NOW the WWI centenary commemoration events are over and poppy badges are set aside, what was the legacy of the cavalry era?

Cavalry regiments were gradually reduced or disbanded entirely in the post-world war era, hastened by the advent of tanks and barbed wire during the Great War. Not, however, before the collateral damage inflicted on the eight million horses killed during WWI.

While we often think in terms of Irish Draughts losses during WWI, other breeds such as Australian Walers, heavy horse breeds such as the Shire and Suffolk Punch, and continental bloodlines, including the hardy Haflingers, also suffered irreparable damage.

On a happier note, show jumping, eventing and dressage between military teams became a new, more benevolent battleground at venues such as the RDS, requisitioned by the British Army as a WWI remount depot.

One beneficial legacy was the foundation of the Irish Army Equitation School in 1926, one of the few surviving cavalry schools today. The main British cavalry depot at Weedon in the British Midlands was bulldozed in the 1960s.

The cavalry era also gave the equestrian world the forward seat, rising trot and some of its finest instructors, including Federico Caprilli, Paul Rodzianko, John W. Wofford and Bertalan de Nemethy. The latter was born in Hungary which hosts the 2018 World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses general assembly this month.

The only nod to Lusk’s former cavalry past is the Remount Roundabout. Once a major remount depot, the north Dublin farm was attacked and burned during the War of Independence in 1921.

Situated at the corner of Hyde Park in London is the Animals In War Memorial, with its succinct inscription of ‘They Had No Choice’. Pack animals, including elephants, camels and mules, cavalry horses, messenger dogs, ships’ cats, carrier pigeons and even the little glowworm, by whose light soldiers read maps and letters from home, are all etched on this monument.

It was unveiled in 2004 by the Princess Royal, who also took the Salute at last Sunday’s March Past of Veteran Organisations on Horse Guards Parade.

A new addition this June is the War Horse Memorial in Ascot, unveiled in June this year. ‘Poppy’, an emaciated horse figure in cast bronze, whose hooves are tangled in barbed wire, is dedicated to the millions of UK, Allied and Commonwealth horses, mules and donkeys lost during WWI.

Although the US Cavalry Museum at Fort Riley in Kansas is closed this year for major renovations, there was an apt military theme this year at the Washington International Horse Show.

Klinger, a Percheron-Morgan cross, is already an annual feature at the show and was a big hit with children on WIHS Kids’ Day. The gentle giant has served as the official escort to the President of the United States, led the Presidential Inaugural Parade, and acted as an ambassador for the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), a US organisation aimed at helping veterans and families of American heroes lost in combat.

Each time the ‘TAPS’ fence was cleared during the $50,000 International Jumper Speed Final, a donation was made to the charity by the Schaufeld family.

Charities are often the best legacy and amongst several animal charities set up in the aftermath of the Balkan and Boer Wars was the Blue Cross, known during World War I as Our Dumb Friends’ League (ODFL).

Another post-war charity began in Cairo. Dorothy Brooke, whose officer husband was posted to Egypt, was horrified to discover old, mistreated Australian and British cavalry horses, recognisable by their army brands, still working on the Cairo streets and in stone quarries in the 1930s.

The older and unsound Australian horses were shot at war’s end, fetching £1 for their hide and tails, while the younger ones were sold at auction and it was these sorry relics that Brooke came across. Funded by a public appeal back home, the Scottish lady opened the first Brooke animal hospital in Cairo in 1934, offering free veterinary care for Cairo’s working horses and donkeys.

SOME RETURNED HOME

Author Noel Mullins, in his book “Dublin Horse Show. Pictures of my Memories”, includes photos and details of ex-cavalry horses, including Gladeye.

The chesnut with three white socks, bred in Galway in 1909, hunted and show jumped at Richmond and Olympia, before the war broke out. He served with Brigadier Walter Brooke from Castleknock, Dublin, in France, Egypt and Greece. They both returned to Ireland and last competed at the Dublin Horse Show in 1926, having won £15 for second prize in a jumping competition two years earlier.

Sea Count, foaled in 1910, served with the Inniskilling Dragoons in some of the fiercest action at the Battle of Cambrai. When his owner, Captain Muir, passed away in 1929, Mrs Muir gave the horse to Col. Joe Dudgeon who was a cavalry officer and Equitation Officer at the Royal Military College and served with the Scots Greys.

He owned one of the then best-known Irish equestrian establishments at Burton Hall, where the Sandyford Industrial Estate is now located. Col. Dudgeon and Sea Count were on the winning British Aga Khan Cup team in 1931.

WHAT THEY SAID

“During the war, the horse that withstood more wallop and starvation than any other was the black-legged Shire. They pulled heavy artillery, stores everything – they were the toughest and the next toughest in a close-run thing between the two, was the Irish Draught” – the late Archie Smith-Maxwell.

“They took the active Irish horse. The Irish Draught was ideal; unflappable and strong but killed in their hundreds of thousands. The half-bred horses were bought as chargers. After the war, the British were supposed to replace them and sent Shires and Clydesdales, mostly to the midlands, where they were used to pull turf. They also sent us some Arabians to replace the officers’ horses. We didn’t get in what we sent out but that wasn’t the fault of the British, as they didn’t have light Draught breeds or enough thoroughbreds”– Marjorie Quarton.

“Of one million animals recorded in early transportation records, after the war some 62,000 horses only, returned to Britain which included Ireland in the pre-Independence period. Some good horses returned to loving owners and continued to ride, hunt, race or pull the family carriage. It is unlikely that donkeys were returned but there is no clear evidence on this topic” – James Wyse.

BY THE NUMBERS

100,000 - Australian horses shipped to battlefronts.

12,000 - of those Australian horses survived the war.

5,000 - ex-cavalry horses rescued by Dorothy Brooke from the streets of Cairo.

200 - US Cavalry horses returned home.

80% - success rate by the British Army Veterinary Corps in returning patients to active service.

1 - Sandy, the only Australian horse, permitted to return to Australia.