20 THE HORSE AND THE WAR 



they were tapped by British Remount Commissions with astonishing speed and 

 prodigahty. There could never have been any half-hearted buying, or the 

 flow to Europe would have been interrupted with disastrous consequences. 

 And this, too, quite apart from the fact that France has bought as extensively 

 in America as we have, in addition to Italy's purchases ! After all, 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 I — the 

 horse and the mule were essential for the guns, the transport, the ammunition 

 columns, and all arms of mounted troops. The horse supply in all the theatres 

 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 arri\-e 

 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 ^ omething of a more or' less intimate nature about the horse that 

 has made a great reputation 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 reaUzed how immensely we have 

 been dependent on the imports, and what a debt is owing to them, and at the 

 same time to what a desperate pass we should have come 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 

 have produced our breeds and classes for war purposes. The Shire horse by 

 size, weight and physique naturally filled the role of the heavy draught. The 

 thoroughbred, the three-quarter and half-bred thoroughbred just as naturally 

 have 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 these 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 come 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," ^•crsatility and cxtraordinar\- 



