The Grey's and the Horse-handler

[Anulf]

i have just finished read the book, The Equus Men by Alexandre Binda. An excellent book on the history of the Grey's Scouts of Rhodesia. From reading I understand that the Rhodesian military had to start from scratch when it came to building a Mounted Infantry Unit. Saddles, tack, uniforms, drills training had to be created to make the Regiment not only a working unit but an effective one as well.
The one item that kept coming up and to me was never adequately addressed was; what to do with the horse when a contact is initiated. They mention how troopers were trained to dismount at the gallop, which to me, sets a horse, their main transport and reason for the unit...loose on the battlefield. They also talk a fair bit about tethering the horse before going into combat. My question was always,; tethering to what?
The Grey's did have a number of horse casualties and losses due to combat. They also had some "lost" horses, those that bolted at the first shot and ran off into the bush, some to be captured by the enemy, some eaten by lions, and few recovered some time later.
There were penalties of losing your horse and equipment on a stunt but they never seemed to have addressed the issue of, for lack of a better word, securing their horses for combat. They never mention , at least in the book about using "horse-handlers" as was done in WWI. I'm sure everyone on this forum has seen "The Lighthorsemen". One man in four, is designated the Horse-handler, It is his responsibility to collect the horses from the other members of his section and remove the horses to a safe location during the action.

https://books.google.ca/books?id=Tmbhtw ... en&f=false

Here also are of WWI film footage I think most of us have seen. Note the horse-handlers...

http://www3.nfb.ca/ww1/building-a-force ... ?id=531246

Whereas I do realize that one soldier out of four would be taken out of the fight, as it were, it just seems to me that the security of the horses in a mounted unit would be paramount.

Any thoughts on why the Grey's Scouts may have neglected or rejected the horse-handler concept?

[Pat Holscher]

Hopefully Roy will see your post and respond, given that he was in the unit.

[Pat Holscher]

I've bumped up the thread on the Greys as I think the information may be on that thread. When I have a chance, I'll go back and review the thread and see.