12 ANZAC DAY RACE DAY ‘The ideal horse is the seven-eighths thoroughbred of this type, blessed with a quiet temperament.’ Gullett believed that ‘the “great horses” of the regiments … are in every case horses which might have been metropolitan hurdle racers or steeplechasers’. Other writers noted that sons and grandsons of Cups and classics winners were among the Australian Walers in Palestine and the Western Front. The thoroughbred is a large component in the ancestry of what is considered a Waler today. The Waler is now treasured as a special breed whose story is guarded by two organisations, the Waler Horse Society of Australia and the Waler Horse Owners and Breeders Association of Australia. The increasingly popular Australian Stock Horse is related to both Waler and the Thoroughbred, and also has its own stud book and association. Waler, Thoroughbred, War Horse: praised, mourned, not forgotten. Sandy was the only horse to return to Australia after the First World War, brought home at the request of Major General Sir William Throsby Bridges KCB CMG, Commander of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) and the 1st Australian Division from 1914 to 1915. It had been General Bridges’ dying wish that his beloved horse be brought back to Australia to live out his remaining years in peace. (Image source: Australian War Memorial) The general declaration is that the nearer a Waler is to a thoroughbred – provided of course that this is a horse of good bone and substance and not a weed – the better he is for active service.
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