The Fate of a War Horse
Excerpt from a soldier’s journal written during World War 1, a particular scene about a war horse:
“Utterly exhausted, battered and bruised, the starved horse stumbled and fell into the mud, where he laid and did not make an attempt to get back up, even when he was prodded by other soldiers. “He’s done for, poor beast,” one said, and another drew his gun. The bay horse saw the gun aimed at him and fear sparked in his eyes so intensely it startled me. He had seen the fate that other horses and mules had met at the hands of their own men when they could no longer keep moving, he knew what the gun meant for him. Despite the immense suffering and agony he’d gone through, and knowing he’d only go through much more, he did not want to die. And so, struggling and heaving and slipping in the mud, the horse somehow managed to bring himself back onto all fours. “Well look at that, he wants to live.” And so that horse lived to see another day.”
Excerpt from the same journal, many months later:
“One of the saddest sights I’ve witnessed throughout this treacherous war happened today, and not to man. It was the bay horse that did not want to die all those months ago. He could bear his weight no longer, he was too weak, too broken, too starved—of food, warmth, rest. He crashed into the mud and like before, did not try to get back up. He was prodded and pushed but wouldn’t budge. “I guess it’s time to put you out of your misery, old bud,” my comrade said sadly, and drew his gun. The horse saw the gun aimed at his head, but made no move to get back up; he couldn’t even if he wanted too. This time his eyes remained dull, bleak, lifeless. He had suffered so much in this cruel war that it had diminished his very will to live. He saw nothing ahead but pain, hunger, and cold, and he could no longer take it. The horse closed his eyes and brought his nose down to the mud, accepting his fate. The bullet made its home in his head.”
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I’ve been doing lots of research on the animals of WW1 and the conditions they were forced to go through, namely the horses and mules, and it absolutely breaks my heart. A few lines of this story popped into my head and I just had to write it down before I forgot it. This precise event did not actually happen but I can guarantee hundreds of thousands of the 8 million horses and mules that lost their lives in that war suffered the same fate of being shot when they were too broken to continue on.
