WAR HORSES' NERVES

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 93, 12 January 1918, Page 13

WAR HORSES' NERVES

ARGUMENT I>'Q® THE MULE.

In days of old when knights Were lioid the horse dashed into tho /fray decked in his own jingling panoply, proud of tho pomp, the masses of krilliant colour, and the blare'of the trumpets. But present-day ,'warfare is'not at all to the horse's lik/.ng—the tugging in n>ud and dust io'<'the roar and cilash of a rain of exploding shells. As a rpsult he suffers fro hi "nerves." In fact., the horse in modern warfare is presenting what might '"be termed a peculiar psychological stfidy. .Writing l'rom tfcie front, a corresjftndorit of the "Kansas City Star" notes a strange malady that affects the, faithful animals wlian they havo b eon for a time exposed to the horrors! of sight and .<k>und that acccmpany ihe business of war-making to-day. I E.?. says: At the beginning of the wsj- the loss of horses wiis awful. .fhe lirst photographs wUich I sany in Switzerland— they were' Germany /Army photographs circulated in pride—marked the Gorman sv/rath in Belgium bydead horsbs. )ln the battlefields of the German UigVt from the Marne the French films viere dotted with—dead horses. hunters from the cavalry, sma/t roadsters, beasts of value from '/rtillery, and requisitioned farm stock, /from smashed wagon trains wandered A-er the deserted plains, gaunt, thirsty, lame, and wounded, broken-w^nde'd,. frightened, and discourage^, ' Horses now are cared for and protected as carefully as soldiers. It it a war. of artillery; and cannons without horses are as useless us horses without ctnnons. So, after' three •JVears of war, there are 30 per cent. inore horses in France to-uay than there were in August, 1914 —and this in spite of French shipments to Salonika and Palestine.

. IVom the beginning of tlie war in Frnince "war sickness" ha 6 been the cliitef malady of horses —no wound, no breakdown from over-exertion, 110 visible physiological ill. French officers cf/11 it "neurasthenia" in their nervous blooded stock; but all horses seem capable of going down with it equally. - The veterinarians cannot touch, tie '''malady," which they call "melancholy." Of course, the horse is typictally a creature of habit, built up for /■countless generations on regular hours. I for sleep, digestion, and work. In modern war lie gets lost in "soul sickness." Itegularly they do not die of it. Tut regularly it is worse than sorrow. In the year 1916, it is calculated, f horo were as many army horses juYal:d s 3 i'j France by "war neurasthenia" as there were killed in battlo!

'Because of this strange sicklies among the war horses French army buyers in America, have been instructed to give the preference, wherever possible, to the mule, sinco ib apparently is not afflicted with nerves. The great American army mule is enjoying his. vindication. For the past year ho has steadily forged ahead m Frenoli and British army esteem, proving his merits. Already it is boing said that, next to men and guns, he :« eon.ing to be-the most, valuable asset of the Allied armies, and with the arrival of the American troops his triumph will be perfect. The mule, the humble American- ;mule, has inscribed the name 011 the scarlet pages of Verdun and the Somme, and British tanks and French 75'si'aalute him. AS mule can stand more hardships and tougher use, is not so easily blemished, will stand more heat, and thrive on a'. Lesser amount of feed than the horse,. a\tid a 10001b. mule can easily do the work of a 12001b. horse, and is'generally useful for a longer out of tlie war. Also, there is not the same dagger of overfeeding a mule.. You coulrn empty a sack of barley into his feed Vox, and he would not eat enough to'\ founder -or injure- himself, while a hortse would eat till lie burst. The mulei does not get "war neurasthenia." Artillery and infantry, airplane hombe, grenades, . searchlights, and falling \fuses, long hours without food. and haWs in mud and hills, the smell of blooVl and decay'arid shrieks of wounded iborses all fail to dismay the mule. When a horse's mate is killed beside hrm he kicks and plunges. The mule stands and waits. The mule's nerves luever give way; while the horse, much like, a human being— without the props of pride, patriotism, and the reasoning faculty—goes down under the ordeal,' becomes suddenly crazed or linmanngeahle, or else takes "nouraßthenia" for a long rest!