What happened to the horses at the end of World War 1?

Answer 1

In World War I, mounted calvary were still a vital resource on the field. The calvary would lead charges into battle, although this became less common as the war of the trenches started.

Horses were also used for transportation for people, supplies and equipment. Hundreds of thousands of mules, donkeys and horses were used to pull wagons and carts to keep our soldiers fed and clothed.

Answer 2

Yes, hundreds of thousands of horses were used, by all participants. They pulled artillery, and supply wagons, and every army had horse cavalry, kept ready for the breakthrough into open country beyond the trenches that never came. Mules were also used. One of the most affecting passages in "All Quiet on the Western Front" is a description of the agony of horses wounded in an artillery barrage. The US Army had its cavalry remount station at Fort Riley, Kansas, where it had been for several generations (the US horse cavalry was not disbanded until 1940). The US Army purchased tens of thousands of horses from Spain, which came by ship. In 1918 the stables, which were huge, were thoroughly cleaned and a monumentally massive manure fire was set to the stable sweepings. Atmospheric conditions kept the smoke from this fire, which burned for days, close to the ground, and it was immediately after this that the great influenza epidemic of 1918 began to spread through the Army, killing strong young soldiers who had been perfectly healthy in just a few days. Many suspected a connection between the great manure fire and the "Spanish Flu". Horses were also used extensively in WWII, especially by the Germans.

Answer 3

During WW 1 well over 5 million horses died. Most of the survivors -especially the British and US horses - were destroyed at the end of the war, as the British and Americans considered it too costly to ship them all back. The US for instance returned only 200, and had 60,000 destroyed in France. Of the about 500,000 surviving British horses, 60,000 - or a little over 10% - were repatriated. Those that couldn't be sold for meat or other uses were destroyed.

Answer 4

after the first world war horses sold to french butchers

Answer 5

Many of them died