The horse, Warrior, remains the true equine hero of 1914-1918.” The Sunday Times points out: 'The star of Spielberg's film is fictional. The movie War Horse is a 2011 American war film directed and co-produced by Steven Spielberg, based on Michael Morpurgo's 1982 novel of the same name. Up to 12 horses were required to pull heavy artillery. Thousands of horses pulled field guns, brought ammunition and supplies to front lines, hauled feed and carried battle casualties to field hospitals. Horses and mules were more reliable and cheaper forms of transport. Military vehicles were relatively new inventions and prone to problems. Many horses were initially used as traditional cavalry horses, but their vulnerability to modern machine gun and artillery fire meant their role changed to transporting troops and ammunition. One-quarter of all horse deaths were due to gunfire and gas exhaustion and disease claimed the rest. By the end of the war, Canada had provided well over 10 per cent of the horses used on the Western Front.

Canada sent about 130,000 horses overseas during WWI. Between 19, the US sent almost one million horses overseas, and another 182,000 were taken overseas with American troops. This shortfall required the United States to help with remount efforts, even before it had formally entered the war. Over the course of the war, between 500 and 1,000 horses were shipped to Europe every day.

Another 115,000 were purchased compulsorily under the Horse Mobilization Scheme. At the start of the war, the British Army had 25,000 horses. Eight million horses, donkeys and mules died in World War 1 (WWI), three-quarters of them from the extreme conditions they worked in.

War horse michael