The Pet Tree House - Where Pets Are Family Too : Stallions The Pet Tree House - Where Pets Are Family Too : Stallions
Showing posts with label Stallions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Stallions. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Why US Troops Risked Their Lives in WWII to Rescue Horses Kidnapped by Nazis


 “Get them. Make it fast.”

In the chaotic last days of the Second World War, Gen. George Patton’s terse command set off a remarkable secret mission to save a group of priceless stallions and brood mares kidnapped on the orders of Adolf Hitler.

The directive might have appeared foolhardy and risky to an outsider but not to the small group of American and German soldiers who put their hostilities aside, desperate to save the world’s most valuable equine prisoners of war, which were being held deep inside enemy lines in occupied Czechoslovakia.

Minutes after Patton’s order, Hank Reed, a Virginia horseman who was the commanding officer of the Second Cavalry in Europe, dispatched one of his soldiers, an accomplished rider from Tennessee, to team up with a Nazi veterinarian. Under cover of darkness, they trekked miles through dense forests and battle-scarred villages to capture the horses and place them under American protection — before the arrival of advancing Russian troops.

The valuable Lipizzaner horses — snow-white and blue-black, many of them Olympic dressage champions — had been stolen from the countries that the Nazis occupied during the war. In addition to gold, jewelry and artwork, the Nazis seized the valuable horses from Poland, Yugoslavia, Italy and Austria.

The Nazis’ goal, according to author Elizabeth Letts in her new book “The Perfect Horse” (Ballantine), was to breed the Lipizzaner with German horses in order to create an equine specimen that was worthy of the German master race.

Horses were central to the Nazi propaganda effort, and Hitler was often shown as “the man who put Germany back in the saddle,” according to Letts. In fact, as soon as he ordered the invasion of Poland in September 1939 and unleashed the grisly chain of events that plunged the world into war, Hitler had important plans for the country’s horses. As Letts writes, “In the blueprint forged for its occupation, a plan was put into place for the ‘rebuilding of Poland’s horse-breeding industry’ for the ‘interest of the German nation.’ ”

To read more on this story, click here: Why US troops risked their lives in WWII to rescue horses kidnapped by Nazis

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Monday, June 6, 2011

The Beauty Of The Horse


As a child I always wanted a horse. Once my parents explained to me that I could not have a horse living in the city (Washington, DC)…I settled for a dog that finally had a litter of 6 pups.  My mother told me that after the pups where here, I told her, “you should have let me have a horse!”.

The closest that I have ever gotten to a horse was a pony ride, and watching the series, “Mr. Ed”. Mr. Ed the talking equine star of the 1960s television series, was a golden palomino. He learned an enormous amount of tricks for his role, including answering a telephone, opening doors, writing notes with a pencil, and unplugging a light.

What Is A Horse:
A horse is a large hoofed mammal (Equus caballus) having a short-haired coat, a long mane, and a long tail. It has been domesticated since ancient times and used for riding and for drawing or carrying loads.

Horse Facts:
Horses are social animals and will get lonely if kept alone
Horses sleep longer in the summer than in the winter
Horses generally dislike the smell of pigs
Horses teeth never stop growing. You can tell if a horse is cold by feeling behind their ears. If that area is cold, so is the horse.





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