The Arabian Horse In History: Maidan Gallant Heart, Iron Will

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ARABIAN HORSE IN H I S TO RY

Maidan — Gallant Heart, Iron Will

by Linda White

Trying to save the guns - British cavalry charging the Afghans to cover the retreat of their artillery.

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ARABIAN HORSE IN H I S TO RY

Maidan — Gallant Heart, Iron Will

by Linda White

n his 1906 classic, The Arab Horse, Spencer Borden writes that Maidan GSB *14 was the last of the great horses that came to England from Arabia through India. Many who knew him, including pioneer British breeders Lady Anne Blunt and the Hon. Miss Ethelred Dillon, regarded him highly, an opinion shared by others who knew him only through his offspring.

aidan, a chestnut, was foaled in 1869 in the Nejd Desert. He was brought to Bombay by Abdur Rhaman in 1871, where he was sold to one Captain Johnstone of the British Army.

Johnstone immediately began racing the 2-year-old colt.

It was inevitable that some prominent patrons of the British turf at the time, in particular titled aristocracy and officers of the army, were sent out to India on postings. During their stay in this country they devoted their leisure time to the establishment and development of racing in India.

Thus, other English officers then in Bombay, also big horse-racing enthusiasts, were much intrigued by the handsome colt. Having seen him at exercise, they unhesitatingly took the long odds that were laid against him by various Australian sports who came to the races, happy to bet against an untried colt. Also, remember that the British presence in India depended primarily on its military strength. British armies during the 18th and 19th centuries were cavalry-oriented. This overwhelming involvement with horses naturally meant that equine sports, like fox-hunting, polo, point-topoint racing, steeplechasing and flat-racing, were very popular. Race meetings were organized as far back as the 18th century. In fact, the Madras Race Club, which celebrated its bicentenary in 1978, was founded before the first Derby was held at Epsom.

In a collection of essays published in Bombay in 1887, Dadabhai Naoroji favorably outlines the benefits of British rule for India. “In the cause of humanity,” he writes, “British rule brought about the abolition of suttee (Editor’s note: Hindu custom that dictated the suicide of a surviving wife on her husband’s funeral pyre) and infanticide, and encouraged the education of both male and female. Freedom of speech, free

“Better to die than be a coward,” the motto of Nepalese fighters known as Gurkhas.

press, better government in the native states, and security of life and property followed, as did freedom from oppression. Loans for railways and irrigation, product development: indigo, tea, coffee and silk, increased exports and telegraphs were added benefits of British rule.” However, others were less delighted with British colonialism.

On December 31, 1600, a group of merchants who had incorporated themselves into the East India Company was given monopoly privileges on all trade with the

Military sports and games at Jellalabad, Afghanistan.

THE ARABIAN HORSE

IN HISTORY

East Indies. The Company’s ships first arrived in India in 1608. An emissary of King James I gained for the British the right to establish a factory in 1615. The British launched a massive expansion of their trading operations in India, and large English communities developed around Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras.

For the next 200 years British territorial expansion was achieved with ruthless efficiency. Major victories were achieved, and finally the subjugation and conquest of the Sikhs in a series of Anglo-Sikh skirmishes led to British occupation over the entirety of India. In 1858 the administration of India became the Crown’s responsibility, only increasing the British Army’s presence.

FORMIDABLE NEPALESE FIGHTERS known as Gurkhas have been fighting as part of the British Army for almost 200 years. “Better to die than be a coward” is their motto. Ironically (or perhaps not),

their emergence coincides with the British East India Company’s increasing colonial ambitions. The British first realized these fierce warriors’ potential at the height of their empire-building.

In their 1812 invasion of Nepal, the British sent a force of 30,000 against 12,000 Gorkhalis, as they were then called, thinking with typical, “Britannia Rules the Waves” mentality that they would take Nepal with little effort. In fact, however, Nepalese Gorkhali warriors fought the British to a standstill. After suffering heavy casualties, the British East India Company signed a hasty peace treaty with Nepal in 1815. This allowed them to recruit soldiers from their former enemy’s ranks. Gurkhas played a major role in the Second Afghan Campaign of 1879-1880.

According to the American registration application for his 1888 chestnut daughter, *Nazli (x Naomi GSB*45, by Yataghan GSB*2102,) Maidan was said

Close-quarter combat with Afghan tribesmen.

to be “Managhi-Hedruj” in strain. This agrees with Afghanistan. This included the famous 480-kilometer Randolph Huntington, who imported *Nazli from (300-mile) forced march from Kabul to Kandahar during England to North America in 1893. That same year Mr. the Second Afghan War (1878-1880).

Huntington also imported *Nimr, a *Nazli son sired “In July 1880,” writes author and historian Garen Ewing by the Al Khamsa Foundation horse *Kismet. Among in his account of the Second Afghan War, “political his other distinctions, the gallant Maidan also is maneuvers were being made to pull British forces out designated an Al Khamsa Foundation horse. of the bubbling cauldron that was Afghanistan.”

