War Horses

Reader Contribution by Sam Moore
Published on April 24, 2014
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During the Cambrai attack in 1918, a six-horse team pulls a Royal Artillery limber and gun while two mounted troopers lead the way. (Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.)

I’ve long been a student of military history and particularly of the British army during the 19th and early 20th centuries, so the book The War Horses, sub-titled: The Tragic Fate of a Million Horses in the First World War, was right up my alley. The book was written by Simon Butler and published by Halsgrove House, Wellington, Somerset, in 2011.

On the book’s dust jacket is a photo of a team of horses who had been pulling a water-cart along a brush-reinforced pathway across a bog. The off horse has slipped off the edge and is up to his belly in mud, while a soldier astride the near horse is pulling up his head with the reins.

The first chapter tells of the dependence of the British people upon horses, and contains many illustrations of horses at work. The author points out that in 19th century England, many reformers were trying to eliminate the cruelty toward animals that had been common for centuries. Parliament passed an anti-cruelty bill in 1822, and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was sanctioned by Queen Victoria in 1840.

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