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Before the War
Until 1911 the 4th South Midland had had to hire horses for summer training.
From 1912 it piloted a scheme allowing Territorial Artillery to purchase its own horses. Colonel Mulliner, the Hon. Colonel of the Brigade, developed a scheme whereby a Brigade might buy its own horses which would then became Government property. When not needed for Brigade work, the horses were let out to civilians or to firms in return for their keep.
In 1912 as a trial of the system, the 4th South Midland Brigade purchased 24 horses. In 1913 the number was doubled to 48 and in 1914 they had 70 horses. (James p. 42)
The War at Home 1914-1915
When war broke out in 1914, the Brigade's well trained horse teams were needed by the Artillery already in France.
Part of Frank's work was to train the replacement horses sent to Great Baddow. Again and again his letters or diary comment on the horses he received.
14 Aug 1914 "Horses keep coming in at all hours. I never know how many I have."
21 Aug 1914 “We went round the gun park that evening and looked at all the horses. These latter had managed the long hot march very well and seemed none the worse for it.”
Frank West and Guy Kid with their horses ready for war. This picture is copyright
protected by Warwickshire County Council. It shows also my grandmother, who
deposited this and other family photographs in Rugby Local History Library.
14 Dec 1914 "I had meant to have such a nice lazy day yesterday, but, instead, I had to tramp about in the pouring rain in smelly farm yards, for I found an order to put the horses in sheds of some sort. It was quite time, too! We tried it about six weeks ago and got stopped. The farmers have bought all their winter cattle and are not best pleased but I have managed to arrange it, and we have now got them all in."
1 Jan 1915 "We have just had orders to clip our horses all over – poor devils, it seems bad luck, and just because some old general thinks they will look prettier."
13 Jan 1915 "We are in great distress because we have suddenly got 20 cases of ringworm among the horses. They are all being washed and disinfected, and I hope to stop it."
2 March 1915 "I had a great inspection of horses to-day and looked at and commented on all of them. I think I told about half of the Rugby battery that they were idle devils, and a quarter that they were a particular brand of silly liar, to give me the reasons they did for not grooming."
The watering, feeding, shelter and care of the horses was a major concern to Frank and his colleagues. He was often disatisfied with the official army response and it was not till later in the war that the sort of horse care he wanted seems to have been adopted by the army.
1915-1916 The Horses at War in France
April 1915 " 'The HQ horses developed a skin trouble which puzzled the vets, so “I am taking it in hand myself, and this morning I intend to gallop the horses until they sweat well, and then clean them with a good wash and alter their feed a bit. They are not getting enough work and too much oats, I think.' The result of this treatment was never related."
6 Jan 1916 ". . the roads and the country are muddy to a degree. We have at last got our horses off the mud altogether, by making a brick path to the standings, and we are now getting cover for them. The army is a slow moving machine; I asked for all this in August and got jeered at, and it was not till Olympus got its own feet wet with mud over the tops of its books during inspections that we got what I wanted. "
Again, Edward Miller gives some idea of how Frank and his colleagues trained their men to look after their horses at the front:
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