No strain is given for Maidan GSB *14 in Two of Ewing’s close ancestors fought with the England’s General Stud Book. The following 72nd Highlanders during the Second Afghan incomplete transfers of ownership are War, sparking the Afghan war researcher’s recorded, however: Maidan was “purchased interest. In fact, his great-great-great uncle of Abd er Rahman, of Bombay, by Colonel was a piper under command of Maidan GSB Francis Brownlow in 1871 ... He was then sold to *14’s owner, Lt. Colonel Francis Brownlow. a Major Brough, who sold him to Captain Ewing’s remarkable historical research about Fisher. He won the Kadir Cup (the blue the Second Afghan War contains much ribbon of pig sticking in India), and was about the 72nd Highlanders. then purchased by Lord Airlie, who “Lt-Col. Brownlow had returned to sold him to the Hon. Eustace Vezey.”

England after the end of the first Spencer Borden’s narrative gives a Afghan campaign, but was recalled more accurate account of what became when hostilities began again,” writes of Maidan when Captain Johnstone Ewing. “Brownlow arrived in Kabul on 3 sold his prize racehorse five years later.

December 1879. Throughout much of that Borden writes that Maidan was bought by month, the British were besieged, and the Lieutenant Colonel Lieutenant Colonel Francis Brownlow of 72nd, led by Brownlow, made many sorties Francis Brownlow the 72nd Highlanders for use as a charger. out of camp to attack the Afghan fighters For the next 12 years Brownlow, who weighed 121 in the surrounding hills. Brownlow was singled out for kilos (266 pounds) with his gear, or “kit,” rode Maidan his leadership in the December, 1879, attack on the in campaigns throughout the mountains of India and Asmai Heights.”

THE ARABIAN HORSE

IN HISTORY

THE AFGHAN WARS saw Queen Victoria bestowing numerous medals and awards, many of them posthumous, to her troops. Sixty-one Distinguished Conduct Medals were awarded, including two with a special bar for the tragic September 1, 1880, encounter at Kandahar. The regiment with the most medals (15) was the 72nd Highlanders. Garen Ewing’s published account of those fateful days is comprehensive: “General Stewart had marched from northern Kabul to Kandahar three months earlier to join Lord Roberts, but by the end of the month the bazaars of Kabul were buzzing with news of a great British defeat in the south—Maiwand,” explains Ewing. “British losses were heavy. The bedraggled survivors retreated into Kandahar, where, within a few days, they were besieged

by Ayub Khan from Herat, a son of the late Amir Sher Ali, who saw himself as rightful ruler of Afghanistan.

“A rescue mission was quickly formulated,” he continues.

“General Roberts would take his best regiments on a forced march from Kabul to Kandahar, while Stewart would oversee the rest of the Kabul garrison back to India. Speed was of the essence as there was no telling in what state the Kandahar garrison was holding out.

With this in mind, Roberts ordered his troops to march as lightly as possible—each soldier would be allowed only 20 to 30 pounds of kit, and no wheeled transport or artillery would be taken.

“Some thought this madness,” he adds. “Ayub’s guns that had been one of the deciding factors at Maiwand, and, worse still, the marching army would be out of communication for most of the time, with no base of operations behind it, and an uncertain strength in both allies and enemy in front.”

The Battle of Kandahar, which took place on September 1, 1880, and at which Ayub Khan was defeated, was the conflict wherein Lt. Col. Brownlow was killed. The British troops, foot soldiers and cavalry went back to Maiwand to bury their dead. No Gurkhas were present with the Maiwand burial party, however. The British left that city and Afghanistan about six months later. Maidan GSB *14’s master was killed in action at Kandahar. This is a passage from Howard Hensman’s account.

“Captain Frome and several men were shot down, and just when the fire was hottest Colonel Brownlow came up. He was on foot and had just entered the watercourse, and was ordering a rush forward to be made when he was struck in the neck by a bullet and mortally wounded. He was dragged a little under cover, but died in a few minutes.”

Brownlow’s tireless charger was sold to a Major Brough, who in turn sold him to Captain Fisher. With Captain Fisher, Maidan won the Kadir Cup, considered India’s highest honor in the dubious sport of pigsticking or hog-hunting—the hunt for wild pig while on horseback, armed with only a lance. This challenge had

The sport of Pig-sticking.

particular significance to the cavalry regiments in India, because it presented a major competition demanding great skill and horsemanship as well as great risk.

Armed with a nine-foot lance, the pig-sticker rode a galloping horse in pursuit of wild boar which had been flushed out of the bush by beaters. The aim was to stick the boar immediately behind the shoulder, so that the spear would pass through the lungs. A 1880 Harper’s New Monthly Magazine stated, “One can scarcely imagine an Englishman so lost to all sense of decency as to commit the loathsome outrage, in Anglo-Indian estimation, of killing a pig by any process except that of pig-sticking.”

