Half a million horses imported in war

“Horses in the Anglo-Boer War 1899-1902” was the title of Anne Irwin’s talk to the Lower Albany Historical Society. Here is part of her summary: Horses have played an indisputable role in warfare for the past 3,000 years, from the horse-drawn chariots used in Egypt by the Hyksos in the 16th century, to the start of World War 1.

The Anglo-Boer War was the last fully horse-powered war in history, requiring a staggering 520,000 horses to be imported from across the British Empire as well as the US.

The average life expectancy of these horses from their time of arrival in SA was only about six weeks.

Reasons for the demise of these horses included the long voyages they had to endure from abroad, during which they lacked exercise and were not well-nourished.

Imported horses were unused to the rough terrain of the theatre of war and suffered low-level malnourishment as they were not used to surviving on the veld grass.

Fodder therefore had to be imported in great quantities from places such as Mexico and Argentina which is why we now have khakibos, blackjacks and cosmos flowers in SA as the seeds came in the fodder.

Boer horses also suffered from a lack of fodder, which usually came in the form of wheat or bales of oats.

Imported horses were seldom given the opportunity to acclimatise before being sent into action; they suffered from a variety of illnesses such as biliary, pneumonia and horse sickness; they also tended to be poorly looked after as a result of bad horsemanship and a lack of veterinary supplies.

British horses also carried almost double the weight of the Boer horses as they were frequently overloaded with unnecessary equipment and saddlery.

As the war progressed, there was a dire lack of horse shoes, as well as nails.

The Boer commandos often collected horse shoes from dead horses or made them from scrap iron and used wire collected from fences and even telegraph wires for nails. Horses were used in the mounted infantry, as gun horses and cavalry horses and were vital for mobility.

Some horses had to be slaughtered for their meat, especially during the sieges of Mafeking, Ladysmith and Kimberley, when usual sources of fresh meat were unavailable.

Many combatants often developed a strong affection for their horses, such as General de Wet’s famous grey called Fleur; General de la Rey’s Starlight and Lord Roberts’s Arabian horse named Volonel.

Anne Irwin is a history researcher, and retired teacher.

The society holds meetings on every third Thursday of the month at the Don Powis Hall in Settlers Park Retirement Village.