is not imposed on the
convalescents. Then the Director has under his charge about 3,000 acres of fine
grassland in Normandy, and hère tired and worn horses corne to feed on the
green food of the spring and summer months and recover that strength and
confidence which are so essential to their future usefulness. Animais so turned
out receive a portion of their normal daily ration of oats and hay, but it will be
understood that, compared with the keep and maintenance of them in hospitals,
the cost is comparatively low and means a very considérable economy.
I come now to touch on the important question of the disposai of those
animais considered unfit for further active service. The Veterinary Service is
the chief casting authority ; only on the score of âge and unsuitability for any
spécifie job in the Army can Remount Authorities exercise the veto of casting.
And when it is remembered that a trifle over 20 per cent, of the horses admitted
to hospitals never return to active service, it will be understood that castings
are on a big scale. Do not for a moment imagine that this 20 per cent, repré-
senta dead loss. From (a) sales to farmers for work on the land ; (b) sales to
horse butchers for food ; and (c) réduction of carcases of any animais not suit-
able as food for by-products of skin, fat, bones, flesh, hoof s, etc., the average
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TREATMENT IN THE VETERINARY HOSPITALS
109
sum of £50,000 a month is brought into the British Government's exchequer.
The figure, indeed, is rising, as horses, alive or dead, are fetching bigger priées.
Horseflesh is a fairly common article of food in France, and from some of the
hospitals I hâve seen truckloads of cast animais leaving for Paris, where they
are dealt with at the abattoir hippophagique. Under agreements the animais
are bound to be destroyed under the supervision of the Veterinary Service
within forty-eight hours of admission, and humane cattle killers are specially
provided by the R.S.P.C.A. for their destruction.
Those animais which hâve died or which are too poor or unsuitable for the
purpose of food are disposed of at spécial abattoirs in close proximity to veteri-
nary hospitals. Their skins are salted on the premises and dispatched to
England for sale ; the carcases are rendered down for fat, and on an average
two gallons are obtained from each animal, realizing as much as 14 fr. a gallon.
I recall that at one hospital I saw gas being drawn off from a tremendous
manure dump, and the gas was being utilized in the rendering down of the
carcases. Now an economizer apparatus is being erected at selected centres,
and so the Veterinary Service is using its splendid organization to get the utmost
possible out of our war animais whether in life or in death.
It has been my portion to be associated with our war-horses and mules in
their hundreds of thousands. I hope that my sketches of their lives, from the
time they are trained in the United Kingdom, through their active service life
in France, and then in their days of tickness, will hâve interested readers.
They hâve necessarily been brief, maybe even superficial, but there was no
alternative. Either the subject had to be dealt with as one would mirror first-
hand impressions, or else by minute and detailed chronicle of unlimited ength.
The latter was ruled out, first of ail by the fact that we are still in the midst of
the raging tumult, and therefore the story, once begun in détail, could hâve no
end in détail ; and, secondly, because it was against military interests to write
too definitely of our horse organization both on active service and in sickness.
Thus there hâve been omissions, discreet enough now, but which I shall hope to
fill in when happier times come. While, therefore, much remains to be said of
very great interest, a good deal has been written in thèse articles which, I hope,
will hâve conveyed a better understanding of how gallantly and worthily our
horses and mules hâve assisted our cause and of the infinité care that is taken of
their welfare.
Both services—the Remount and the Veterinary—hâve every reason to be
proud of their records. Both hâve learned by expérience as, indeed, they could
not help doing. But there were those in authority unashamed of profiting by
mistakes and capable always of acting on first knowledge and new ideas
acquired. I may not hâve attempted to deal with the vast question of préven-
tive medicine in veterinary science, but then only a fool would hâve ventured as
a layman to enter into scientific détail which, under the circumstances, would
assuredly hâve been out of place, and would probably hâve bored the reader.
