Forums at The Military Horse

Originally posted by roy elderkin
On the question of weapons we were encumbered by the FN Rifle, a good weapon but heavy for mounted soldiers, as well as unwieldy especially when working in heavy bush. The only respite we were to get was the introduction of the Israeli Uzi sub machine gun, and the G3 a shorter lighter weapon, though easily damaged if dropped form a horse in contact. Most soldiers would have preferred to use the RPD or the AK47 if it had been allowed these would have been ideal for us. It is hard enough to carry a FN with two hands, but when one has to carry it for days with one hand, whilst guiding a horse with the other, it gets very heavy.
Towards the end of the war, the Regiment was equipped with the RPD, AK47, SKS, as well as the G3. Every soldier carried a hand gun, either the browning 9mm or star, although if one was lucky enough, the Togorof was much prized, after a contact there was a general free for all looking for these pistols, before the Police SB came to claim the bodies.

Text by Roy Elderkin
Gordon Johnson a local saddler had an American Army saddle the McLelland that he lent to us for user trials. The tree was made from glass fibre (The original had a wooden frame) the girth rings and stirrup bars were attached to metal straps which were moulded into the fibreglass. This made an extremely light and flexible saddle, weighing just under five pounds The saddle at first extremely uncomfortable, as it consisted of only a front a rear arch with two boat shaped strips joining them, but once used everything else felt uncomfortable.

Text by Roy Elderkin
In 1976 I was invited by the British South Africa Police to a skill at arms competition, which was to be held at the Salisbury Show Grounds. We were able to obtain a Lance from the Police, but not a sword. We overcame this, as Bill Lewis, our Farrier resolved this problem by making a sword. He obtained a torsion spring bar from a VW and shaped it to requirements. The saddler made the grip by punching out oval pieces of leather that was then shaped to fit the hand. The basket was made from aluminium, polished, and thin felt placed inside to give the knuckles protection The moment of truth was the testing, as we did not want to hurt the Animals if things went wrong we tried out the sword in the following way. Rob Early who was to make fame later with his book "A time of madness", said that he would drive the SAS long wheel base Land Rover whilst I hung on the back and attempted to pick up the peg with the sword. We managed to pick up the peg travelling at forty miles and hour, and so it was concluded that if nothing happened at that speed it would be fairly safe, it says a lot about a VW torsion bar spring and what can be achieved with limited resources.

Originally posted by Pat Holscher
This item on tent pegging is a classic!

Text by Roy Elderkin
In 1976 I was invited by the British South Africa Police to a skill at arms competition, which was to be held at the Salisbury Show Grounds. We were able to obtain a Lance from the Police, but not a sword. We overcame this, as Bill Lewis, our Farrier resolved this problem by making a sword. He obtained a torsion spring bar from a VW and shaped it to requirements. The saddler made the grip by punching out oval pieces of leather that was then shaped to fit the hand. The basket was made from aluminium, polished, and thin felt placed inside to give the knuckles protection The moment of truth was the testing, as we did not want to hurt the Animals if things went wrong we tried out the sword in the following way. Rob Early who was to make fame later with his book "A time of madness", said that he would drive the SAS long wheel base Land Rover whilst I hung on the back and attempted to pick up the peg with the sword. We managed to pick up the peg travelling at forty miles and hour, and so it was concluded that if nothing happened at that speed it would be fairly safe, it says a lot about a VW torsion bar spring and what can be achieved with limited resources.

Pat

Originally posted by Joseph Sullivan
Roy:

We ave had long discussions about the use of horses under today's circumstances of high-quality night vision, and also infrared scopes and IR guided weapons. Some among us say that the horses size and heat signature is a liability under these conditions, others disagree, saying that the heat of bodies of men will always be picked up anyway, and that machines can readily be heard or spotted and targeted.

As one who has fought mounted in a modern war, do you have any thoughts on this?

