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Home , 11th Hussars, 17th Lancers, Crimean War

Scientia Militaria, South African Journal of Military Studies, Vol 14, Nr 1, 1984. http://scientiamilitaria.journals.ac.za

THE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE And 's Very Own Pony H.J. (Dick) Usher*

The story of the charge which I shall Light , the 8th and 11th , and relate might have been forgotten by now had it the 17th , a total of approximately six- not been immortalized by Alfred Lord Tennyson hundred men, under Brigadier-General Lord in his poem, 'The Charge of the Light Brigade.' Cardigan. Lord Cardigan received an order that Two stanzas from that work appear in this article. he was to prevent the Russians carrying away certain guns, and somehow he understood that The (1853-1856) was so named he was meant to make a full frontal attack against because nearly all the fighting took place in the the Russian position. Although he knew that it , a peninsula north of the . Rus- was contrary to all rules of tactics to charge the sia was a large country with few seaports. The front of an battery, the order as he under- Black Sea lies to the south of , but part of stood it was carried out. The charge of the Light the shores of the Black Sea belonged to Turkey Brigade was due to a dreadful mistake, and it is and the Turks could keep the ships of other claimed to have happened because of the poor nations away from their shores. For this reason leadership and personal rivalry of two high-rank- Russia planned to take possession of Turkey and ing British officers, both senior to Lord Cardigan. offered to divide it, when conquered, with Britain. For a mile-and-a-half the Light Brigade rode But Britain was not interested, and also did not through the deadly fire of the Russian guns, and want Russia to gain too much power. In the Cri- as the Brigade advanced, the Russian rate of fire mean War the Allies consisted of Turkey, , increased. Close enough six-hundred horsemen , and Britain. The war was ended by the took part in that charge, and less than one-third in 1856. survived.

Someone had blundered. The Battle of was fought on October Theirs not to make reply, 25th, 1854, on the plain of Balaclava. Mountains Theirs not to reason why, of moderate height rose along the perimeter of Theirs but to do and die, the plain, which was divided by a range of small Into the valley of Death hills, named the Causeway Heights, into two val- Rode the Six Hundred. leys. On the Heights a small number at guns had been placed for defence by the Turks. During Flashed all their sabres bare, the battle the Turks were driven from their posi- Flashed as they turned in air tions, and as each gun was captured by the Sabring the gunners there, Russians, it was turned on the Allies. The British Charging an army, while Heavy Brigade was formed up on the plain to- All the world wondered. gether with an infantry , the 93rd High- And to add to that great tragedy, four-hundred- landers. A force of four-hundred Russian cavalry and-seventy-five horses lay dead on the battle- charged down upon the Highlanders, who fought back with such effect that in no time they field. I have not been able to ascertain whether had the Russians fleeing in retreat. The main or not any South Africans were serving with the Light Brigade at that time, but I give you the body of the Russian cavalry at this stage headed for the British Heavy Brigade, under Brigadier- assurance that a very large number of the faithful General Scarlett, but the engagement lasted for beasts that paid with their lives, were South Afri- can horses. a short while only, and once more the Russians fled. They regained the position of the Heights where the guns captured from the Turks still During the Crimean War the British used South stood. They found time to unite their forces and African horses on a very large scale. They were to consolidate their position. Apart from their actually known as Cape Horses and I shall relate cavalry and artillery, they added to their numbers their history briefly. The horse is not native to by bringing up infantry reinforcements as well. Southern Africa, and when the Cape was first settled in 1652, there were no horses to be found. But only specimens of the true quagga, The Light Brigade consisted of the 4th and 13th which were related to the zebra but less striped.

