"American Horses for the South African War, 1899-1902" Topic

"In the spring of 1902, American newspapers reported that Great Britain had established a military base in New Orleans, Louisiana, for the shipment of horses and mules from the United States to South Africa; they were to be remounts for the South African War, 1899-1902, the last fully horse-powered war in history. From the perspective of animal studies, while the horses and mules were not necessarily seen as mercenaries, they could be viewed as conscripted, foreign equine soldiers. With this in mind, when an article in an American news magazine asked in a headline, "Are the British Recruiting Americans to Fight the Boers?," the answer had to be a resounding "Yes"…"
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Amicalement
Armand

"Remount officers were required to find healthy young stock at the low prices mandated by the government. Horses were acquired on a global level with much variation in suitability for the veld.In the first fifteen months of war, England and Ireland supplied 87,000 horses. Many of these horses were large, unwieldy animals, however, requiring better forage than the sparse veld could provide.

As a Boer general noted acerbically, "The British cavalryman might have used elephants with almost as much advantage as their colossal horses" (Viljoen, 1902). Slightly smaller, hardier stock came from the United States, which provided about as many horses as England, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand combined, with atotal of 109,878 horses. By the end of 1901, 6,000 horses (including many mustangs) were being imported from the United States per month (Sessions, 1903).

From the South American contingent, only the Argentinian stock had any reasonable reputation.10 Russian-bred horses were small and able to work hard and survive on little food. In contrast, the Austro-Hungarian stock, of which there were 64,157, were collectively damned as "bad do'ers."11 A total of 8,000 horses from New Zealand, 23,028 from Australia and 5,611 fromIndia were imported, both the latter gene pools containing a strong South African ancestry from earlier exportations, and thus able to adapt and survive slightly better than the other stock brought into South Africa from around the world."

The smaller hardier stock from America, is probably referring to the American Quarter Horse. Most of these came from Texas Ranches like the King Ranch and the JA Ranch. A small tough and strong breed of horse more suited to the South African environment. British agents purchase as many as they could get form Texas Ranches.

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Many thanks!…

Amicalement
Armand