Harnessed: New Zealand’s War Horses

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E nga mana, e nga reo, nga mātā-a-waka o nga iwi katoa huri noa o Aotearoa tena koutou kātoa.  E aku Rangatira, nga mihi ki a koutou e huihui mai nei i te kaupapa o tēnei ra.

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, greetings.  I want to acknowledge Brigadier Peter Kelly, Acting Chief of Army and Colonel Ray Seymour, Director of the National Army Museum.  Thank you for inviting me here today to open this new exhibition “Harnessed: New Zealand’s War Horses”. 

I consider it a distinct honour.  This exhibition follows the widely popular play and movie, Warhorse, and is a special one because it ensures New Zealanders learn of the forgotten story of the thousands of horses that left New Zealand for war service.  They left New Zealand’s green pastures and were shipped across the world to foreign fields in South Africa, Europe and the Middle East.  Many did not survive the long and arduous sea journey and all but a few ever returned home. 

New Zealand shipped more 8,000 horses to the war in South Africa, and a further 10,000 horses left these shores for service in World War 1.  Only five horses are known to have returned to New Zealand from both wars.

To provide some perspective on the involvement of horses during the First World War, it is estimated that some 16 million horses from all nations were used as cavalry mounts, and to haul guns, ambulances and supply wagons.  Of this number it is estimated a staggering eight million horses were killed on the battlefield. 

In the time before there were adequate personnel carriers, trucks, it was horses that provided the mobility required to take our fighting troops into battle.  They survived on meagre rations and endured the heat and flies on the veldt or in the desert; they battled the snow and mud on the Western Front, and they succumbed to disease and battle wounds along with their riders. 

As Terry Kinloch notes in his book “Devils on Horses,” every fighting soldier in the New Zealand Mounted Rifle Brigade had a horse.  They carried machine guns, ammunition and other essential equipment and supplies; draught horses pulled supply and ambulance wagons and artillery guns. 

The horses had to be sound, strong and safe to ride.  They needed to be able to carry heavy weights over long distances without losing condition.  They had to be obedient, steady in and out of the ranks, used to weapons firing near them, good jumpers, unafraid of deep water and swimming, and, after all that, to stand still when being mounted and be happy to be led.  

This exhibition which tells of our war horses, and how they took our troops into battle in the Anglo-Boer War and in World War 1, tells the story of how these horses were cared for and loved by the men who rode them. 
The loss of one’s horse in battle was bitter as losing a comrade-in-arms for the men who rode and cared for them.  South African and First World War veteran,

Lt Col Guy Powles, whose horse Bess was one of the horses that returned to New Zealand after the First World War, wrote of the bond between horse and man serving in war:  “His horse is more than a friend, he is a part of the soldier's very life”.

A similar comment was made by Arthur Moore of his experiences in the Auckland Mounted Rifles in the desert campaign, noting that the care the men showed for their horses made possible the long marches they had to endure.  He added: “Men would go to all sorts of trouble to gain a little extra feed or water for their horses, and in bivouac, or on the march, do everything to save them, and preserve them in the best possible condition.”

In the second battle of Gaza the New Zealand Mounted Rifles suffered severely.  The horses, standing while the men were in action, made an easy target for enemy aircraft and artillery shells.  Out of a total of about 2,000 horses attached to the New Zealand Brigade, more than 100 were killed outright, and about 300 were wounded. 

The bitterest blow came at war’s end when a very small number of the horses were allowed to return home due to quarantine regulations.  In the Middle East, the stronger horses were kept for post-war occupation service, but older and unsound horses were either sold or killed.  Some men, who feared their horses would be mistreated when sold, had them included in the category to be shot. 

As Clifton Bellis, a New Zealand veteran of the Sinai and Palestine campaigns in the First World War commented, shooting the horses was “a hateful job” given to the latest recruits.  He concluded: “So ended the careers of the soldier’s best friends—the lovely horses.  It was a sad parting for many of the lads who had had only one horse throughout the campaign.”

So it is on that poignant note, that it gives me great pleasure to officially open this new exhibition—Harnessed: New Zealand’s War Horses—open.  Kia ora huihui tātou katoa.