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The cost of horses and the difficultly of obtaining suitable horses led the British to set up stud farms. Britain's first professionally qualified vet, William Moorcroft, went out to India on behalf of the EIC to set these studs up. Moorcroft had studied to become a vet in France. Moorcroft decided that because the peoples north of the Himalayas had been great horsemen, and must therefore have the best horses for Asian conditions, that he would attempt to travel to Central Asia from India. He was one of the very first Brits to explore the Himalayas. Most horses used my the EIC came from Persia, and the EIC maintained a purchasing mission in the Karun Valley north east of Bushire. I have a lovely photograph of my great great grandfather's horse drawn artillery battery taken in 1858. The horses are almost all Greys. It is labelled "My Persian's." Nick Balmer

Nick your comments are so great to read !

I think the 'Persians' came late in the day (around 1810). Moorecroft came to India in 1808, he was preceded by Lt William Frazer, Superintendent of the 'Board for Improvement of Cattle' (the term 'cattle' to include horses) who set up the first stud farm at Poosa in Bihar in 1795 (though not a great success). This was the direct outcome of the fact that in the First and Second Mysore wars, cavalry often ended fighting on foot due to paucity of horses. Moorecroft was the first professional to head horse breeding in India - we was later to become the head of what became the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. He turned around the fortunes of the Poosa stud most dramatically. Radically new ideas were introduced both in breeding and the types of mounts to be employed – for example prior to his arrival only ‘entire’ (uncastrated) horses were used and mares were not used in the cavalry. “Moorecroft opined that fillies must be retained and admitted into the army, along with geldings”. By widening the origin of stallions to include English and Arabian stock, containing the ravages of contagious diseases and slight lowering of the standard height, he ensured that remounts were made available to the cavalry. Seeking further afield, Moorecroft embarked on journeys to Central Asia in search of Turkoman breeds, but never returned after his ill-fated 1819 expedition, meeting his end mysteriously. However, he had demonstrated what could be achieved.

Nick and Sudhir : Thanks for the detailed background on the horse breeding by the British in India. One question though : India has always had horses in its miltary history and even in its mythology. We have had many indigenous breeds too. So why this new stud farm etc. ?

Hello Sudhir, You are probably correct in saying that the 'Persians' came in large numbers after around 1810. However they had been imported by Indian's long before then, and possibly before European's had arrived, because they turn up in accounts on ships captured on the coast. Something must have happened to drop the price of horses quite dramatically at this time because otherwise the artillery would not have been able to afford the new horse batteries that were formed at that time. Some while ago I was reading some accounts from the 1770's and I was amazed at how expensive horses were relative to men. It is suggested that one of the reasons why Indian irregular cavalry were reluctant to charge home against Sepoy battalions, was that the horses they were riding were often their main capital investment, and unlike earlier intra Indian wars which were generally fought hand to hand, and horses suffered relatively few casualties. When faced with charging cavalry the soldiers general hit the horses with their musket shots, if only because the horses were such big targets relative to their riders. Thus it was that the Pindaris risked losing main source of income in a moment, and would be faced with a very long walk home. Arab horses were given as gifts by local rulers in the Gulf, and I expect his had happened directly to Indian rulers, especially as many of them had Arab bodyguards and elite troops in their households. In 1833, John Croft Hawkins, one of my 4 x gt uncles was off Muscat in his Bombay Marine Cruizer. He saw smoke coming from the town, which was caught in a terrific fire, which had gotten out of control and was quickly destroying the town. He landed his sailors and blasted down houses in the fires path with gunpowder, creating a fire break. The sailors brought the fire under control. The ruler of Muscat was so grateful that he gave Hawkins a sword (which is preserved in the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich) and some Arab horses. Quite how these were fitted into a small warship, I have no idea. John Hawkins took them to Bombay and then sent them onto his brother, a vicar at Rivenhall in Essex, were they established the basis of a stud. Apparently he gave some of the offspring to Queen Victoria, so it is quite possible that their genes are in some Arab bloodline today. Nick Balmer

Hi Nick Agree with all you say. Most illuminating. John Company adopted or adapted most Mughal practices (incl the land revenue system of Rao Raja Todar Mal, which continues practically unchanged to date in India). You have rightly pointed out the one of these systems that remained peculiar to the Indian Army (till WW I) - the silladar system or irregular cavalry in which the regiments were run like joint stock companies, probably because the parsimonious Board of the Company did not authorise investment in more regular cavalry regiments (because of the surprisingly high prices of 'heavier' horses). (Even today, just three cavalry regiments of the Indian Army trace their lineage to 'regular' cavalry, that too Madras cavalry, not counting the President's Bodygaurd). As regards the paradox that though India had a cavalry tradition going back at least two millenia before the arrival of the British and yet the paucity of mounts; it may have been because there was no tradition of maintaining large standing armies. Upto the Mughals, it was the subject rulers and mansabdars who provided the bulk of an army during a campaign (apart from mercenaries). The almost continuous warfare (spanning nearly a century) engaged in by the Company esp. after Plassey, needed a large standing army and would have meant great shortage and hence large imports of remounts into India. Even after 1857, cavalry regiments despite having their own stud farms would regularly send contingents to Calcutta where the Australian Walers were regularly imported for service in Indian cavalry regiments. Sudhir Arora

