Mustangs used in World War I

[KIloBright]

Since I mentioned this fact in another thread, which was going way off topic, I thought that I should verify my statement with some references and as a point of interest

Mustangs were captured and sent back to their ancestral beginnings to serve in the Great World Wars, esp World War I

Here is one resource:

By the mid-1800s, the wild horse population had risen to over two million. Then in the latter half of the 19th century, North American wild horse herds began to shrink. Fences and farms cut down the open range of the Great Plains. They were pushed into remote deserts and badlands. The 20th century saw thousands captured for use in first the Boer War and then World War I. Later the feed industries,

Other great resources are two books that I recently read.

One is Mustang, by Deanne Stillman, that I found in a second hand book store.
A very interesting read, as it goes through the entire history of the mustang, from the time their ancestors were brought to North America by the Spanish. While I knew quite a bit of the history of the Conquistadors , I also learned many facts that I was not aware of. The names of some of those original horses are also mentioned
I guess I also never thought of what became of some of those horses, in the days of relying on wind power, when that ship carrying them hit a dead spot, similar to the one mentioned in the poem of The Ancient Mariner’. To un weight the ship, many of those horses walked the gang plank, into the ocean
Details of the Indian wars, the horses that served, and the un regulated way wild horses were rounded up, used for pet food, etc are a disturbing read.
While the number of feral horses need to be regulated, the former methods of creasing, running them to exhaustion using helicopters, are a dark part of history

I also read the book of Wild Horse Annie, a woman that survived childhood polio and became instrumental in laws being passed that were directed towards humane regulations for the protection of wild/feral horses

[Huntin_Pony]

For a wonderful read, partially about horses and WWI, find “Horses Don’t Fly” by Frederick Libby. The second half of the book is about flying in WWI with the RAF, but I dare you to stop reading!

This is really a fun little book, I promise.

[KIloBright]

Another read:
An estimated 1 million captured and “broken” mustangs went to Europe and Africa during the later years of the Nineteenth Century and first half of the 20th Century, to fight various causes - usually European, occasionally American. None returned.

http://www.mustangs4us.com/history_4-expoitation.htm

Here are a few lines from the book, Wild Horse Annie, that describe how her father made a living selling wild horses to be used in World War 1.

https://books.google.ca/books?id=hvw8TIJoA2gC&pg=PA6&lpg=PA6&dq=Use+of+mustang+horses+in+World+War+1&source=bl&ots=AZovW3eT57&sig=Y7X6bada8G

[KIloBright]

[QUOTE=Huntin’ Pony;7940982]
For a wonderful read, partially about horses and WWI, find “Horses Don’t Fly” by Frederick Libby. The second half of the book is about flying in WWI with the RAF, but I dare you to stop reading!

This is really a fun little book, I promise.[/QUOTE]

Thanks, I will look for that book!
I just finally found a copy of ’ Sargent Reckless, Pride of the Marines
Not a mustang, but a Mongolian race bred mare that was bought by the Marines to serve in the Koren War
This horse carried ammo across the battle fields, often by herself, to the front lines.She earned the two Purple Hearts and other military honors-A true War horse!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergeant_Reckless

[Southernboy]

“Where the Rivers Run North,” by Sam Morton is the true story of north Wyoming and southern Montana and what happens when you mix Indians, cowboys, ranchers, English noblemen, and the different breeds of horses they ride. Imagine catching a mustang stallion and replacing him with a thoroughbred stallion in a mustang herd. Great read.

[KIloBright]

[QUOTE=Southernboy;7941168]
“Where the Rivers Run North,” by Sam Morton is the true story of north Wyoming and southern Montana and what happens when you mix Indians, cowboys, ranchers, English noblemen, and the different breeds of horses they ride. Imagine catching a mustang stallion and replacing him with a thoroughbred stallion in a mustang herd. Great read.[/QUOTE]

Hi Southern boy

THat would be a good read! I have heard/read, where the army would release a well bred stallion, to breed with the mustang mares, then catch those offspring as remount horses. They thus introduced some size , and that crossed well with the hardiness of those mustang mares. Cheap breeding program, far as raising those horses!
Of course, they had to re move the wild stallion, who would not be keen on sharing his mares!

[Beverley]

And…here is a post from the Society of the Military Horse:

The “released into wild herds” story is a common one, but I’ve never seen anything at all that supports the story. On the contrary, at the time in which the U.S. Army was running a remount program, government stallions were provided to ranchers under well established principals, but releasing into wild herds was not done, in so far as I’ve seen. The numbers of government stallions here and there are known. I think, absent some real proof of this, that this is simply a fable.

