"Prussian Horse Colors" Topic
9 Posts
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Odins Warrior | 27 Jun 2015 4:56 p.m. PST |
Working on my SYW Cavalry. I have plenty of uniform books but what is the best resource to understand what color horses Prussian and Austrian Cavalry units were mounted on? Thanks. |
Bernhard Rauch | 27 Jun 2015 6:11 p.m. PST |
Most horses were brown, musician's horses were usually grey if they were available. There was a general feeling that darker colored horses made better warhorses. Consequently Curassiers tended to have very dark colored horses, black or very dark brown if these were available. This is the general trend for all European Cavalry throughout the horse and musket period. The British Horse Guards are still mounted on black horses.
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Der Alte Fritz | 27 Jun 2015 8:46 p.m. PST |
Yes, Frederick is on record as stating that he prefers black horses and other dark colors for his cuirassiers. |
dbf1676 | 27 Jun 2015 8:47 p.m. PST |
I'm pretty sure that the Prussian musicians' horses were the same color as those of the other troopers. |
seneffe | 07 Jul 2015 2:07 p.m. PST |
Black horses were much more common in the c18th than now. Changes in breeding from the late c18th onwards made them rapidly quite a lot more unusual, with browns and bays becoming the predominant shades for medium and heavy horses in W Europe at least. As regards the Prussians, during the WAS and early part of the SYW, I think all of the Cuirassiers regts would have access to black horses. The 3rd Dragoons at least also had them. The Prussian Hussars were mounted on horses of a specific regimental colour at least in peacetime/early war. I used to know most of these but have forgotten them now. IIRC the 2nd and poss 5th were mounted on greys, and the 4th on piebalds. Sure there will be a full list on the internet somewhere….. Austrian cavalry I think would try to mount the Cuirassiers on blacks, but I don't think I've ever seen or heard of a specific regulation. You could look at the Morier paintings of Austrian cavalry c1748 on the Royal collection website for a few ideas. |
crogge1757 | 08 Jul 2015 2:32 p.m. PST |
To back up the afore posted good information, the below gives a brief account of the Prussian 1753 regulations concerning the remount issue (source is Curd Jany – VERY trusted, he was the director of the Potsdam based Prussian War Archive during the late 19 hundreds and has written The Standard History on the old Prussian army holding true to the present day – for most part, at least (all his penny counting detail work we love so much should be very reliable, while I'm not so sure on his other, "historical grand strategic speculations", as I may want to say it: Blacks throught for the cuirassiers and not below 5 foot 3 inches withers height accepted. Mostly the German "Holstein" breed at a price of 61 Thalers. Blacks and black/browns (Bays?) for the dragoons of at least 5 foot 2 inches, and at a somewhat lower 55 Thales rate. The hussars had no regulations concerning colours and received mostly the much cheaper so entitled "Polish" remounts from the Tartar areas north of the Black Sea traded via Polish traders, or herded to Prussia by special remount command missions- hence the name. The mounts were no larger then 4' 11' or 4' 10'' and had a price of only 31 Thalers. Only the Leib-Husaren (H1) and Wartenberg (H3) had lager dragoon type mounts. The large scale purchase of remounts via Poland from the Tartar areas in Eastern Europe is a story of its own and could well make for a thrilling movie. Imagine neatly dressed protestant junior (and noble) Hussar officers travelling all the way to the Crimerian Tartar areas buying horses by the hundreds or thousands negotiated in Vodka filled encounters with most exotic dressed illiterate Clan chiefs (each hussar regiment received an annual 105 new mounts!) and herding them back to Prussia. Several large rivers had to be passed fording or swimming, The herds had to be secured from highwaymen, thief's and other ill intended elements during the voyage. No idea why this hasn't ever become an incredible entertaining story to be told. Later during the war, also some dragoon regiments were issued the cheaper Polish remounts, that should all have been "browns" in lighter shades. The musicians had the same colour horses as their escadron or company, just the "staff trumpeters" (NCO rank) and kettle drums with the cuirassiers had whites. Cheers, Christian crogges7ywarmies.blogspot.com |
seneffe | 08 Jul 2015 3:29 p.m. PST |
Good info Christian. You're right about the thrilling story of remount purchase in e europe- it must have been quite an epic. I think though that several Hussar regiments- if not by official regulation then at least by strong regimental custom, did try to obtain horses of uniform colour or pattern. Odin's Warrior- if you ever see the word 'rappen' in German uniform histories etc, that is the old German term for a black horse (it also means also a small coin), and can be a useful painting clue. |
Tricorne1971 | 10 Jul 2015 3:17 p.m. PST |
Our Omaha group, as part of a campaign, played a raid on a horse herd in Poland bound for Prussia. Several hundred figures – plenty of Cossack types, some Russian cavalry, Jewish merchants, Polish cowboys, Prussian hussars, and the odd Tartar! John Ford would have been proud. As to Hussar horse colors, the Fanfaro plates (all 200 of them)show horse colors for each regiment, although I agree that they would take what they could get. I'll look at the plates and post the colors when I return home. |
Odins Warrior | 11 Jul 2015 3:01 p.m. PST |
Thank you for the additional information! |
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