"MAN'S BEST FRIEND'"
IN PEACE AND WAR CAPTAIN HENRY'S ADDRESS Captain Henry, now Inspector for the Society for tlio prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and formerly of tho 7th Dragoon Guards, gave an interesting address at tho annual meeting of the Society Ucld last ovening ..on "The Horse—in Peace, and War." After briefly stating tho way to groom a horse, as was done in tlio Army, Captain Henry said that his first introduction to the animal was in 1878, w'fjcii lie enlisted in the Dragoons, and was told oft by the sergeant to attend to a very mild-looking horse, and being deceived by appearances narrowly escaped being kicked. The .sergeant who was looking on said; '"Never go up to a horse in a stall without saying something to him such as 'Coino over, old boy.' That gave the horse confidence and assured him of your friendly intentions—a thing' ho never afterwards forgot. Incidentally ho mentioned that J a curry-comb should never bo used on | a horse's skin—the comb was only used | for keeping tho brush clean. An Army | horse always watered on coming in i from exercise and fed after being groomed. In times or' peace it was usual on "feed" being sounded, and just as every horse was being fed, for the man on stable guard to fire off a blank cartridge in each stable. That got tho horses, used to the noise of firing and to the smell of the powder, and after a bit they took no notice of it. The daily ration in peace was 101b. oats, 121b. bay; Sib. of straw por horse. The horses were fed and watered three times a day, the largest portion being given them in tho evening. Wheat straw was given them for bedding, as they ats oaten straw, and barley straw was conducive to skin disease. The age for remounts was between four and five years old. The largest number of remounts for Horn© use wero oblained from Ireland, where certain dealers were always on the look-out at the different markets and fairs for the right class. The usual demand was for horses from 15.1 to 1G hands in height. The' horse must be sound, with good . shoulders, short, thick shin bono, and well ribbed up. After being passed by the veterinary surgeon they were posted to tho various regiments by the Demount Department. They are then taken in hand bv the riding-master and his assistants, and are put through a course of training for from four to six months, during which they wero taught tho different paces, of the walk, trot, and gallop, tho passages to right and left inclines, running back, jumping, and were also trained to the use of tho sword and lance about their heads by tile practice of lemon-cutting, tilting at- the ring, head and posts, tent-peg-ging, etc. Horses when onco posted to a regiment at Homo remain with it until 'they are brought forward for casting, which is usually when they aro twelve years of ago. Speaking of the transport of, horses (to Egypt in Captain Henry's case), ho said that the stalls wero well made, and by taking away the breast board it.was possible to take a certain "number out at a time, and by laying down coir matting they wero able to walk them quietly round for a bit, and hand-rub their legs to keep up the circulation and thereby prevent them from swelling. On arrival in India in January, 1884, Captain Henry's regiment took over tho horses of tho 17th Lancers, which were stationed at Mbow, then the only cavalry station in tho Bombay Presidency; These were smaller horses than the Homo breed, horses purchased from dealers in the Persian Gulf, called Gulf Arabs. They wero a. very wiry, hardy class of animal, and could stand a lot of work as long as the weight was not excessive. The horse ration in India consisted of so many pounds of gram (a sort of pea), according to 'tho size f of tho animal, with about 301b. of grass. There was one groom, called a "syce," to three horses, whoso duty it was to attend to tho horses at midday, and also to assist generally when the weather was too hot for Europeans to be out . of doors. There was also one grass-cutter with a pony for every two horses. His duty was to go' into the jungle, soinotimes for miles, and- cut 801b. of grass. They work with a knifo (something tho shape of a blade from a carpenter's plane), and cut the grass, which is generally about ono inch in length, about half an inch under tho ground. This they beat with a stick uutil all the dirt and dust is removed, and then pack it in nets and bring it into the barracks daily. On leaving Bombay they were ordered to Umballa/in Bengal, and as the Arabs were not suited to the climate of Bengal they had to change horses halfway with tho 6th Dragoon Guards. There they took over the Australian horses, commonly known (is "Walers," which they did not like so well at first. They wero all about 16 hands, and a more delicate class_ of horse. . They required more attention, more feed, were apt to knock up quicker, and a few of them had not forgotten, how to buck. After four years at Uniballa, Egypt again. There th© sandflies were very troublesome, and whilst not on parade each horse had an eye-fringe attached to his headgear. On proceeding to/South Africa from England at tho time of tho war, their experience with horses in transports was very useful. Though the weather was.so bad that nine men died, only three horses were lost out of 426 on the boat. During that war Captain Henry saw horses arrive from all parts of the world, but the one that lasted best was the Basuto pony, a' hardy little beast of about 14 hands. < . He would carry a man and kit for 40 or 50 miles. Pull the saddle off and let him have a roll, and he would bo ready for another 40 miles the next'day. The cavalry horses from England were also good, but they could not got about with such safety as the Basuto pony, who would jump clear of the raere-kat and ant-bear holes, where the English horses would flounder into them and very often come down. The horses from the Argentina were low, thick-necked, lazy . brutes that constantly stumbled. The Hungarian horses were light made in bone and barrel, and did not last long, being subject to colic. Tlio Russian and also tho London 'bus horses (of which thcro were a good number) did fairly well. The Boors had a good wav of teaching their horses to stand still after dismounting. They took the reins over the horse's head, and, doubling a grain Book in two, put tho reins in between, with the sack lying oil tho ground. ' If tho horse moved be would nut his foot on the sack thereby giving bis mouth a jerk. After a few lessons a horse would stand for an hour ormore without moving, merely with the reins over his head. Overwork lulled most, of tho horses engaged in war. They were kept under cover as much a?- possible, as when the guns wore being worked, or if the cavalry have to work dismounted, or whilst awaiting tlio opportunity tn charge. Pom-pom fire alarmed the horses in Africa, but did not do much damage. Shrapnel was bad for both man and beast, owing tn the area over which it took effect. The wounds received bv horses after the first twelve months 'of the Boer war were all bv rifle-bullets, as tho Boors had lost all their artillery early in the wii r. This present-crime or the centuries that has sprung upon Europe a war vhich lis a murdering machine is the la-.t, prnrlwt of diabolical (dti)l Slid craft was meniing daily the. waste gad tor-
ment of thousands of horses. Ho,believed that the averago life of the horse in war was from six to eight weeks. A circular ,was recently sent out by the leading humano societies to see if something could not be done to establish some system of attending to the horses during a war and after a battle. It was issued previous to the present war, and was to have been brought forward at the next Hague Conference, but ho was sure that after reading the accounts in tho daily papers "of the way operations wero being carried on by the enemy that tho idea of telling off a largo body of men to look after horses on a battleefild, though no doubt, well intcntioned, was practically impossible.
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DOM19141031.2.13
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2298, 31 October 1914, Page 4
Word count
Tapeke kupu
1,461"MAN'S BEST FRIEND'" Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2298, 31 October 1914, Page 4
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Dominion. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.