The Army certainly was not taking any remounts from feral herds in the 20th Century. During the 19th Century they took “range” horses under some circumstances, but this itself, while a very interesting story and practice, is sort of an exception to the rule. During the 20th, the system was very well established, and releasing into feral herds would have been generally contrary to the Remount system, and fairly pointless.

http://www.militaryhorse.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=9112&start=140

[ParadoxFarm]

[QUOTE=Southernboy;7941168]
“Where the Rivers Run North,” by Sam Morton is the true story of north Wyoming and southern Montana and what happens when you mix Indians, cowboys, ranchers, English noblemen, and the different breeds of horses they ride. Imagine catching a mustang stallion and replacing him with a thoroughbred stallion in a mustang herd. Great read.[/QUOTE]

Just ordered this. Thanks for the recommendation.

[Bluey]

[QUOTE=Beverley;7943038]
And…here is a post from the Society of the Military Horse:

The “released into wild herds” story is a common one, but I’ve never seen anything at all that supports the story. On the contrary, at the time in which the U.S. Army was running a remount program, government stallions were provided to ranchers under well established principals, but releasing into wild herds was not done, in so far as I’ve seen. The numbers of government stallions here and there are known. I think, absent some real proof of this, that this is simply a fable.

The Army certainly was not taking any remounts from feral herds in the 20th Century. During the 19th Century they took “range” horses under some circumstances, but this itself, while a very interesting story and practice, is sort of an exception to the rule. During the 20th, the system was very well established, and releasing into feral herds would have been generally contrary to the Remount system, and fairly pointless.

http://www.militaryhorse.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=9112&start=140[/QUOTE]

The army sent inspectors in trains with stallions from the East and would inspect the herds of each willing rancher and then discuss which stallion/s were best from what they had in the trains.

In later trips, they would take that stallion back and leave another and buy any horses that were riding well and suited in sex, size and color for what they were looking for.

Our ranch was part of the remount program for many years.

Never heard of any other such army programs, but maybe those were in other regions, not the regular remount program that came thru here.

I wonder if someone that didn’t know ranchers ran their whole herds, including broodmares, out in the wild, came up with those stories of turning army stallions with feral herds?

Most broodmares were fairly feral, never touched, not even halterbroke.
We still had some of those in the early 1970’s in our about 50 broodmares we had here and so did all our neighbors, that we had to run thru the cattle chutes to vaccinate in one VEE outbreak, because so many you could not get close to.

Someone that didn’t know the difference may have thought those were feral horses, didn’t realize they were the ranch remudas and thought the army stallions were turned out with “wild horses”?

[KIloBright]

Could very well be urban legends, far as turning stallions out with Wild mare bands
I guess one would need to talk to some of the sources that were used by the person that wrote Wild Horse Annie, and also the sources in Mustang.
I know one can’t always believe in everything one reads, even it books touted as factual, so appreciate learning the ‘real facts’
I have no personal experience with feral horses, beyond those that are running wild in Alberta. Our feral horses mainly trace back to the turn of the century, when the logging horses were turned loose. Over the years escaped domestic horses have joined these herds.
At the moment, there is a good debate going on the management of our feral horses, as going by what a speaker from the USA presented, the feral captured herds in the USA is growing, and those that can’t be adopted, are just being fed at the tax payer’s expense.
I don’t know if I have the facts all correct, as I’m going from memory
At the moment, permits are given to some individuals to capture these feral horses, and many of them are sent for meat
There are horse activists groups, that tried to prevent capture of these horses, by luring them away from the traps baited with hay, last winter, setting out food away from those traps
I know we are getting a bit off topic again, but I enjoy finding new sources of information
Back to the original topic, can anyone here verify the sources that give the number of mustangs captured and sent to serve in World War I ?

[KIloBright]

I wonder if someone that didn’t know ranchers ran their whole herds, including broodmares, out in the wild, came up with those stories of turning army stallions with feral herds?

I think this could well be the case, as just reading history, hopefully from a reliable source, it seems it was common to let the horses run wild on the range, except when the colts were gelded, then caught around age 5 when they were broke by the rough string rider. Is this correct?
I would also think that a domestic stallion would not fare well in the wild.

[Bluey]

Well, some ranchers did turn stallions out with feral herds, at least I know some in WY did.

The feral herds easily reverted mostly to what they called “scrub horses”.
They were trying to improve them, add size and quality to those herds they had close by, for their own supply.

None of those I heard about were at all remount stallions, I don’t think the inspectors may have liked that, but what do I know.

