Horsemanship Under Pressure: Beersheba 100th Anniversary

The Australian Light Horse memorial in Beer Sheva. Photo credit: Emanuel Yellin (Own work) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons

Taking a horse to war is not my idea of fun, but I have long been inspired by the achievements of warriors and their horses across the world. When not on active duty, riding and caring for their horses no doubt helped keep many soldiers sane - not only as a result of the diversion from the horrors of the front but because of the changes in their mental state brought about by having a friend amongst these noblest of animals.

Man and horse had to operate as a team and that required a very strong bond. One of the battles that always moves me is the amazing charge of the Australian Light Horse on Beersheba on 31 October 1917: 100 years ago today.

I included this event in my book and am publishing the excerpt here in honour of its 100th anniversary. It was remarkable not only because it was a "do or die" charge under horrible conditions in the face of fierce and well-entrenched opposition, but because it was a charge at all. Our Light Horsemen had never charged before - their modus operandi was to ride into position, dismount and shoot. To do something you've trained for under such conditions requires skill and grit, but to tackle something you've never done before takes true teamwork.

Here's the extract from Winning Horsemanship:

It’s team work that makes the dream work. To operate truly as a supreme team, the individual members must care as much about each other’s success as they do about their own. In a team of two, horse and horseman, the leader who is effective in communicating not only direction but a sense of purpose and a clear end goal with tact and empathy can inspire remarkable respect, loyalty and co-operation in a horse.

Consider, for instance, the Walers of the Australian Light Horse who carried their riders on a charge into Beersheba. It was the first cavalry charge in Australian history and the conditions were horrendous. This is how Melbourne writer Frank Dalby Davison described it in his 1933 prose epic, ‘The Wells of Beersheba’.
 
Under the saddles there was a world of courage. At that hour, on the plain and in the distant hills, three columns of horses were moving out from camp. The weight of man and gear rested on backs still tender from carrying their burden through the previous night’s march. Twelve extra pounds of rations and corn weighted them down tonight. (They knew the difference!) When the column moved it might be going three miles or thirty, for all the horses knew. Feed, water and rest might be waiting for them at the end – or might not. They had a double hazard to carry as well as a burden. Sustained by comradeship between horse and horse, and by a strange trusting comradeship with the men they carried, they set themselves to the unknown.
 
… A wave of subtle excitement swept through the mounted ranks and communicated itself to the beasts they rode. Saddle-worn, parched and overloaded, the horses knew by the alert bearing of their riders that unaccustomed action was at hand. Weight might have fallen from their burdened bodies. They tossed their heads and fidgeted nervously from hoof to hoof as if fresh from their home paddocks.
 
… The pace quickened as horse laboured with horse to gain the lead, and horse laboured to keep stride by stride with his neighbour. Nostrils reddened, eyes widened, jaws gaped, and tossing heads flung spume to the air. Not one of the horses, alone, could have stood the pace and the weight for half the distance; but each, like his rider, was possessed of something beyond himself.

As Warren Bennis said, "Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality".

Stirring stuff!
Lest we forget.

#beersheba #australianlighthorse #waler

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