Love of animals and horrors of horses at war

THE English are a funny race. I watched a man strip off in the freezing cold and make his way across the ice on his knees to save his dog who had fallen through the ice and a woman stay in water for three hours to save her horse and keep his head above water and yet no-one was allowed to try and save a person in three foot of water.

It does not make sense. The programme on Channel 4 on Sunday evening, The Real War Horse, was heartbreaking.

Uplifting to see many horses returned to their former life on farms after the horror of the war but how shocking that many thousands of the survivors were shot and fed to the French and the Germans.

Unbelievable. I think the most heartbreaking image was to see horses being butchered and a horse standing watching waiting its turn.

Until we have seen the film The War Horse, I did not realise how much we owed to the brave horses who were sent to the horror of the Somme and Paschendale.

How shocking then to learn that they were then shot after the ordeal they had endured.