[KIloBright]

Thanks Bluey
Have you had the chance to read Wild Horse Annie? I am always looking for horse books when I browse used book stores, and came across it.
I just checked the references the author(s) used, and it it quite extensive
The story itself, as you probably know, is about Velma Johnson, who was responsible for spurring Congress into passing legislation that protected wild horses.
The re mount thread sort of just grew out of my original post, where I just posted info that I read, and then googled, about Mustangs being caught to serve in the Boer War and World War 1
That is what interested me, as I found it rather ironic that horses were first brought the new World by the Conquistadors ,on their quest for gold, and then decedents of those original horses were captured and sent back across the ocean to be used in World War 1
The numbers I got in my original post are from Wikpedia,(besides those two books ), and if you have any other more credible historic source, I would love to read it

[Bluey]

I know that the inspectors that were bringing remount stallions to us would say some of those they bought back from us went to Iran as officer mounts.
So, yes, horses were sent to other continent’s wars.

I was in WY when the feral horse laws were passed, saw Wild Horse Annie and several others of those ladies there, but don’t know about a book.
I was very new to all that, so can’t say that I caught on to all that was happening enough to have much of an opinion, but have to say that some that is told today was happening seems more fiction than real.

[KIloBright]

This is a good read, going into the number of horses that were sent by the States to fight in the First World war. Mustangs were just of course, one component, with many other horses drafted.
It also has a bunch of books listed on the end, that would make great reading in general, unless of course, the details of how horses suffered in war is too up setting!

http://www.readex.com/blog/real-war-horses-america

[Beverley]

It is true that feral herds were used by ranchers, before the Wild Horse and Burro Act was passed. They would shoot the wild stallion and turn out what they wanted, be it a stock horse or a tb or a draft horse, and use the offspring for the desired task, be it ranch work or pulling a wagon. When the remount program was disbanded, they obtained and turned out the remount stallions as well. One sees evidence of this in the various bands around the west. A mustang that was competing in dressage in Colorado some years back clearly had draft ancestry. A group of bachelor stallions I saw in the holding pens here a few years ago clearly showed remount ancestry. Certain bands have terrific stock horse characteristics, I have met a woman from Idaho who uses horses from the Calico band exclusively for both ranch work and the dude ranch operation, and she was sitting on a very nice one at a show where we were both competing. There are in fact only one or two ‘pure’ herds of the feral descendants of the Spanish horses, the Sulphur herd here in Utah can be seen on horseback as can all the other herds of course. The few ‘pure’ bands are a function of not being located near ranching operations, so no one intervened with a domestic stallion.

As the reference from the Military Horse Society indicates, no, mustangs were not a component in World War I, for the simple reason that unless improved by a breeding program, not a short term process, most would not meet the army’s height requirements and other standards. Probably a misconception as Bluey noted that horses known to meet the remount standards came from herds that ran on the range.

There are scores of books on the subject, but it’s easy enough to google decent summaries (Wikipedia is not a reliable source for primary information on most things, in my opinion):

http://www.qmfound.com/remount.htm

http://www.qmfound.com/remount1.htm

This 1928 article gives a good accounting of WWI and of the breeding program:

http://www.qmfound.com/remount_service.htm

Trivia for the day, the first Triple Crown winner, Sir Barton, was a remount stallion, and is buried in Wyoming- in Douglas I think.

[Bluey]

Decades ago, we had one feral horse from a Nevada herd, caught at five years old.
He was one of our best cowhorses, moved like a cat, was right at 15 hands, a thick bay and clearly had some draft influence, especially his big, platter feet:

[KIloBright]

Thanks for the links, Bev
I guess the impression I got, reading both Mustang , Wild Horse Annie and some other sites, is that while the army certainly had a definite breeding program, far as producing re-mounts, as the War progressed, not only were younger men sent to the front, but mustangs were used, due to the simple supply and demand issue, with great number of horse losses that the war incurred.
So, all that info, in those books is completely incorrect?
Those mustangs were never part of the official re-mount program, thus official breeding protecol, but is it not possible that some were used, as stated by many references, as desperation measure, as the war took it;s toll on the re mount horses?
Just asking
Far as feral horses making decent ranch horse, quite a few ranchers that I know have captured some and used them for that purpose, around here
Apparently they prove to be very steady and sure footed, and since we have quite abit of grazing area that have bogs, they are much better than domestically raised horses in finding safe places to cross
Some also , that are less inclined to becoming saddle horses, have found careers as rodeo stock. Most though, unfortunately go to the slaughter plants
Our feral horses show quite abit of size,and bone, having that draft influence from those released logging horses.
The Bachelor studs can be a problem, when riding mares. My husband has had to fire a shot over their heads once or twice, when they failed to take ‘no’ as an answer, eying a mare I was riding!

[KIloBright]

What about this source?
http://sheldonhorses.wordpress.com/americas-war-horse/

I am not questioning the official breeding policy , concerning re-mount horses, but I find so many sources that document mustangs as being used as a resource to fill the growing demand for horses on the front during World War 1, that I find it hard to dismiss them all as urban legend.

[AmarachAcres]

Bluey,

Maybe you should write a book! What a handsome horse, too.