If you would like a book shipped outside the U.S. Through gorgeous photography, The Forgotten Horses reveals the profound spirit of these amazing animals and honors the people and sanctuaries that have offered them a well-deserved home. While many horse books focus on exotic, flashy breeds or famous thoroughbreds, Tony chose to capture the soul of “working-class” equines - many enjoying love and freedom for the first time. To document these remarkable creatures, acclaimed equine photographer Tony Stromberg traveled to sanctuaries across North America. They are here to teach us different measures of value, measures we have almost forgotten. They are enjoying a second chance to live a meaningful and dignified life. Others are wild horses that have been forced off public lands. Some are crossbreeds with no clearly defined bloodline.
They are lame, old, blind, or just unattractive according to modern ideas of beauty. Arras is a medieval town of cobbled streets. The horses in this book were abused, neglected, abandoned, rejected. A confusion of back roads loop and intersect through small villages, where horse-drawn carts are still in use. But thanks to the work of rescue organizations and horse sanctuaries, many of these formerly unwanted horses are enjoying genuine appreciation and newfound freedom. Bonfire, who survived the war, led McCrae’s funeral procession, McCrae’s boots reversed in his stirrups.When horses outlive their usefulness to humans, they are often treated as disposable - auctioned off and sent to the slaughterhouse. Sadly, McCrae died of pneumonia and meningitis in January of 1918. The fate of Mike and Bonneau isn’t known. Mike, a one-eyed terrier, and Bonneau, who accompanied him on patient rounds. McCrae also befriended at least two dogs while overseas.
If you don’t know how to eat carrots, tops and all, you had better learn, but I suppose you are just a boy, and do not know how good oats are. The ones I like best give me biscuits and sugar, and sometimes flowers… Another one sends me bags of carrots. My master is well, and the girls tell me I am looking well, too. Charming letters from Bonfire to McCrae’s nieces and nephews back in Canada were signed with his hoof:ĭid you ever have a sore hock? I have one now. This tenderness spilled over into correspondence. All the hard spots to which one’s memory turns the old fellow has shared, though he says so little about it.” McCrae (BA 1894 UC, MD 1910) wrote: “I have a very deep affection for Bonfire, for we have been through so much together, and some of it bad enough. Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae, known to millions as the author of the war poem “In Flanders Fields,” brought his horse Bonfire with him when he shipped overseas to serve as a field surgeon. In the heat of battle and through the long periods of inactivity, soldiers formed intense bonds with their animals. And the glow-worms? They were piled into glass jars and provided dim light in the trenches for men to read letters, maps and reports. These animal soldiers transported troops and supplies, carried the wounded, detected poisonous gas, hunted rats, delivered messages and offered comfort and companionship to homesick soldiers.
Millions of animals, including horses, mules, dogs, pigeons and even glow-worms served on both sides of the conflict. Thanks to a best-selling book, hit play and Hollywood movie, millions know the tale War Horse, a fictionalized account of the important and dangerous role horses played in the First World War.