Taking care of horses is a lot of work, whether in war or peace. Here you see some grooms in the British military during World War I. It was their job to make sure that the harness was cleaned and oiled and the horses cared for. Sometimes, the task was superhuman, when the horses were affected with mange or lameness. Image courtesy of Nick Stone.
The millions of war horses that were part of World War I required a lot of grooming. In fact, proper grooming care turned out to be critical to the success of the British military.
Perhaps artillery horses at the front couldn’t be properly cleaned and groomed all the time but all horsemen know that a horse in a dirty muddy harness is more likely to get sores than a horse in a clean and oiled harness. That meant a lot of oil and saddle soap. There was no synthetic harness like we have to today, and probably no hoses to clean the horses. The grooms probably were as wet as the horses.
One of the biggest problems that the British military faced was that it was losing more horses to disease and exposure than to enemy fire. Horses tied in a picket line at night allowed for the easy spread of the mange mite from horse to horse. Early in the war, the British solution to widespread mange was to clip every horse from head to toe. That would be fine in summer, but it meant that the horses needed blankets when the weather turned cold, or else the mange would come back. Next problem? Those blankets were constantly soaked by rain. You can imagine how the horses suffered.
The grooms had their hands full. The cavalry may have required that each rider care for his own horse, but the artillery horses and mules and the pack animals far outnumbered the cavalry mounts like Joey in War Horse. In those photo, you see a British military unit pausing in a stream, possibly for the benefit of their horses' tendons. (National Library of Scotland archival photo)
But the grooms had to not only struggle to keep the horses dry and the harness clean; they had to make sure that the harness fit properly, or there would be just as many problems with sores. And as the horses lost condition because of poor quality hay–or complete lack of hay–and overuse, their harness may or may not fit properly. It’s said that the most important tool a groom had was a hole punch and that they were in constant use.
And we all know that you will eventually run out of leather; there will be no place left to punch a hole.
Artillery horses also required properly fitting collars. Collars don’t have much range of adjustment. They either fit…or they don’t. Do you remember the scene in War Horse where Frederick stuffs the rag under Joey’s collar?
Grooms today are often the unsung heroes of the horse world, and their World War I counterparts were just as under-appreciated by historians. The photo provided by Nick Stone shows that this group of grooms wasn’t too serious, but there’s also a possibility, from Nick’s notes, that the photo was taken in Cambridgeshire before either the horses or grooms or both were shipped overseas. They probably sobered up pretty quickly if they served at the front.
To learn more: Grooms today have a new home on the web. Visit Liv Gude’s proequinegrooms.com for information about the profession and tips from the pros on how to care for your horse.
Photo of grooms courtesy of Nick Stone.
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Don’t you wonder if actors’ memories of filming movies just get all jumbled together? All those long hours on the set, rehearsing and re-shooting and going through makeup and costuming can be exhausting.
All content © 2011 Fran Jurga and EquiSearch
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