This week, the ongoing saga of the publishing proposal took a new and interesting turn. Feeling that my project as it stands would be too “narrow”, my (hopefully) publisher have suggested that I might like to expand it to cover The Boer War, The Great War AND The Second World War. My first reaction was one of, I have to confess, utter horror. However, after a brief foray into the archives and a preliminary snoop about, the idea of delving into the soldier-horse relationship post-1939 really appeals. Already, interesting material is revealing itself. Not least, some very interesting interviews with veterans, who all talk about the respectful approach to their mules that soldiers quickly came to find worked the best. I have never met a mule, but I imagine they prefer to be ‘asked’ rather than ‘told’. Who was ‘the boss’ in this relationship is debatable, but I would be inclined to suggest that it was the soldiers who worked with the mules and that it was the mules who, in fact, did most of the training. So, the next task is to review (again), revise (yet again) and resubmit (third time lucky?) my proposal and hope that this time it gets the go-ahead. Fingers crossed!
Soldiers and their Horses 