Our Army Horses.

Australian and New Zealand horsemen are now world-famed; not only through their brilliant victories at Gallipoli, and in Sinai and Palestine, but also from their achievements in the South African War. They have always been ready to admit that much of the success they have won was due to the animals upon which they were mounted. These horses, bred on stations and the inland runs of Australia and New Zealand, were splendidly fitted for the conditions of the South African veldt, and the wide, sandy wastes of Sinai. It has been said, over ard over again, that all the average Anzac desires is a good horse and a rifle to care for; and the men of this Front have fortunatelv been provided with both. It was by those treks along the picturesque banks of the Nile that our horses were made fit for the great tests which were to be their lot latter on, when they and their riders pushed across the Libyan and Sinai Deserts. The horses provided were the best that our Dominions could buy, and the men mounted on them fully realised that, with such sturdy horseflesh, desert wastes and rocky spaces presented few oostacles in the way of pursuing the enemy. What the horses brought from the Antipodes have meant to the Anzac mounted Army on this Front there is not space to tell; but we are all aware of the tests of endurarce they were put to at Romani, Katia, Rafa, and over the uneven ground and hilly country of Palestine. To these animals is due much of the credit for the manner in which the enemy was pursued, and the broken remnants of the Ottoman Empire were pushed further towards Constantinople. Horses and riders achieved something that should cause an extra laurel wreath to be hung on the memorial of Anzac victories. How often have we turned out with our faithful animals, already weary after many hours riding, and galloped off to attack some strong Turkish position, miles away. Remember that long ride from north of Bir-el-Mazar to El Arish—how the horses plodded through the heavy sand, and climbed the apparently never ending sand dunes. And then, when we reached our destination, to find it abandoned by the enemy, there was just a brief spell, and it was saddle-up and off again, to rout the Turks out of their stronghold at Maghdaba. The horses, weary like their riders, nobly did what was required of them; It was the same during that long night ride from El Arish to Rafa; and in the days that followed, the horses were continually used by patrols. who kept a keen eye on the Sons of the Faithful. During the big push from Beersheba to the Jordan, we heard great accounts of our horses; how they had travelled long distances without water and rest; indeed, from the time when they first entered the fray, they have done all that has been expected of them. The value of the Australian and New Zealand remounts for military purposes was recognised long before the present war; and there was a brisk demand for them from India. The majority of our horses are station-bred, got by thorough bred sires from station-bred mares, which themselves possess a strong thoroughbred strain This war has revealed the fact, that the kind of remount we should breed for military purposes is a good, upstanding horse, 15 2 to 16 hands, well, ribbed up, clean and flat in the bone, and with a good length of rein. There will be a keen demand for Dominions horses for military purposes when the was is over.