Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1916-1918, 1916-11-10
The Growing West
HORSE GOES TO WAF
By Frederic ]. Haskin

T, cent big purchase here of horses for
! use in Mexico Conditions in the two
regions are similar. Italy and the
United States each bought number
! of horses for artillery work; and it is
said that an American or Italian ar
tillery horse will often be picked no
heavier than the British take for their
cavalry Perhaps it would be fairer
to say that Great Britain uses horses
of artillery weight for cavalry work
than that Italy and the United States
buy cavalry horses for the artillery.
The work of the local French COM
mission has on the whole met with the
approval of horse dealers. The French
officers are said to be strict in selec.
ton and fully on the alert to protect
the interests of their government; but
. they have not been unduly severe. In
fact the American army buyers seem
to have come in for more criticism
from the men with horses to sell. This
is not, however, necessarily reflec-
ton on the way they worked.
These American buyers apparently
looked 4 bit farther than the mere
pounds and inches in horse flesh; and
naturally such course is not calcu-
lated to soothe a seller When deal
er has an animal of proper height and
weight. he expects to have him passed,
if he is sound. Yet the American
buyers get the critical approval of the
wise heads hereabouts as men who
know horse"
Il think" said one man slowly,
speaking OF our government purchases.
that when those fellows looked over
"a horse, they tried to see him as he
would look, not in the pillow or the fam
lily buggy, but on active service-go-
ing up hill under fire, maybe. They
let that enter into the picking And
they We're dead right. There's more
to horse than four legs and tail"
This gentleman apparently meant that
a cavalry horse needed certain spir-
it besides a sound wind and limb. and
the American buyers recognized this
fact. 1t may please the federal gov
eminent to know that it's work Of
horse selection met with the approval
of connoisseurs.
So the horses come and 20, filing
the corrals with an uneasy. gentle
eyed. shifting brown mass waiting for
send them on to the battle field or
back to the farm Most Of the Wichi-
ia lots get by" They are sound, de-
sirable stock. culled mostly from the
pastures Of Kansas. Oklahoma and
Missouri They have good name for
the way they stand up under the hard
ships Of ocean travel. very few Of
them dying en- route. This is locally
attributed to the fact that they are
neither barn nor range stock. A
barn raised horse is likely to have
something of the delicacy of child
reared in the sheltered life. while the
range horse from little farther vast
ward is often weakened by the short
age of feed in winter. These horses
are fed in winter but they are raised
in the open. so they combine the hardi-
hood of both the other types. at least
according to the men who raise them
One change that has come over the
attitude of the buyers in the last few
months is regarded here as of some
significance. They are eager to buy
mares In the early months OF the
war they preferred geldines. but now
mares are at premium. The theory
is that they want these animals for
breeding PURPOSES. to replenish their
horse population after the war Does
that mean that they think they see the
end? Nobody knows. but the popular
ity of the mare is offered for what It
is worth as one more basis for peace
representation.
II is impossible to look over the
acres Gf sleek horseflesh that wait
here without giving thought to the
violent end that await most of them
within few weeks or months. 1t is
hard on the individual horse, but it
will be good thing for the breed.
These horses are simply the surplus
from the farms: the picked stock re-
mains in the fields. The American
horse of the future will be the better
for the war. Moreover, his tribe was
TOO numerous There will always be
work for millions of horses: but i'm.
mense numbers were rendered super
fluous by the Increased use OF gaso.
line. This war is giving those super
fluous horses chance to step OF the
stage in a way befitting the countless
centuries Of service that their breed
has given to man.