The success of préventive medicine in the Army Veterinary Service will make
an admirable after-the-war thème for an officiai professional pen. Meanwhile I
can only once again put into simple language my admiration for what has been
done by the Veterinary Service in France. The fact will give much satisfaction
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no                         THE HORSE AND THE WAR
among tens of thousands of horse-lovers in the United Kingdom, and also in the
United States, whence so many of our war animais came ; and I am equally
certain it will not discourage any who are associated with our horse services in
•always aiding the hard and, oftentimes, perilous lot of the horse on active
service.
CANADIANS
By W. H. OGILVIE
1A/ITH arrows on their quarters and with numbers on their hoofs,
** With the trampling sound of twenty that re-echoes in the roofs,
Low of crest and dull of coat, wan and wild of eye,
Through our English village the Canadians go by.
Shying at a passing cart, swerving from a car,
Tossing up an anxious head, to flaui t a snowy star,
Racking at a Yankee gait, reaching at the rein,
Twenty raw Canadians are tasting life again !
Hollow-necked and hollow-flanked, lean of rib and hip,
Strained and sick and weary with the wallow of the ship,
Glad to smell the turf again, hear the robin's call,
Tread again the country road they lost at Montréal/
Fate may bring them dule and woe ; better steeds than they
Sleep beside the English guns a hundred leagues away ;
But till war hath need of them lightly lie their reins,
Softly fait the feet of them along the English lanes.
-ocr page 111-
CHAPTER XIV
" Cast and Sold "
IHAVE thought it well to include in this book some référence to the methods
of disposing of " casters "—those animais which are cast by the Army
authorities as being no longer serviceable for military purposes. For that
reason it is a pleasure to avail myself of illustrations which are, indeed,
extremely clever in their conception and faithful to the smallest détail. They
show Captain Lionel Edwards at his best, not only as a distinguished artist
but as a particularly observant Remount ofhcer. He, like every Remount
•ofhcer, must hâve intimate knowledge of this phase of remounting, or, shall I
say, dismounting, since the Army is taking a • considered farewell of old
servants that forphysical reasons can no longer serve. They are being given
their discharge. Every drawing tells its own éloquent taie of pathos or it
may be of humour. I hâve never known a sale of Army " casters " at which
both pathos and humour were missing.
Thèse sketches deal with a sale in England. Such a sale is tolerably
well known in the vicinity of a Remount Dépôt or a Veterinary Hospital, and
it represents, of course, the last phase in the career of the war-horse. In a great
théâtre of war like France casting is carried out on a big scale because several
hundreds of thousands of horses and mules are in our possession, and the
proportion of worn-out, too-old-at- fifteen or twenty years of âge, incurably lame
or sick, and hopelessly wounded must be very considérable. The very large
majority of them are not sold at public auction as in England. They are
beyond rendering any more service either to the State or the civilian individual
and mercifully destroyed either for human food or for the by-products resulting
from the rendering down of their carcases. I hâve touched on that in a pre-
vious chapter with spécial référence to the large sum of £50,000 or more
which every month is paid to the State in respect of the disposai of cast British
Army horses in France. It represents wastage to our horse resources, but a
small gain as a set-off to the dead loss.
In England the horse has not actually been to war. He has been training
for the ordeal or he has been employed hère for a long time doing his
job faithfully and well until there cornes a time when joints and sinews,
perhaps at ail times predisposed to lameness, collapse under the strain.
The war, you must remember, is over four years old at the time of writing this,
and a horse can be fresh and well at ten years of âge but hopelessly worn out at
m
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H2                              THE HORSE AND THE WAR
fourteen years of âge after an interval of wear and tear. It need scarcely be
said that there must be very solid reasons for the casting of horses, and if
those reasons were good two or three years ago they become doubly so as time
goes on and the question of replacement does not become easier. The Army
Veterinary Service is the chief casting authority, for the simple and all-sufncient
reason that its officers are the professional experts of disease and unsoundness.
If they say a horse will always be lame or can never be healthy and strong
again, then it is the obvious thing to give the animal its discharge so that it
may no longer remain an expense to the public in the sensé that it would never
Branding cast horses with a " C " on the near shoulder.
again be able to do any work to justify its keep and gênerai maintenance.
