(This blog was originally posted on January 4, 2012)
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| Photo courtesy of Sara Fogan |
My first real introduction to the
concept of a War Horse was in the song, “Comanche (The Brave Horse),” by
Johnny Horton and Francis Bandy. This 1959 tribute describes the deeds
of an equine survivor of the Battle
of the Little Big Horn. According to the lyrics of this
ballad, Comanche was the only survivor of this infamous battle. This was not
true, but he was severely injured. After being rescued from the battlefield,
the horse—which was owned by Captain Myles Keogh, not General Custer—recovered
from his wounds and lived the rest of his life as a hero of the American
cavalry. I get goose-bumps whenever I listen to the song—which is often, as it
is part of an iTunes play list I created for my new horse, Avalon's Galahad.
Galahad is an Arazzon:
a "hybrid" in that he is one-half Arabian and
one-half Lipizzan. His
Arabian side makes him a direct descendant of the original war
horse, the Arabian. The Arabian dates back 2000 years. They are
legendary campaign horses in the North African and Arabian deserts: Bedouin
warriors would ride mares to battle, leaving the stallions to protect
the women and children at the camps.
Arabians are also the seminal breed
used to create the elegant and rare Lipizzan four hundred years ago. (The
Arabian stallion Siglavy is a foundation sire of this breed.)
Although the Lipizzaner elevated battle maneuvers to an art form
in haute
école, these horses were never used in actual combat. They
were bred exclusively for the Hapsburg royal
family to ride. Over the centuries, various wars
have pushed the breed to the brink of extinction. During World War
II, American General George S. Patton famously helped Colonel Alois
Podhasky, the director of the Spanish
Riding School, to smuggle the horses out of Austria. These
days, Lipizzaners are renown for their haute école performances at the Spanish Riding School, where
the levade, capriole and courbette thrill audiences.
In December 2011, Steven Spielberg
released the film adaptation of Michael Morpurgo's novel, War
Horse. At first, I was very wary about going to see the movie. It wasn't that I
didn't want to watch the movie. I really did. But I knew it would be a
tearjerker.
I ultimately did go to watch the
movie. It was very well done. But, I won't say that I "enjoyed"
watching it. The battle scenes were harrowing. Not just because war
is so devastating, but because the humans who went to war knew (sort of) what
they were getting into. However, the equine soldiers who were similarly
drafted to charge into the machine-gun fire and swinging swords did not.
When the movie let out, I drove to the
barn to see my horse. I wanted to thank him for his gentle companionship and
any sacrifices his forbears made for their human companions. On
the cover of her book titled Perfect
Partners, Kelly
Marks encourages everyone to strive to be “the owner that your horse
would choose for himself.”
Galahad, that is what I will do for
you.
This blog is posted in loving tribute to the service men and
service women and the canine and equine soldiers who have sacrificed so much
throughout our country’s history to protect our freedom at home and abroad.
Sara R. Fogan,
C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California.
She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation
Institute in 2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy®, please
visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.
