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HORSE ACTION IN GREAT WAR American Percherons and Mules Stood Up Best Under Campaigning English Expert Tells His Experiences. An English officer who held an important post in the Remouut division of the army in France . during the entire great war, writing, of the animals used in the strnggle, gives the palm of usefulness to the American-bred Percheron and the mule. Of the former he writes: The most successful horse in the war was un- I doubtcdly the Percheron -bred American, and as a "gunner" and light transport horse he exceeded all expectations. How wonderfully quickly he recovered from his long and exacting journey across the Atlantic; how splendidly he buckled down to his work, and with what conrage and endurance; .how wonderfully he thrived on reduced rations and under hard conditions; and how vigorously he combated or shook off the ills that equine flesh is heir to. I found him placid and of even temperament generally "a good doer," and always a willing and hard worker. The mule was without doubt the most successful animal in the war. Nothing worried him; he could live on anything and under any conditions; he worked like a hero; and he was seldom sick or sorry. At times, he could be as stupid as a mule. But on the whole he gave far less trouble than any other animal both on shipboard and in the lines, except that on the ship he would eat his own halter and any of his neighbors within reach; while the stories told me at the front of his usefulness, his hardiness and thriftiuess, and his equanimity under fire would not have been believed before the war. Did I get any loose horses going to or from boats or trains, what a trouble they were to catch, galloping home or away, and getting tied up in knots somewhere, and more or less cut and damaged! Not bo with the mule, and it was generally better not to waste time on the march trying to catch him. for he always came on witli the column, and fell in witli the Others either along the ropes in the dock, sheds or at the water-troughs in the lines. Tiie chargers, cavalry and ridlug horses generally were of round type. Some did well, and some did not; but horses of the well-bred English hunter stamp always came out on top. They were not so placid on shipboard, on trains, or in the lines as the American light draught, and they were much more quarrelsome, most of my casualties in the kicking and biting line being due to them or the heavy draught. And the English heavy draught gave me the greatest disappointment in the war, as far as horses were concerned. I had always believed the English shire horses to be the best heavy draught horses in the. world, and for shifting big loads in the town, and for work on. the land I should Bay they were still facile princeps for hard work under normal conditions. But neither their- constitution nor temperament would stand undue excitement or the hardships of u campaign.