Of course there were horses of the 'native' Indian breeds existing across the centuries as a backdrop to all tha above. Some were not really suitable as military tools (too small or -probably - too few and specifically connectd to ,say, mountainous regions), but others were eminenty suitable (the precursors of the modern-day Marwaris, Kathyawaris... See more... See more, Sindhis and others) and used by the Rajputs and other warriors to fight against the Moghuls. There were also some Deccani horses which have (amongst others) now disappeared. Unfortunately, the British rejected these "country bred" horses so needed to find horses more 'suitable' for their purposes. They began to breed thoroughbreds crossed with all sorts to get their riding hrses. For their vanners, in 19th Century they imported Walers from Australia. Anything to not use the breeds most suitable to the conditions. Seems crazy. Luckily the British didn't quite manage to wipe-out the breeds altogether, and now a dedicated band of breeders is restoring the wonderful Marwari and Kathyaiwari breeds. This is an over simplification of quite a complex story. And nearly everything has got some arab in it!

definitely before Europeans; NB Central Asia.

Thanks Philppa....you have clarified my basic doubt.

Hello There is a very interesting chapter at the back of this book about the British breeding programme in India. As in so many things, the British brought their conceptions of what a military horse should look like to India. It was quite different to the sort of horse that a Rohilla or Pindari would have used in war. We tended to go for size and weight carrying capacity. Our horses however must have suffered from needing lots of feedstuffs. I expect that Indian horses were actually far better adapted to forage from the countryside than ours were. Indian horses where obviously very good for the purposes of crossing long stretches of ground. My 4 x gt uncle was stuck in about 1824 in a stand off with the Rajah of Kolarpur's forces who were intent of challenging him and the other Brits. The Rajah had chosen his moment well at the height of the monsoon, when the EIC army did not want to leave Belgaum. T Baber's own escort of local levies were able to take a message 60 miles through the night in heavy rain, and return on the following morning. History doesn't record if it was the same horse. Just that he was incredible grateful for the ability of the messenger to cover the distance at night in the rain over the Cotton soils. I personally have no knowledge of India horse breeds, so I would be fascinated to see pictures of some of these breeds. I am aware that Philippa who knows much more about horses than, has been fortunate enough to visit several stud farms in India. My maternal grandfather was a vet and served throughout the First World War with the Guards Division. He wrote extensively about horses and breeding. He was very critical indeed about the skills of the senior vets from the generation who had come into service at and around the Boer War. That war had exposed the appalling bad Army management practises with horses. Many thousands of horses had died from bad practises, poor feed and lack of experience of the riders. He said that he had had huge rows about horse management practises with his senior officers. He had been veterinary college trained in horse medicine. Most veterinary officers before 1914 had had no formal college training, being trained on the job. For example. It was normal to try in France to get fit horses into sheds in winter. If they got cough or became ill, they were taken outside. Being ill, they just got worse. He argued that fit horses should be kept outside, and only ill horses should go inside. In that way the infections were confined, and ill horses benefited by the shelter, which was never enough to go around. As the war went on, and horses were lost in huge numbers, changes were accepted, and the older vets were pushed to one side. I expect that these sorts of defects in horse management were probably commonplace in the military in India before 1918. I have never seen it recorded, but I expect there were huge losses of horses in some of the longer distance campaigns, like those in 1817 to 1819 against the Mahrattas, or Roses campaign in 1858. Presumably, there must have been highly skilled Indian horse "vets" in armies like those of the Moguls or Mahrattas? Does anybody know about them? Nick Balmer

Sudhir and Nick : Such engaging and interesting posts. Thank you for those military insights too.

I wonder if our dear Frank Gardner....the descendant of Col.William Linaeus Gardner of the legendary Gardners Horse could give further insights on this suddenly interesting topic.

The following Facebook Group has just been recommended to me. http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=101660963207784&ref=ts It has excellent photos of many indigenous Indian horse breeds.

Yes Subbiah indeed whilst reading Nick’s posts, I recalled having read in Col Gardner's letters the mention of Moorcroft on a few occasions. What is rather interesting is that when Moorcroft did make his trip to the Himalayas he had with him a companion by the name of Hyder Young Hearsey...Hearsey was another daredevil adventurer and was fond pf painting. Hyder married Col. Gardner's wife's younger sister Zahur-ul-Nissa begum from Cambay. Hyder also fought along with Col. Gardner in the Nepal wars of 1814-1816 and was captured early on at Kali Kumaon and imprisoned in the fort of Almora till it was captured by Col. Gardner's forces...read about it in my book. I am going to post an interesting painting of Hyder's, with him and Moorcroft Tibet astride Yaks...in disguise as locals. There is alot about horses in his letters...I see if I can come up with something.