Horses in the Napoleonic Wars

Murat merely demanded that his squadrons should ‘walk on the march and trot in the presence of the enemy’; Wellington’s cavalry always charged at full gallop – even if they sometimes got out of hand.

A witness of one of the most celebrated charges of the period, that of the Royal Scots Greys at Waterloo, described how different it was to the attack à outrance depicted in Scotland for Ever.

In reality, the regiment came over the crest of the Mont St-Jean ridge, passed through their own infantry, and almost immediately ran into the advancing French, so that the ‘actually walked over this Column’.

[3] Charges were undertaken across clear, rising ground, with the cavalry deploying in line or column, and often accompanied by horse artillery.

Otherwise, the infantry's only defence was to form square: a tight four-sided formation, presenting walls of muskets and bayonets, each side protecting the others' flanks.

Agility was important; the ideal artillery horse was 15 to 16 hands high, strongly built, but able to move quickly.

Horse artillery was generally used to support the cavalry units, and so came under the command of cavalry divisions, but in some battles, such as at Waterloo, the horse artillery were used by the British as a rapid response force, successfully repulsing attacks from the French, and assisting the infantry recapture of La Haye Sainte from the French.

[16] As regimental structures developed, many units selected horses of uniform type, some, such as the Royal Scots Greys and 2nd Dragoon Guards (Queen’s Bays), even specifying colour.

[17] Regional armies developed preferences, such as the British 15 hh hunters, the Central Germans' Hanoverians, the Prussians’ Trakehner horses from East Prussia and the Cossacks' steppe ponies.