It follows that " casters " therefore must come from the veterinary hospitals
in greater numbers than from the Remount Dépôts.
A Remount casting authority may exercise his powers in the case of an
animal which he does not consider is fitted to do any sort of job in the Army,
either in draught, saddle, or pack. It is singular how you may come across
the occasional " misfit " even where the work is so varied as in the Army. The
Remount officer may also cast on the ground of vice, though there is a reluctant
disinclination to act. No officer likes to consider himself beaten by a vicious
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THE HORSE AND THE WAR
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and dangerous horse, and the resuit of a longer period of patience, or methods
which hâve to be " vigorous to be kind," hâve often resulted in the sentence
of casting being removed. Still an occasional incorrigible wrong 'un among
so many thousands is bound to occur. One does not mind the kicker so much.
The horse that strikes with his forelegs or rushes at you open-mouthed and
bellowing like a bull is not a pleasant individual for the bravest man to tackle.
The striker with his forelegs gives you so little warning and may do so much
damage. A development which has done much to reduce castings in this
country as well as to advance the priées realized at sales of " casters " is the
" Who'll give me another half-guinea ? "
tremendous stimulus given to national food production. Many a draught
horse with ringbone, navicular, or even laminitis, has had his career of useful-
ness extended through being transferred from the Army to the Food Produc-
tion Department. He was useless in a team with a General Service wagon
on the roads ; his poor old feet and legs would not stand the " jar." But
he could work in comparative comfort in the plough or on the stubbles, and
moreover he helped to produce corn at a time when horse power on the land
was very badly wanted.
Perhaps the lot of the cast riding-horse is most pathetic. "Who wants
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n6                             THE HORSE AND THE WAR
him ? He can no longer carry a man because his poor old forelegs hâve " gone,"
and there is not enough of him to make a draught horse. And yet any old
job in the shafts must mark his rapid descent in the equine social scale.
Few want to buy the cast mule. The average Englishman does not understand
the mule ; neither does he seem to wish for any better appréciation of the
gallant old slave. Certainly it is a mystery to one who has seen him do so
splendidly in this war and can gladly concède the undoubted virtues he
possesses. Their small feet are not adapted to work on heavy land, but
that may be more apparent than real. The real test is how the mule acquits
himself, and there seem to be no conditions to which he cannot adapt himself.
Still, as I hâve said, no one wants to pay much for the cast mule. It may be
because there is practically no chance of curing a mule suffering from pro-
nounced bone lameness, or that one cast for vice is regarded as being altogether
past praying for as a possible convert to better and less heathen-like ways.
Much of the mule's so-called vice is merely its way of demonstrating fear
and suspicion rather than an aggressive désire to open an ugly offensive with-
out the slightest provocation. The miscellaneous collection of British trades-
men, who may hâve dealt in rare books or had practised as undertakers or
greengrocers, and who seemed to be posted to Remount Dépôts more by design
than accident, were not ideally suited to winning the confidence of the appre-
hensive and suspicious mule. I am reminded in this connection of agood
story told in the course of a lecture on the management of horses in the war
byMajor C. D. Miller, a môst efficient and successful Remount officer, to the
Cavalry School in France. He was referring to the class of men remaining foi-
service in the Remount Dépôts after the transfer from time to time of ail men
placed in category "A," and he went on to say : " When censoring letters
one day I came across one written by one of my men to his girl at home.
In civil life he had been a traveller—in pièce goods or ladies' lingerie, or some-
thing equally ' horsey.' He told her that he was enchanted with every-
thing in Remounts except the horses and mules. The horse he considered a
very dangerous animal at both ends and damnably uncomfortable in the middle.
The mule, he found, generally took great pains to make friends with you so
as to make quite sure of being able to kick you on exactly the right spot when
the opportunity should arise. When I saw the writer of the letter riding
I knew he had told his girl the truth, and when I saw him in the stable I
ïonged to be a mule ! "
To return to the disposai of cast Army horses, the reader will understand
that a local auctioneer is requested to hold a sale, which is duly advertised
so that prospective buyers may attend on the day. As a preliminary to their
leave-taking of the Army each " caster " is branded on the near shoulder
with a " C " indicating that he has absolutely and finally been given his
re-entry into civil life. Then the rather doleful procession of a score or so,
a man riding one and leading another, sets off in charge of an officer, who is
carrying with him to the place of sale his authority and ail other documents.
