Light Horse Brigade Memorial

**Artist **Tanya Barlett

**Production date **2005

Media Bronze statue

Statue of light horse soldier and waler horse cast in bronze. Bicentennial Park, Kable Avenue, Tamworth.

Text on plaque:

"The horses were known as Walers.

Only one came back.

In memory of the Waler. Between 1861 and 1931 approximately 500,000 horses were exported from Australia to the Indian Army, the Boer War and Egypt with the Australian Light Horse as remounts. Of all these horses only one returned, a gelding Sandy belonging to Major General Sir William Bridges.

These were mainly bred from Blood, draught and pony breeds. These were the forbears of the Australian Stock Horses and were purchased from properties throughout Australia and in the early stages were mostly purchased from NSW which gave them their name of Walers, coined by the English.

The most famous of all feats of the Waler Horse at war was the Light Horse charge on Beersheba in 1917. The horses were without water for 48 hours in the hot Sinai Desert and then undertook a 4km cavalry charge across the burning plains under Turkish gunfire to take Beersheba and its wells."