A poignant example of the collateral damage of war was the near devastation of the Iraqi National Herd of Arabian horses during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Owned by the country under Saddam Hussein, the herd had numbered more than 100 and served as a link to the thousands of years of equine history entwined with the region’s Bedouin heritage. Believed to have been moved to one of Hussein’s outlying residences near the start of combat operations, many of the horses were killed or stolen after the property, which was suspected as a hideout for the dictator, was struck by coalition forces in 2003.

Members of the U.S. Army’s 354th Civil Affairs Unit were able to locate or reclaim 19 of the horses, eventually taking them to the Baghdad Zoo. The 354th and a somewhat overwhelmed Dr. Wasseem Wali, the zoo’s decidedly non-equine veterinarian, cared for the animals as best they could until the 1st Cavalry Division’s Horse Cavalry Detachment, based in Fort Hood, Texas, arrived.

Historically, the HCD had functioned in a ceremonial capacity for the Army, preserving the United States’ cavalry traditions and performing in everything from Presidential inaugurations to state fairs. In a modern age of Humvees and tanks, this situation called for the specialized skills they were uniquely suited to provide.

An Army Of Compassion

Led by Staff Sgt. Robert “Rip” Bussell, headquarters deputy commandant, 1st Cavalry Division, the HCD taught Wali and other Iraqi workers the basics of horse care and handling.

All of the horses’ equipment was also destroyed or stolen, so photographs of the animals taken soon after the HCD’s arrival showing awkward, ill-fitting halters fashioned from knotted remnants of rope and webbing.

Soldiers reached into their own pockets to purchase whatever shoddy supplies they could find in the war-torn country to make the horses more comfortable. They began with small efforts to provide for the animals, such as building small paddocks for the two stallions that had been tied to trees in an effort to separate them from the other horses, according to an article written on Sept. 29, 2004, by U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Susan German, of the 122nd Mobile Public Affairs Department.

“There’s a lack of knowledge on some of the modern equine skills, such as medications, training techniques and doctrine that can be used for the animals,” Bussell told German. “We’re trying to get them as much information as we can to make a better future for the animals and the people here.”

While the HCD was beginning their equine mission in Iraq, Ed Littlefox Copeland, a Native American traditionalist and horseman from Winston Salem, N.C., had been searching for news about the fate of the National Herd.

“My uncle Bill was a civil engineer with Standard Oil, and he spent about 25 years in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq. He was not a horseman when he left here, but he was when he got back,” said Copeland. “He stayed with the Bedouins there out in the field, and they introduced him to horses. When he came home, he’d show us pictures and tell us stories, mostly about the horses.”

Last September, Copeland read an article in an Army newspaper about the remaining portion of the herd and the HCD’s efforts to help them. He got an e-mail contact for Bussell through a friend in the Army Rangers and sent a query about the Arabians in late October. “Two days later, I got a reply from Rip Bussell, and we began to talk about the situation,” said Copeland, who soon asked what he could do to help.

Bussell told him of their urgent need for tack and veterinary supplies in mid-November, and on Dec. 18th, the Tack For Iraq website (ww.soquilicenter.org/arab.htm) was launched as a link from a pre-existing charitable/educational site run by Copeland. He posted links and information about Tack For Iraq in as many horse-related message boards and chat rooms as possible, and knowledge of the site spread by word of mouth, with more than 17,000 hits to date from around the world.

Donations arrived from individuals and corporations, such as SmartPak Equine, Source, Southern States, Zilco International, Fort Dodge Animal Health, Bayer, Webster Veterinary Supply, DVM Pharmaceuticals and Veterinary Products Laboratories.

Dr. Cynthia Baker, of the University of Florida Racing Lab, volunteered to help obtain and ship controlled substances such as vaccines and medications with the help of Army veterinarian Cpt. Katherine Knake DVM, who arrived near the end of the HCD’s deployment to take over the mission. Although now not able to work exclusively with the herd, she still serves as the receiving agent for many of the shipments made for the horses.

“Little things like getting a shipping address can turn into a quagmire over there—things nobody thinks about,” explained Copeland, who shipped the first group of supplies, consisting of 33 pounds of drugs and vaccines, on Feb. 7. “Their government being new, their postal system [isn’t reliable]. Everything has to be delivered by courier. Their new barn doesn’t even have an address.”

They’re No Longer Isolated

A large part of the HCD work involved helping build a barn designed by Abu Marwan, an Iraqi agricultural engineer, as part of a future equestrian facility located near the zoo.

“They built a barn that’s the envy of well, the envy of me! It’s absolutely gorgeous,” said Copeland. “The facility is designed in a location so that the horses will be available to the public. They’re considered a national treasure—the bloodlines on these horses are very old.

“These horses represent the beginning of civilization. These horses’ ancestors first took people to each other,” he continued. “The road to civilization is not covered with human footprints. It’s covered with hoofprints.”

With bloodlines tracing back to the desert horses of the Sumerian people of Mesopotamia, horses like these contributed to the establishment of most modern breeds, including the Thoroughbred.

Copeland said that the Iraqi herd and people were so isolated under Hussein’s rule that his horses were not recognized by most international Arabian registries. Several Jordanian breeders are now helping to register the horses so that their valuable bloodlines can help enrich the breed as a whole.

“The barn manager [Muaad Himir] expressed to me that one of the things they want to do is to show the rest of the world they have more to offer than oil,” he said.

“I’ve gotten letters from all over Arabia, from people within [20 miles] of Iraq, sheihks and other wealthy people in a closely knit group of breeders, and the first information they’d been able to get about these horses was from our website. That’s how isolated Iraq had been,” said Copeland. “I don’t care where you are in the world, horse people are horse people. We all live in a common barn. This whole thing has been like a long-distance handshake between horse people.”

“This is a matter of peace,” Bussell wrote on the Tack For Iraq website. “This is a mission of compassion, not politics or bullets.”

Mark Mullen of NBC News created a feature on Tack For Iraq and the Army’s work with the National Herd, which aired March 26, and ABC is currently producing a similar piece, which will also include coverage of the status of the country’s other horses.

“I’d never seen these horses except in pictures or met Rip or seen Dr. Knake before I watched the NBC show. I had never seen these horses moving. I had tears in my eyes watching those horses,” said Copeland. “Seeing them running around—a mare big with foal—seeing them alive and healthier than they were, it just reinforced why it’s worthwhile.”

Tack For Iraq, which can be contacted through the aforementioned website, is still accepting donations of consumables and cash. They have all the adult horse supplies they need at this time, but a new requirement has recently developed—foal equipment.

The herd’s ranks had withered to 19 and now stands 27 strong.