Editing Waler (section)

===World War I===
In the First World War, 121,324 Walers were sent overseas to the allied armies in Africa, Europe, India and Palestine.<ref>''Australian Encyclopedia,'' Vol. 4, Grolier Society, Sydney</ref> Of these, 39,348 served with the [[First Australian Imperial Force]], mainly in the [[Middle East]], while 81,976 were sent to India.<ref name="Barrie"/> Due to the costs said to be incurred for "returning horses home" with their mounts and perhaps to a lesser extent, [[quarantine]] restrictions, only one Waler is known to have been returned to Australia; "Sandy", the mount of Major-General [[William Throsby Bridges|W. T. Bridges]], an officer who died at [[Gallipoli Campaign|Gallipoli]] in May 1915.<ref name="Barrie"/>

The English [[cavalry]] officer, Lt. Col. R. M. P. Preston DSO, summed up the Australian Light Horses' performance in his book, ''The Desert Mounted Corps:''<ref name="ASHS">{{cite web|url=http://www.ashs.com.au/horses/default.asp#Statistics|title=Australian Stock Horse Society|first=Australian Stock Horse|last=Society|website=Ashs.com.au|access-date=11 November 2017}}</ref> <blockquote>
"… (November 16th, 1917) The operations had now continued for 17 days practically without cessation, and a rest was absolutely necessary especially for the horses. Cavalry Division had covered nearly 170 miles…and their horses had been watered on an average of once in every 36 hours…. The heat, too, had been intense and the short rations, 9½ lb of grain per day without bulk food, had weakened them greatly. Indeed, the hardship endured by some horses was almost incredible. One of the batteries of the Australian Mounted Division had only been able to water its horses three times in the last nine days - the actual intervals being 68, 72 and 76 hours respectively. Yet this battery on its arrival had lost only eight horses from exhaustion, not counting those killed in action or evacuated wounded.
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… The majority of horses in the Corps were Walers and there is no doubt that these hardy Australian horses make the finest cavalry mounts in the world…. They (the Australians) have got types of compact, well-built, saddle and harness horses that no other part of the world can show. Rather on the light side according to our ideas, but hard as nails and with beautiful clean legs and feet. Their records in this war place them far above the Cavalry horse of any other nation. The Australians themselves can never understand our partiality for the half-bred weight-carrying hunter, which looks to them like a cart horse. Their contention has always been that good blood will carry more weight than big bone, and the experience of this war has converted the writer, for one, entirely to their point of view. It must be remembered that the Australian countrymen are bigger, heavier men than their English brothers. They formed just half the Corps and it probable that they averaged not far off 12 stone each stripped. To this weight must be added another 9-1/2 stone for saddle, ammunition, sword, rifle, clothes and accoutrements, so that each horse carried a weight of 21 stone, all day for every day for 17 days, - on less than half the normal ration of forage and with only one drink in every 36 hours!
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The weight-carrying English Hunter had to be nursed back to fitness after these operations and for a long period, while the little Australian horses without any special care, other than good food and plenty of water were soon fit to go through another campaign as arduous as the last one!…."
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One well-known Waler was [[Major Michael Shanahan]]'s mount, "Bill the Bastard", who [[bucking|bucked]] when asked to [[horse gait|gallop]]. Yet, during [[World War I]], when the major (or captain) found four Australians outflanked by the [[Ottoman Empire|Turks]], "Bill the Bastard" took all five men – three on his back and one on each stirrup – {{convert|.75|mi|km}} through soft sand at a lumbering gallop, without first bucking.<ref name="Barrie"/>

====Not to return to Australia====
[[File:Hogue-(The Horses Stay Behind)-(1919).jpg|thumb|210px|''The Horses Stay Behind (Poem)'',<br>[[Oliver Hogue#"Trooper Bluegum"|"Trooper Bluegum"]] (1919).<ref>Gullett & Barrett (1919), p.78.</ref>]]
::"Owing to the cost and difficulties of transportation, the military authorities had decided to kill all Light Horse horses over 12 years and dispose of the remainder locally – that would be in Egypt, Palestine, Mesopotamia, or wherever a Light Horse unit happened to be stationed." -- [http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article130595519 ''The World's News'', 1 February 1919].
At the end of the war, 11,000 surplus horses in the Middle East were sold to the British Army as remounts for [[Egypt]] and [[India]]. Others, categorised as being unfit, were destroyed.<ref>[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article179843875 Criminal Waste: Horses Being Shot, ''The (Brisbane) Daily Standard'', (Thursday, 19 December 1919), p.5.]</ref> Also, some light horsemen chose to destroy their horses rather than part with them, but this was an exception, despite the popular myth that portrays it as the fate of all the war horses. Parting with their Walers was one of the hardest events the light horsemen had to endure.<ref>[[Henry Gullett|H.S.G.]], [http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article164126782 "Grief's Tribute: The Horses Stay Behind", ''The (Adelaide) Observer'', (Saturday, 15 March 1919), p.29]: reprinted from ''The Kia Ora Coo-ee: The Magazine for the Anzacs in the Middle East'', 15 November 1918.</ref><ref>Good-Bye, Old Pal: A Trooper in the Australian Light Horse Farewelling His Steed, ''The World's News'', (Saturday, 1 February 1919). pp.[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article130595519 1], [http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page14735357 2].</ref>

A poem by [[Oliver Hogue#"Trooper Bluegum"|Major Oliver Hogue, 14th Australian Light Horse Regiment ("Trooper Bluegum")]] sums up the men's sentiment:
::''I don't think I could stand the thought of my old fancy hack''
::''&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Just crawling round old Cairo with a 'Gyppo on his back.''
::''Perhaps some English tourist out in Palestine may find''
::''&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;My broken-hearted Waler with a wooden plough behind.''

::''No: I think I'd better shoot him and tell a little lie:--''
::''&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"He floundered in a wombat hole and then lay down to die."''
::''May be I'll get court-martialled; but I'm damned if I'm inclined''
::''&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;To go back to Australia and leave my horse behind.''
:::From ''Australia in Palestine'', 1919