HORSES FOR COURSES

Robert Falcon Scott was determined to be first to the South Pole. He made it on January 17 1912 – but 33 days after Roald Amundsen – and none of his team made it back. Scott’s mistake was to pick ponies over dogs, believing they would be best for carrying supplies and as a source of fresh meat. But many of them died of exhaustion or sank in the snow.

Some drifted off on an ice floe and were circled by killer whales until they toppled into the water.