THE ARABIAN HORSE

IN HISTORY

Gurkhas

Gurkhas, as they have been come to be called, still carry into battle their traditional weapon–an 18inch long, wickedly curved knife called the kukri.

Custom said that once a kukri was drawn in battle, it had to taste blood. If not, its owner had to slash himself, bathing the knife in his own blood, before returning the kukri to its sheath. Following India’s partitioning in 1947, an agreement among Nepal, India and Britain transferred four Gurkha regiments from the Indian army to the British Army. Since then the Gurkha Brigades, still an integral part of the British Army, have fought for the British all over the world and have won 13 Victoria Crosses, the British military’s highest award for bravery.

72nd Highlanders

The 72nd Highlanders, formerly the 78th Highlanders, were raised in late 18th century Scotland for service against the French. On Jan. 8, 1778, the Earl of Seaforth received a letter of service authorizing him to raise a highland regiment for the King’s service, which he promptly did. On May 15, 1778, the new regiment passed fit for service at Elgin, Morayshire, Scotland.

Within a few months the 72nd Highlanders began what would be more than 100 years of service to the Crown against the French, Dutch, Boers and others in locales from England’s Channel Islands to India, South Africa, Londonderry, Belfast, Maurituis, Australia, Bangalore and Ceylon. While their trademark highland dress, complete with bonnet and trews or kilts for the 72nd’s pipers, was occasionally shed for tropical service, their courage and loyalty never wavered.

More than 250 of their number, including the Earl of Seaforth, were lost at sea during a 1782 voyage to India. They were renumbered as the 72nd (Highland) Regiment when the total number of infantry regiments was reduced to 77. In December of 1823 they were renamed the 72nd Regiment of Foot, or The Duke of Albany’s Own Highlanders, and uniforms of the Royal Stewart tartan and highland bonnet were introduced. They fought on courageously until 1881 when they were merged to become the 1st and 2nd Battalions Seaforth Highlanders. In 1961 the Seaforths merged with the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders to become the Queen’s Own Highlander’s (Seaforth and Camerons), and in 1994 they merged with the Gordon Highlanders to become The Highlanders (Seaforth, Gordons and Camerons). In 2006 they merged with yet more Scottish regiments to become The Royal Regiment of Scotland.

The sport, Harper’s New Monthly declared, was “of inestimable value in developing the manly qualities of the British soldier. The quarry was quite unlike the pigs to which one was accustomed in England. By contrast, their East Indian cousins, armed with long, semicircular tusks, might grow to five feet long and more than three feet tall at the shoulder. In speed they would sometimes rival the fastest Arabian horse. Wild boar in India have been known to attack and put to rout the majestic elephant and the ferocious tiger.”

Apparently unscathed by his encounter with pigsticking, Maidan GSB *14 was next purchased by Lord Airlie. Lt. Col. David Stanley William Ogilvy of the 12th Lancers was the Earl of Airlie, Scotland. Born in 1856, Airlie joined the army in June, 1874, and served in Afghanistan 1878-1879 with the 10th Hussars. Lord Airlie sold the old horse to the Hon. Eustace Vesey, who had served with the 9th Lancers but was not with the regiment when they participated in the march to Kandahar.

It was Vesey who shipped the horse to England.

Maidan’s vessel was to have made the trip via Marseilles, but the ship was commandeered en route and unloaded at Suez. Maidan was pressed into service with an expedition marching to the southern end of the Red Sea. Thus, it happened that the old racehorse and charger had his journey lengthened to the degree that he stood on his feet 100 days, without once lying down, before he reached Marseilles. Capt. Vesey next raced him successfully at Pau, a resort in the Pyrenees popular with the British for its mild climate, before sending him to England. In 1890 he was described in the London Live Stock Journel, as “fresh and well, with immense bone below the knee (he measured eight inches) and as clean in the legs as a four year old, notwithstanding the fact that he was hunted in Suffolk last year.”

Astonishingly, at the age of 22 years, Maidan won a challenging steeplechase in England. He was still absolutely sound the following year, when he broke a leg and had to be euthanized. While in England, he sired 10 registered purebred offspring, three of whom were imported to North America. In addition to daughter *Nazlie, imported from England in 1893 by Randolph Huntington, the Maidan son *Ras Aloula, a bay stallion foaled in 1893, was imported to the United States in the year of his birth by J.A.P. Ramsdell. In 1878 Spencer Borden imported the Maidan daughter *Raksh, a foal of 1892, from England. Both *Ras Aloula AHR 231 and *Raksh AHR 243 were bred by the Hon. Miss Ethelred Dillon. They were out of full sisters Roumia GSB *131 and Rakusheh GSB *160, both sired by desert-bred stallion El Emir GSB *22, and out of the mare Raschida GSB *82 (Kars GSB *23 x Wild Thyme GSB *40.) Maidan was gone, but his influence would endure.

All images courtesy of the Garen Ewing Second Anglo-Afghan War Collection.

Visit www.angloafghanwar.info to learn more about this conflict.