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The Army has had more horses than tanks for a while: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-22951548 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-h

The Army has had more horses than tanks for a while: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-22951548 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-229...

chrisseaton 6y ago
> The British Army has not used horses in a combat role since World War I Note that this isn't true - several British Army combat units genuinely fought on horseback during WWII. https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1941/aug/06/operations-in-syria#S5LV0119P0_19410806_HOL_41 https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1941/aug/06... And I believe you can still do a combat horse riding course at one of the US special forces schools today. One good explanation for having so many horses is simply that a tank carries four soldiers while a horse only carries one! In reality we have one regiment minus (just two squadrons) of horse mounted cavalry, just one troop plus of horse-drawn field artillery, and a mounted band. Doesn't seem excessive.
- 082349872349872 6y ago
  mechanised by 1942: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Somerset_Yeomanry#Palestine_and_Syria https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Somerset_Yeomanry#Palest...
  - chrisseaton 6y ago
    Right... that's 3 years into WWII, isn't it?
    - 082349872349872 6y ago
      Yes. Expanding upon your comment, not disagreeing with it. Thanks for the Hansard! According to the mongols, one can't maintain tempo with only one horse per trooper. (so, does the Cheshire Yeomanry still drill "column of squadron"? I neglected the minor detail above that we still do field mounted recce, which in dual-use is how we train most of our civilian farriers.)
      - chrisseaton 6y ago
        We try not to line up neatly these days to avoid getting bombed or shelled!
- jack_riminton 6y ago
  Indeed, it’s quite a nice thing for ceremonial and historical purposes As part of my Young Officer training in the Royal Artillery I had to learn to ride (although ‘riding’ is not the best description, more bouncing around)
  - 082349872349872 6y ago
    > more bouncing around Thinking of "never trust a clergyman whose toes don't point out when he rides," that's probably a good sign. So... what's 2+2? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24440882 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24440882
- lsllc 6y ago
  Indeed, US Special Forces utilized horses in Afghanistan in October 2001: https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2019/10/18/how-the-horse-soldiers-helped-liberate-afghanistan-from-the-taliban-18-years-ago/ https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2019/10/18/... "be prepared to use indigenous animals for transportation"!
  - C1sc0cat 6y ago
    Apparently one of first requests was an appeal for western style saddles as the afgan ones where painful to ride on. There is also case of an actual cavalry charge being performed by the northern alliance
    - 082349872349872 6y ago
      That's odd, afghan saddles strike me as far more closely related to western[1] than to english. (I've heard buzkashi matches are usually won by men in their late 40s or early 50s. Given the physical nature of the sport, I believe that says something about spontaneous organisation afghan political culture.) Edit: oh, the saddle thing was a size issue. I'd've told them to embrace the suck, because better the saddle fit the mount[2] than the trooper :-) [1] lending credence to the persian->arabic->iberian->western hypothesis. [2] taking that to the extreme, one gets the proposed saddle design by a european general, which was suitable for leaving on the mounts in camp, even being rollable, but undoubtedly would've required much-better-than-conscript troopers. (the wrong tradeoff for modern times: compare Napoleon vs Mamluks.)

The Army has had more horses than tanks for a while: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-22951548 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-229...

chrisseaton 6y ago

> The British Army has not used horses in a combat role since World War I Note that this isn't true - several British Army combat units genuinely fought on horseback during WWII. https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1941/aug/06/operations-in-syria#S5LV0119P0_19410806_HOL_41 https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1941/aug/06... And I believe you can still do a combat horse riding course at one of the US special forces schools today. One good explanation for having so many horses is simply that a tank carries four soldiers while a horse only carries one! In reality we have one regiment minus (just two squadrons) of horse mounted cavalry, just one troop plus of horse-drawn field artillery, and a mounted band. Doesn't seem excessive.

082349872349872 6y ago
mechanised by 1942: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Somerset_Yeomanry#Palestine_and_Syria https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Somerset_Yeomanry#Palest...
- chrisseaton 6y ago
  Right... that's 3 years into WWII, isn't it?
  - 082349872349872 6y ago
    Yes. Expanding upon your comment, not disagreeing with it. Thanks for the Hansard! According to the mongols, one can't maintain tempo with only one horse per trooper. (so, does the Cheshire Yeomanry still drill "column of squadron"? I neglected the minor detail above that we still do field mounted recce, which in dual-use is how we train most of our civilian farriers.)
    - chrisseaton 6y ago
      We try not to line up neatly these days to avoid getting bombed or shelled!
jack_riminton 6y ago
Indeed, it’s quite a nice thing for ceremonial and historical purposes As part of my Young Officer training in the Royal Artillery I had to learn to ride (although ‘riding’ is not the best description, more bouncing around)
- 082349872349872 6y ago
  > more bouncing around Thinking of "never trust a clergyman whose toes don't point out when he rides," that's probably a good sign. So... what's 2+2? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24440882 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24440882
lsllc 6y ago
Indeed, US Special Forces utilized horses in Afghanistan in October 2001: https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2019/10/18/how-the-horse-soldiers-helped-liberate-afghanistan-from-the-taliban-18-years-ago/ https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2019/10/18/... "be prepared to use indigenous animals for transportation"!
- C1sc0cat 6y ago
  Apparently one of first requests was an appeal for western style saddles as the afgan ones where painful to ride on. There is also case of an actual cavalry charge being performed by the northern alliance
  - 082349872349872 6y ago
    That's odd, afghan saddles strike me as far more closely related to western[1] than to english. (I've heard buzkashi matches are usually won by men in their late 40s or early 50s. Given the physical nature of the sport, I believe that says something about spontaneous organisation afghan political culture.) Edit: oh, the saddle thing was a size issue. I'd've told them to embrace the suck, because better the saddle fit the mount[2] than the trooper :-) [1] lending credence to the persian->arabic->iberian->western hypothesis. [2] taking that to the extreme, one gets the proposed saddle design by a european general, which was suitable for leaving on the mounts in camp, even being rollable, but undoubtedly would've required much-better-than-conscript troopers. (the wrong tradeoff for modern times: compare Napoleon vs Mamluks.)