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The quagga has since become extinct. There tion. This has immortalised the Basuto Pony and were also the Cape mountain zebra and Bur- numerous war anecdotes tell of the courage, chell's zebra. But horses were imported from loyalty and hardiness of these horses in the ser- Java as early as 1653. They were of Persian and vice of both Boer and Briton. The Basuto Pony Arab strain, and horses imported during the next often stood just over thirteen hands, and these one-hundred years were of the same strain. Old small animals could cover great distances day records state that these horses were small but after day, carrying eighty kilograms and more in hardy, and of excellent constitution and tem- weight. All lived off the veld. They were the most perament. In there were horses fearless and sure-footed of any known type or which had originated in Andalusia, Spain. These breed. It was through the South African War that Andalusian horses had the blood of the Barb the Basuto Pony lost its best and largest num- strain, which is a breed of North African origin, bers. The horse never really recovered from the similar to the Arab. In 1778 a number of these shock and the situation was aggravated by the horses were imported from South America. In fact that during 1 more than two-thou- 1782 eight English Blood stallions were imported sand ponies were exported to what was then along with five Barb-type horses which had been called German South-West Africa, and an un- bred in , in the . Later impor- known number to East Africa. The animals which tations were mostly of Oriental and Spanish remained in Basutoland were inferior and factors blood, but between 1811 and 1820 Lord Charles such as droughts, over-grazing and neglect Somerset introduced several Thoroughbreds, caused further deterioration. and the colonists followed this example. From the foregoing what became known as the Cape In 1951 the South African Department of Agricul- Horse was bred, and it was this horse which was ture bought a nucleus group of Basuto-type po- used by the British on a large scale during the nies and in 1952 started a breeding project at Crimean War. the Nooitgedacht Research Station in the district of Ermelo in the Transvaal. This was not only to In 1825 the first Cape Horses reached Basuto- save the Basuto Pony from extinction, but also land, today known as Lesotho. It is believed that because South Africa needed an indigenous they were captured from marauding Griquas. farm and riding horse suited to South African Basuto labourers working in South Africa were conditions. A stallion, Vonk and six mares were often paid in kind, a much favoured reward for bought from Mr JAN. Cloete of Molteno in the their services being horses, which they took Cape Province, and five mares from Mr M.G. home to Basutoland. There was a demand for Willemse of Memel in the Orange Free State. It is high-class stallions and excellent blood-stock of interest that Mr Cloete's father's stud had entered the territory. So do we see that the Cape achieved fame even before the South African Horse was the father of what became known as War of 1899-1902. Large-scale inbreeding had the Basuto Pony. From about 1860 there was a already taken place, and for this reason it was decline in the horse-breeding industry, due to decided to use not only the stallion Vonk, but severe horse-sickness and other setbacks, also a Boer Horse stallion (a son of the Cape which was to lead to the Cape Horse virtually Horse) and a part-bred Arab stallion to a limited diappearing from the scene. extent. It must be pointed out that Vonk's pro- geny dominated to such an extent, however, that During the nineteenth century the Basuto Pony's practically every member of the Nooitgedacht fame spread, and ponies were exported to India breed today is a descendant of Vonk either on for military purposes. By the end of the century the side of the sire or the dam, or both. the Anglo-Boer War spread the fame of the horses throughout the . Unfortu- In 1976 the Nooitgedacht Pony was affiliated nately the price of this fame was the rapid de- with the South African Stud Book Association as cline of the type. As early as 1893 the Basuto- South Africa's first indigenous pony breed, South land authorities tried to save the Basuto Pony Africa's very own pony. Satisfied that its develop- type through imports of Arabian and other ment task had been completed, the Department horses, but their efforts met with little success. of Agriculture, (Technical Services) sold all its horses by public auction in March, 1977. The The British forces in South Africa soon discov- breeding project was now in the hands of the ered that the Basuto Ponies were better horses 'breeders' association which had some sixty than their own, and during the course of the war members in 1979. The ponies also compete an- they bought thirty-thousand from the Basuto na- nually at the Pretoria Agricultural Show. An inter-

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esting description of the Nooitgedacht Pony ap- Pony alive and to make a truly South African bred peared in the South African Panorama, which farm, riding and children's horse available to wrote of the breed: 'So naturally attracted to man South Africa and its people. that he will snuggle up immediately after the first introduction. Also lively, and extraordinarily sure- I acknowledge with grateful th.anks the assist- footed, intelligent, hardy with exceptional powers ance unstintingly given me concerning the Nooit- of endurance and a comfortable riding gait.' In- gedacht Pony by the Nooitgedacht Research deed, the Nooitgedacht Pony is the only true Station, Ermelo. The Director, Animal and Dairy descendant of the Basuto Pony, and takes its Research Institute at Irene, and the Nooitge- place as a pedigree horse breed. It is a living dacht Pony Breeders' Society at Menlo Park, memorial to the fearless Basuto Pony which was Pretoria once famed beyond South Africa's borders. Be- yond all doubt the breeders succeeded in their • A freelance , Mr Usher is of 1820 British Settler descent. He has a aim to keep the good qualities of the Basuto deep interest in matters historical and genealogical.

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