For, of course, you never do anything in the Army without the assistance of
many documents ! It follows that the party is one to arrest the attention of
the passer-by, who may not realize that the animais are the outcasts of the
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The start for the " Caster's " new home.
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THE HORSE AND THE WAR
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Army. For one thing the pace is funereal, which is suggested by the slow
march and the drooping heads. You may not hurry the lame, the hait, and
the blind, to which may be added the broken-winded ; and so the pace of this
little procession with its suggestion of real pathos is that of its slowest unit.
The most unsophisticated onlooker notices that they are not the strong and
healthy, bright-eyed animais that usually leave the Dépôt for the train en route
for overseas. He notices the knife-board back, the staring ribs and the sunken
eyes of the chronic debility case ; the shuffiing amble of the incurably lame ;
and the swollen " greasy " legs of the heavy draught horse. The présence of
one or two others he may not so well understand, for stone-blindness is not
at once apparent to the passer-by, the broken-winded riding-horse h as no
outward signs at the moment to indicate his troubles, and the one condemned
for vice is apparently at the high-water mark of robust health. Naturally
the man in khaki has not elected to ride the confirmed kicker, bucker, and biter.
" 'Ere cornes a circus," shrieks a delighted small boy, whose mother hastily
gathers him up from the middle of the road and explains that it is the Army
going out on manœuvres. One also seems to hâve overheard the muttered
criticism of the elderly lady who frowns on this seemingly shocking évidence
of Army neglect and cruelty towards their " poor dear horses." And the
girl who now drives the baker's cart cannot resist an inquiry of the Corporal
with the party as to whyhehad brought out his horses without their wheels.
At the place where they are sold their preliminary inspection is carried out by
prospective buyers with as much care as a connoisseur of art and antiques will
display in quite another kind of mart. Such inspectors too ! Soft-hatted,
bowler-hatted specialists in cheap horseflesh, who know exactly where the
dividing line is that séparâtes the " fair " and the " bargain " priées. Their
hope is that the Remount people may hâve made a "blob " in casting one or
more that were " not 'arf bad " and might profitably be patched up by more
skilful hands than are to be found in the Army ! So the " casters " must
endure an ordeal of intimate inspection—ail except the vice cases, which the
velvet-waistcoated experts discover for themselves without the telling. For
it should be understood that thèse cast Army horses are sold without any sort
of guarantee. Of what virtue could they guarantee them ? I confess I
am unable to name one. Their total innocence in this respect is of course the
raison d'être of their visit to the auctioneer's.
If you want to see the real expert at work watch one of thèse prospective
buyers. He may be a horse-dealer with forty crowded years of expérience
bénin d him in the humble line of business, a dealer in " antiques," " has beens,"
and " crocks." He may be a rural butcher with a taste and capacity for occa-
sional horse " coping" ; orhe maybe the inévitable bargain-hunter who is at
every sale and horse fair. They were certainly not born yesterday, as it were,
and they get up very early in the morning and remain fairly wideawake when
any business is doing. He knows where to look for the cause of casting.
If he cannot find tendon troubles about the heavily-fired legs, serious bony
enlargements, or spavins, he knows how to test the patient for his eyesight,
and if he is still mystified he watches his opportunity to use his stick to see if
the animal grunts to the flourish of it and so reveals his wind infirmity. Some-
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THE HORSE AND THE WAR
120
times he even attempts to seek light from the severely non-committal Remount
ofhcer in charge like an importunate and insinuating backer essays to worm
himself into the confidence of a trainer or jockey on the racecourse. For,
of course, it is important that the spéculât or in Army "casters " should not
allow himself to get too badly " stuck." He knows there are risks, and his
ways of trying to reduce them never failed to raise my admiration of his
resource and his knowledge of cheap horseflesh.
