Last week, I talked about recruits and how they were trained to work with horses. So, following on from that I’m sharing a couple of pages from my copy of The Field Service Pocket Book from 1914. I mentioned that soldiers were given some information about some of the causes of lameness and illness in horses, and what to do when they encountered them. You can (hopefully) see examples of these here.
Although the Field Service Pocket Book was by no means intended for use only by horsed soldiers, the extent to which horse-related matters are included emphasises the extent to which the British Army of 1914-1918 relied on its horses.
Section 33 (at the end of the two pages) is a stark reminder of the conditions soldiers and their horses encountered, and the demands war made of the soldier in the soldier-horse relationship.
Soldiers and their Horses 