Joe

Originally posted by roy elderkin
Pat

When the unit was first set up all volunteer's were firstly able to ride and secondly that they either had basic infantry training or had been fully trained. To marry the equitation side to the infantry aspect, the unit was divided into two parts, military horsemanship and then infantry tactics. For the infantry tactics this work was undertaken by skilled NCO's mostly either SAS or RLI [Rhodesian Light Infantry] and RAR [Rhodesian African Rifles] all were regulars. These men taught firstly, basing up procedures ie don't eat where you slept, and don't eat where you sleep. This procedure when broken down works in the following to base up at night, ride one to two ks beyond your night stop carry out a three sixty, eat feed and water horses we always worked in pairs the buddy buddy system.Horses being tethered not picketed,whilst one man stood guard the other attended to the horses, he then stood guard and the other made their food. Then and only then did the patrol move back to the night stop and bed down still carry out the buddy buddy system. All in a three sixty position. In the morning mount move out of night posy, a further three or four ks and breakfast this procedure was never changed, and we never had ambushes when we followed this procedure.Next was taught map time appreciation I do not know whether the readers of the forum are familiar with this, it would require a full text to understand so I will give a basic understang of it, in basic terms it is part of field craft ie time distance tables watering points, ambush areas bridge and river crossing and more importantly how to read a map. Next they were taught immediate ambush drills, advance to contact and skirmishing, formations arrow head extended line and tracking techniques silent signals all the things that a trained infantry soldier should know, these skills were then applied to riding skills that he would require. On the equitation side they were taught the military way of horsemanship picketing, animal management rifle drills, care of equipment in the field , minor horse problems ie girth galls sore backs,their causes and how to treat them foot and leg problems shoeing, ie what happens when a horse casts a shoe you could be miles away from a farrier, the answer take off the opposite shoe at least one in the patrol will have a basic kit to remove a shoe remove the nails and round off the toe to stop splitting. These were all fundermental, to healthy horses good riding and good infantry skills. As I outlined earlier the first men to join the unit had most of these skills and made life easier for us.

But then came the time when we had to go into a complete training program, with troop becoming bigger and eventually into Squadron size as more and more people joined the unit. The formation of two regular squadrons and one TA ,designated A and C squadrons regular, B TA. A training program was introduced irrespective of whether the soldier could ride or not trained or untrained TA or regular. Previously the normal 28 day call up for TA was normal, done on a rotating basis regulars carried out standard operational tours. The first training program was for six weeks ,the first two being evaluation, matching men to horses, then assessment as to their suitability of being a mounted soldier. Once this was carried out they spent the rest of these two weeks on the end of a longe line, to perfect the seat of those who could ride and get used to the type of saddle that they would be using. For those who could not, then this was the introduction to the riding experience, on completion they were assessed and dependent on this were put into groups with an instructor for that level, and sent to the riding schools for continuation training.The object of this was to bring the non riders up to a level or as close to the those who could ride, the more advanced riders I trained in the art of military horsemanship as apposed to civilian type riding. During the riding aspect which was two hours a day they were then handed over to the infantry instructors, who at first taught infantry tactics dismounted, and as they progressed in their riding skills this was done mounted.

In the last weeks of training they were taken out at night to teach baseing up procedures, and field craft. Mounted rifle drills which I taught culminating in a passing out parade ,for those who passed the course as a Grey Scout were awarded their beret's. They were assesed throughout the the course and if they did not meet the standards laid down were RTUd or left the course under their own volition. We had laid down the standards we required ,which were strict and this was the corner stone of the Regt . At the end of the course TAs went into B SQN Regulars into A or C depending on their requirements.
Roy

Originally posted by roy elderkin
Joe
Great question, whilst one could except the fact that horses are far quieter than machines, on a number of actions we were able to get very close to targets without them being aware of us. But as to a more modern warfare with the items mentioned above, it was found that the heat sig of man and animals merged into one and was regarded as part of a heard when working amongst game animals.This would be more difficult when operating in areas were large herds are not supposed to be because the heat sig would be to big. The only way that we could not be detected day or night was the way you positioned the animal in a stationary position that is by placing the horse in line with trees ie not diagonally across. I think that in a more modern concept night vision aids infrared and so on would have laid us wide open,it is just has hard for soldiers to hide. On the flip side it could be mistaken for a large animal and ignored good luck.

Roy

Text by Roy Elderkin
Our task was to move from Inkomo to Umtali, which is situated in the eastern districts of Rhodesia, approximately one hundred and fifty kilometers from Salisbury, this area borders Mozambique (formally Portuguese East Africa)
Vehicles would go by road, carrying the Units paraphernalia, plus horse rations and hay The horses were entrained at Inkomo into cattle trucks, ten animals per truck with two men to a truck. Every man was issued with two days rations, as there was no likelihood of receiving any other eating arrangements. The remainder of the men went into Salisbury where they met up with the horses, we then proceeded to Umtali and camped at the Show Grounds, a journey that took nine hours by train, and two and a half by road (not exactly the intercity 125)