Brad Manera: This is an Australian slouch hat with emu plumes. It's the symbol of the soldiers who rode to war from Australia—the Australian
Light Horse. The slouch hat has been associated with the Australian Army for well over 100 years. But the men who rode horses
to war, our Australian Light Horse, looked just a little bit different. They wore a slouch hat with emu plumes. It made them
very distinctive. It's become one of our great symbols from Australia's military past.
Cooper: Why did they need horses in the war?
Brad Manera: The First World War was fought 100 years ago and it's very important on a battlefield to be able to move your soldiers around
the battlefield more quickly than the enemy can. And so, a man on a horse can move much more quickly and over much longer
distances than a man on foot. That's the difference between a light horseman and an infantryman. An infantryman marches to
war. A light horseman rides a horse. And so, he can ride forward of the rest of the army, find out where the enemy are, ride
back and tell the headquarters, his commanders, where the enemy are and what they're doing, so that they can allocate their
soldiers appropriately to try and win that battle.
Isabella: How did they get their horses to the war front?
Brad Manera: Most of the horses that the Australian Light Horse rode came from Australia, so they were part of a journey that our soldiers
had taken. Australia had been sending horses to the British Army for decades before the First World War. And most of them
were sold through businesses in NSW, and so the horses became known as Walers. The Australian Light Horse rode Walers in the
Middle East. And they had to round them up from properties around Australia, get them onto troop ships and ship them all the
way to the Middle East where they were being ridden by our light horsemen in battle. So if it was a long and boring, sometimes
frightening journey for our soldiers, imagine how much worse it was for the horses. They couldn't understand being cooped
up on transport ships for weeks, sometimes months. It was hot, it was cramped, the water was stale, the food was stale. It
was a very difficult journey for those horses going to war.
Stella: How did they look after the horses while they were at war?
Brad Manera: It was essential to care for the health of the horse. Every soldier had to look after his horse. They... Every soldier groomed
his horse every day. And every regiment had veterinary soldiers serving with them, to make sure that they could cure minor
ailments for the horses while they were on the march. Every soldier had spare horseshoes in a wallet attached to his saddle.
So, while they were on campaign in the desert, every soldier was being aware of how fit his horse was, whether his horse was
coping with the heat. They could carry enough food for the horses for two or three days. But they could never carry enough
water. So it was essential that they captured water wells because horses get very, very stressed if they don't get water every
day. Sometimes they can go two days, but if it's much longer than that, the horse really starts to suffer.
Cooper: What did the light horsemen need to carry on their horses?
Brad Manera: The light horsemen needed to carry just about everything on his horse. He carried his weapon and his ammunition strapped to
his chest and his back, but the horse carried everything else. It could be over 160 kilos of weight—saddle, man, sleeping
equipment, food, rations and weapon. Some of the photographs we see from the Middle East, it looks like there's a dismantled
tent with four legs underneath it. They carried extraordinary loads long distances in harsh climates.