They cluster at the foot of the auctioneer's rostrum after the approved ,
manner of buyers at Tattersalls in London and laugh derisively when the
salesman expatiates in a professional manner on the virtues and limitless
possibilities of the ex-cavalry horse. You see he is doing his best for the
Government and taking every care that he shall earn his commission. More-
over, most auctioneers I hâve seen at work hâve entered into the spirit of the
sale and hâve good-humouredly adapted their chaff to the cosmopolitan char-
acter of their horse-coping audience. " Now, gentlemen," he observes, " we'll
give him one more run and please keep your sticks down. He's not
used to them." " No, guv'nor, you're right there; what 'e's been used to
'as bin goin' about in a Bath-chair, I expect ! " observes an old stager with a
nomad's face and style of dress. The crowd opens out to let him be run up,
and the resuit of the manœuvre is that some one hardens his heart and starts
the bidding at a couple of guineas. The auctioneer looks pained at the insuit,
and the bidder has a slight shock of anxiety until compétition begins and the
" caster " has found a new owner. So on through the programme, and then
there is the squaring up on the spot with the auctioneer and a gênerai
adjournment of the buyers to adjust private transactions.
Priées, of course, hâve varied a good deal. Early in the war " casters "
as a rule would only make the price the knacker could afford to pay. There
was no demand for them at that time, but times hâve changed. The horse
slaughterer can afford to pay a better price, for there is a market for the méat
and a demand for the hide, etc. Then there is a gênerai horse shortage of
gênerai utility animais in the fiith year of war, especially of draught horses for
the land. It is the reason why animais which hâve no military value hâve made
some remarkable sums at auction, showing that the user had to avail himcelf
of any sort of assistance, however temporary it might prove to be. Ail my
expérience goes to show that judiciouscastingof Army horses is most essential
in the interests of financial economy and gênerai efficiency. The authorities,
be they veterinary or remount, may not like to show heavy casting returns-
in case the former should be criticized for condemning where they ought to cure,
and the latter for their gênerai horse management. The reluctance to do so,
however, may surely be overdone since it means that animais are kept at the
public expense, which, because of their proneness to disease and sickness, hâve
little or no chance of doing active work with units and, therefore, must spend
their days passing between Remount Dépôts and Veterinary Hospitals and
congesting both. Certainly it is not true economy to go beyond certain limits
with chronic cases of lameness and those which come under the category of
" aged and worn out." If a horse is not considered good enough to send over-
seas then he is relegated to home service, and when the time comes that he is,
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"CAST AND SOLD"                                        121
useless for the latter he should surely be retired for good financial reasons
from Government ownership. Thus he would become a " caster," and the
Government would be relieved of the further responsibility of his maintenance.
The inclusion of thischapter in " The Horse and the War " needs no better
justification than the need for explaining a procédure by which the worn out
and the diseased are discarded and relieved from further service of " national
importance."
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CHAPTER XV
Percheron Horses in England
THERE arrived at a large Remount Dépôt in the South of England about
two years after the start of the war a number of Percheron stalliohs
and mares from France ; the object of those intimately interested in the
coming of thèse animais being to found a distinct breed of this type of
draught horse in the United Kingdom. The Government are not the direct
purchasers of thèse horses, but through the Remount Service they hâve given
every encouragement and facility to certain private breeders to exploit their
patriotism in this way. This serious introduction of the Percheron breed to
England is a matter of much significance to breeders and users of draught
horses, and must not be ignored. There may be préjudice and possibly active
opposition to the introduction, but there is also support and a welcome to
the horses, emanating as it does from a small but influential and growing
body of Englishmen who hâve come to the deliberate conclusion that for
military purposes hereafter, and for gênerai purposes at ail times, the type is
a désirable one for us to develop.
