118 ANIMALS USED IN WAR. 



was born and brought up amongst horses in England, and stout 

 quarters were for ever duly impressed on his retina. 



However, it was our experience in France that a large 

 number of American-bred horses were leggy and long in the 

 back, and this category is opposed to the severe conditions of 

 war, particularly under circumstances of wet and mud. It is 

 forcibly brought home to us by a visit to a war Veterinary 

 Hospital. Where light draught horses have to be used at times 

 for pack purposes, with oscillating loads, the necessity for 

 compactness, for stout backs and quarters, is even more 

 important. Of course in a great war where demand is so great, 

 it is very often a case of getting what you can, or purchasing as 

 near specifications as supply or resources permit ; but even 

 " border-liners " fail in the offing. Moreover, adding to demerit 

 are the factors of more or less sudden transplantation for hard 

 work into a foreign country, and the partially trained and soft 

 condition of animals rapidly got together to meet wastage. It 

 is really piling wastage on wastage, but difficult or well nigh 

 impossible to avoid in a great war such as we have lately 

 experienced. 



Argentine horses, so far as British Expeditionary Forces were 

 concerned, came little into prominence as draught horses during 

 the War. Purchases, however, were made by the French and 

 Belgian Governments. For the most part they are of the riding 

 type, and I shall remark on them more fully under that heading. 

 Speaking generally of Argentine horses, they may be divided 

 into two classes — the Crillio or native-bred, height from 13 

 hands to 14'3 and by far the most numerous (approximately 

 4,000,000 out of a total horse population of 4,500,000), and the 

 Mestizo or cross-bred. The Mestizo is the result of the foreign 

 stallion on Crillio mares, and the main reason for the intro- 

 duction of foreign blood was the desire for horses suitable for 

 carriage work. When I visited the country in 1908 the haut 

 monde of Buenos Aires rejoiced in their turn-outs, and a first 

 class horse was worth as much there as in Europe. Imported 

 stock included English thorough-breds, hunters, hackneys, 

 Anglo-Normans, Arabs, Morgans from the United States, 

 Trakehnens, Oldenburgs, Hanoverians, Orloffs, Percherons, 

 Clydesdales, Shires, Cleveland Bays and Suffolk Punches. The 