Why hâve they come ? The question is one which opens the way to a
simple statement of facts. That statement, if it is to be frank and convincing,
must bear on the expériences and lessons derived from the horsing of the guns
and transport during over three years of war. I hâve endeavoured to show why
the light draught horse from Canada and the United States is the real horse of
the war. It was shown how our great Armies and those of our Allies had been
primarily equipped in regard to horses by the marvellous crowds of animais that
had been brought across the Atlantic. And the virtues of the type—great
endurance, fine physique, soundness, activity, willingness to work, and
almost unfailing good temper—were expatiated on with some enthusiasm.
Their introduction to the United Kingdom was foreshadowed as being an
inévitable outcome of expériences during thèse three years of great trial and
stress for horses.
Fortunately for the Allies, the Percheron-bred horse was available in great
numbers ; and, to be sure, great numbers were wanted, and may be still. The
horse supply of the United Kingdom, by comparison, represented but an
infinitésimal quantity of the whole. None was better than the riding-horse,
because for the most part the pre-eminent British thoroughbred was conspicu-
ous in the strain. But the draught horse is the real horse of the war, and in this
122
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An American Percheron sire. A noble example of the foundation stock of the Allies*
most successful war-horse.
.
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THE HORSE AND THE WAR
124
vital respect the resources of our country were hopelessly inadéquate and, it
must be added, disappointing in regard to results. The heavy draught horse
has been chiefly of the Shire-bred type, the impressive cart-horse of fine size,
weight and feathered legs fostered by the Shire Horse Society. One must be
perfectly honest and say they hâve failed to stand the strain, exposure and hard-
ship imposed by modem warfare. The fact is beyond ail argument. It is the
unanimous opinion of ail who hâve been concernée! with them, and it is the fact
above ail others which has primarily influenced that semi-officiai movement
which we now see initiated on serious lines in favour of introducing the
Percheron breed to this country. It is why thèse stallions and mares hâve just
been landed hère, and why in the years to corne the event will be regarded as
epoch-marking in the history of horse breeding in this country.
As to how the development of the breed will proceed in the near future
is a question which does not arise hère. No doubt a scheme has been drawn up.
What has been found lacking and is urgently required is a type of draught
horse which will best meet the exacting demands of modem warfare, and,
having from expérience found that the Percheron is the best, he is naturally
the one selected for propagation in this country. After ail, it is not surprising
that the Shire horse has not come up to expectations. In the Norman days,
which probably mark his origin in England, he was, indeed, the war-horse of the
period, since he was used by the knights when heavy armour was worn. And
so heavy were the knight and his armour that together they were reckoned to
weigh 32 stone. The Shire horse of to-day must, one supposes, be even an en-
larged édition of the Norman âge, and as such he has not made an idéal transition
from the plough and heavy wagon to the horse lines in the open and the big
guns in the mud of Flanders and the Somme valley. His constitution has
cracked and he has been predisposed in an alarming degree to"grease" and
kindred leg ailments, as well as serious respiratory troubles. He has therefore
convinced the authorities that the war-horse of the future, if he be fortheoming
in this country, must be found in another direction.
Again, we may take it that the pioneers of the Percheron movement in
England are hopeful that users of draught horses, chiefly farmers, will take
kindly to the new-comer. Will they ? It is a question which remains to be
answered. Optimists, who point to the breed's overwhelming vogue in agricul-
ture in France, Canada and the United States, hâve no doubt on the point.
Others prophesy failure on the grounds that the farmer will not forsake the
Shire and Clydesdale to which he and his fathers and forefathers hâve uninter-
ruptedly been accustomed. We may take it there is no intention that the
new-comer should supplant the famous English cart-horse, whose vogue has ex-
tended over the centuries. His position is too secure in our day to be assailed by
the advent of a hundred or more true-bred Percherons. He will continue to pull
and haul on the land and he will flourish on his abundant rations and the warm
stable, which are so essential to his good health. The Percheron, if he should
come into favour with the agriculturist, will assuredly do so on his merits.
Hère let me interpose some extremely interesting notes conveyed to me in
a letter from Mr. Wayne Dinsmore. He has had long expérience of ail the
différent draught breeds on the range in western South Dakota, and for seven
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A $rey French percheron mare, now jn England, Sketched from life.
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THE HORSE AND THE WAR
years was on the Staff of the lowa Agricultural Collège at Ames, where as
associate professor lie taught classes in the history and development of ail
draught breeds. This is what he says :—
" It may interest you to knowthat the production of so large a number of
admirable artillery horses in the United States lias been due to the breeding
up of small mares by the use of Percheron sires and to the conditions under
which a large proportion of thèse animais are reared. Small Western mares,
weighing from 800 to 1,000 pounds, hâve been bred to Percheron stallions.
The get, if liberally fed and reared under farm conditions, would mature at
1,400 or 1,500 pounds, but in virtually ail cases the coïts hâve been foaled on
the open range and hâve grown to maturity without any feed other than that
obtained from the dam and native pastures. The resuit is that such coïts hâve
actually matured at i,too to 1,207 pounds. The half-blood females of this kind
hâve been again bred to Percheron stallions, and their produce, reared under the
same gênerai conditions, hâve matured at from 1,250 to 1,500 pounds, depend-
ing on the amount of nourishment available where they were reared. A very
large proportion of the horses which hâve gone for artillery purposes are such
three-quarter blood Percherons, reared without any feed other than that
which they obtain on pasture, and the outdoor life which such horses hâve
developed under has made them exceedingly hardy and able to endure unfavour-
able climatic conditions. The endurance of Percherons is proverbial, and it
has been accentuated by reason of the conditions under which thèse horses hâve
been reared. Even on the farms in the great Middle West a very large propor-
tion of the horses are reared in this manner ; for it is unfortunately true that
very few of our farmers feed foals, yearlings and two-year-olds liberally enough
on grain and hay, in addition to pasture, to make possible the full development
in size and strength. Some cross-breeding has, of course, been done, and in
addition to this the progress upward from the small foundation has oftentimes
been retarded by reason of the f act that many of our Western ranchmen hâve
not used pure-bred Percheron sires, but hâve been prevailed upon, on account
of fînancial reasons, to purchase and use grade Percheron stallions carrying
three-fourths or seven-eighths Percheron blood. There are many such grade
stallions produced in Illinois and lowa, where breeding has been long con-
tinued, and a very large number of such grade horses hâve been sold for use on
Western mares. Thèse hâve made marked improvement, but of course the
gain has not been as great as where pure-bred sires hâve been used, and for this
reason it not infrequently occurs that at least four crosses of Percheron blood
are to be found in animais purchased for artillery or transport purposes.
" One thing which has retarded American horsemen in producing good
horses is the fact that the demand for Percheron stallions has been so great
that a good many which should properly hâve been castrated hâve actually
been used for service. Coïts occur in ail breeds that are not up to standard,
and it has too frequently happened that animais déficient in feet or legs,
particularly with regard to position of hind legs, hâve been sold for breeding
purposes for the reason that the farmer could get twice as much for them when
rising two, if he sold them as stallions, as he could obtain for them if he were to
castrate said coïts and keep them until maturity. Under the circumstances
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A second example of the grey Percheron from France.
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128
THE HORSE AND THE WAR
you cannot blâme farmers for permitting the coïts to be sold. This is one
explanation for the fact that quite a good many horses are not as perfect in their
underpinning as Percheron men would like to hâve them, but this is gradually
being eliminated, as we are now producing more Percheron sires of the right
stamp and our buyers are steadily becoming more discriminating in their
sélections.
" The one thing that has added more to the popularity of Percheron horses
than any other factor is the fact that the Percheron sire is extraordinarily
prepotent, stamping his characteristics upon females of any size or breeding.
Ranchmen of long expérience who hâve reared thousands upon thousands of
horses report the get of Percheron stallions always possess the characteristics
of the sire, regardless of what the dam may be, and that the coït, whether from
a large or small mare, is a compact, thick, powerfully-muscled, serviceable
horse, saleable whether he be large or small.
" I do not wish your English readers to gain the impression that Percherons
are usef ul only for siring artillery horses, for as a matter of fact they are primarily
a draught breed. A sire should stand at least 17 hands, hâve depth of
chest equal to one-half of his height, and be well proportioned throughout,
weighing in breeding condition around a ton. The best females usually stand
around 16 2 to 16 3 hands, are likewise deep-bodied and roomy in the middle,
and weigh from 1,750 to 2,000 pounds, although we hâve some mares that are
larger. Those I speak of, however, are considered the most typical.
' ' In contrast to the désirable results obtained from crossing Percheron sires
on mares of any type or breeding, other heavy breeds hâve not crossed kindly
on so wide a variety of females. If crossed on very small mares the get lacks
proportion, are heavy-headed, awkward in underpinning, and in ail instances
lack the deep, roomy middle, easy-keeping qualifies and extrême hardiness
characteristic of the Percheron grades.
" I hâve written thus fully because Ibelieve thèse items will interest you,
and I am sure that you will find ample confirmation of my statements from
the horses actually in service in France. Typical Percheron horses are as
good in the underpinning as horses of any breed, bar none.
" The Percheron horse will not only produce the best artillery horses the
world has ever seen, but grades carrying three-quarters or seven-eighths Per-
cheron blood will, if properly grown out, make draught horses of real draught
character and size that will outwear others in hard city service. This is one
of the particularly noteworthy characteristics of the breed, as has been demon-
strated in American cities. They hâve gone into stables, hâve worked side
by side with other geldings, hâve kept in condition on less feed, and hâve
outlasted them by years."
After ail, it is something quite substantial in his favour that none better
is needed in France and North America. And it is also deeply signilicant that
individuals associated with the Army Remount Service, men who hâve been
with horses and studied them ail their lives, should hâve been converted to the
Percheron-bred draught horse. Thèse officers were admittedly prejudiced
against them at the outset. It has been a kind of creed with every Englishman
that the horses of no other country are as good as those of his own. It is a
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An inspection of newly-landed Percheron mares in England.
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THE HORSE AND THE WAR
130
belief handed down from génération to génération, and it will be understood,
therefore, that the notion was far too deeply rooted to be shaken by anything
but the most convincing proof. If thèse prominent English judges of horses
were not convinced, they were at least made to doubt their old beliefs. Every-
thing that has happened in connection with the remount side of the war has
gone to prove the urgency of instituting at once an Army horse supply in this
country which shall be based on those lessons. Therefore it cannot be too
clearly understood that the movement which has brought about the introduc-
tion of the Percheron to this country is dictated by no désire to harm existing
breeds and the interests connected with them, but to found the right war-horse
for the time to corne. We may hope that after this hell on earth there will be
no wars, but wise administrators must be prepared for anything, and least of
ail for a sudden reformation of the world and its peoples. If the Percheron
should also fulfïï agricultural requirements and ordinary draught purposes in
commerce, so much the better. His coming will more than ever hâve been
justified.
K£X; Wé
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THE RE MOU NT TRAIN
By W. H. OGILVIE
E
VERY head across the bar,
Every hlaze and snip and star,
Every nervous, twitching car,
Every soft eye filled with fear,
Seeks a friend, and seems to say :
" Whither now, and where away ? "
Seeks a friend and seems to ask :
" Where the goal, and what the task ? "
Wave the green flag ! Let theni go !—
Only horses ? Y es, I know ;
But my heart goes down the Une
With them, and their grief is- mine !—
There goes honour, there goes faith,
Down the way of dule and death,
Hidden in the cloud that clings
To the battle-wrath of kings!
There goes timid child-like trust
To the burden and the dust !
High-born courage, princely grâce
To the péril it must face !
There go stoutness, strength and speed
To be spent where none shall heed,
And great hearts to face their fate
In the clash of human hâte !
Wave the flag, and let them go !—
Hats off to that wistful row
Of lean heads of brown and bay,
Black and chestnut, roan and grey !
Hère s good luck in lands afar—
Snow-white streak, and blaze, and star !
May you find in those far lands
Kindly hearts and horsemen's hands !
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