Will Freedom Survive Victory?
Commentary by Nancy G. Lee
Jan. 5, 1945

Another year of war has drawn to a close. Volumes of rhetoric will be written about the awful destruction of the past twelve months. Puny efforts will be made to describe the suffering of the men of the armed forces, who face death day after day, year after year, far from home and loved ones. Actually, there are no words that can adequately sum up 1944, the most critical year in American history.

The astounding thing about the home front is the fact that, except for the families of service men, it lives normally and has no conception of the horrors of war. Communiqué³ from Washington on the price of some article or some trivial item fill countless columns in the press. Social security planning, full employment and dizzy talk of a contented postwar world, with all the worries assumed by a benevolent government, arise from the American scene like haze from a swamp. Clear, unqualified thought on the subject of personal freedom is almost totally lacking.

Our people could lose everything of material value as the price of victory in this war and still have a bright future. However, let too much government destroy the freedom and hope of the individual to build again and there is no future. The right of ownership is more important than ownership itself.

Horse Shows Join Racing
Commentary by Nancy G. Lee
Feb. 16, 1945

To all exhibitors and spectators has come the word that horse shows are now on the banned list. To the sportsmen throughout the country, this has come as an added blow, but like the spirit in which the racing people responded, the horse show sportsmanship will like-wise come to the front.

Most of the larger shows have already been discontinued for the duration, and our early conception of this latest ban is that the shows which draw entries from a distance are definitely out. The local shows will have to make application for a permit to the Office of Defense Transportation and prove beyond a doubt that entries will not be brought to the show in vans or by train. Only after a thorough investigation by the O.D.T. will such shows be issued a permit.

Horsemen And The Army
Pfc. Louis A. Nelson
March 9, 1945

Sgt. Laddie Andahazy, popular young horseman from Cleveland and owner of the good open jumper, Blitzkrieg, recently sent home to his
family a captured German cavalry saddle among many other souvenirs.

Laddie, who is fighting in Germany now, was awarded the Purple Heart for wounds received on D-Day. He has no comment to make regarding the captured saddle, but the writer understands there’s quite a story behind it.

War Affects Army Breeding Program
May 4, 1945

The War Department reports a total of 8,570 foals produced in 1944 from mares bred to Army stallions under the Army Horse Breeding Program.

Of this number, 8,174 were sired by Thoroughbreds, 175 by Arabians, 171 by Morgans, 36 by Saddlebreds, 21 by Anglo-Arabians, and 1 by a Cleveland Bay.

The 1944 production was approximately the number forecast by the Remount Service. This forecast was based on a sharp curtailment of breeding activities by horse producers since the first year of the war. A still smaller crop of foals, probably about 7,000, is anticipated for 1945.

The downward trend is revealed by breeding statistics for the past four years. They are: mares used to Army stallions, 18,807 in 1941; 18,258 in 1942; 14,240 in 1943; and 11,711 in 1944.

Lt. Carlyle Cochran Tells Of Seeing Nero, Famous Olympic Horse
June 15, 1945

Excerpts from a letter written to Miss Julia Whiting of Middleburg, Va., by her nephew, Lt. Carlyle Cochran:

As I was talking to this German officer, what do you suppose he said? “Do you like horses? The Spanish Riding School from Vienna has moved down here because of the bombing.” Nothing would do but we inspect the stable immediately and there were all the famous Lipizzans which you have heard so much about–40 of them–and the famous equitation horse, Nero, which won the Olympics several years ago in Berlin.

The old riding master who used to work for Franz Joseph and whose signed picture I am enclosing, took me all over the stable, and what a fine lot of horses they are. Some were in straight stalls and a bit thin, but most were in excellent condition. The whole affair was darned interesting and to put it mildly, I enjoyed it. They even put on a bit of an exhibition the next day. As I was leaving, a general arrived from Corps and wanted to put on an exhibition for General Patton when he got there.

Please take care of this photo for me. It has the name of the horse on the back and the old riding master of the Vienna riding school is mounted on him.

American Sportsmen Are Serving Their Country Throughout The World
James Reynolds
July 6, 1945

Now, since the American sportsman is so scattered among the islands of the Pacific, where the Fighting Front still flourishes, and in occupied countries of the Middle Europe, the weekly issues of The Chronicle reach far into the highways and by-ways of the Atlantic jungle, the ruined and dust-swept cities of Germany, Holland, France, Russia, and England.

One sees, increasingly, in each issue of this friendly sporting paper, letters and short articles sent in by men stationed in many different countries. These personal experiences, usually in some way connected with horses, are enthusiastically received. One friend of mine, an erstwhile steeplechase rider of brilliant performance (and will be again we hope, and soon) writes me that The Chronicles I have sent him to the icy-gray Aleutians have been “like a bull-session at college. Feel as if I were talking to a lot of the fellows I know about a subject that comes first with me at all times. Horses.”

Army Fights With Horses
Sidney L. Loveless, Major Cav.
Aug. 10, 1945

Winning the war in Italy called for a tremendous assemblage of men and machines, but their employment did not diminish the contribution made in that theatre by the Remount Troopers.

The mountainous terrain in Italy made the need of animals apparent. The Germans for many years have used the horse successfully in modern warfare. An idea of the number of animals used in the German Army can be gained from the fact that the table of organization for a single German Infantry division calls for 4,000 animals, more than twice the number of animals for one of our cavalry divisions.

They used horses, not necessarily because of a shortage of gasoline and oil, as some mechanized experts would like to have us believe, but because the horse is the logical source of power and transportation under certain circumstances unfavorable to motors.

From the date of activation of the Remount organization until V-E day, approximately 15,000 animals passed through its hands.

So This Is It
Commentary by Nancy G. Lee
Aug. 17, 1945

So this is it, after all these weary months and years of interminable waiting, the day has come when once again Americans can say, “It’s over! Our war is won.”

There is a moment of wild rejoicing, a moment when nothing else matters but the thought that those who are away will soon be coming back, that there will be days of peace, days of quiet, days without wartime restrictions. Those who have lost sons and brothers will sigh and shake their heads, for this rejoicing hurts so many who have had to give so much to bring this day here. With these thoughts comes that sober second thought, there are so many threads to be resewn, threads thrown aside in the haste of war and now to be unraveled and the pieces put together.

The great danger to America is in its great success, for it is so easy with success to grow careless, to forget or be heedless of the dangers of tomorrow when today seems so all right with all the world. That sober second thought brings too the realization that America is now the watchdog of the world, that on our heads more than on any other country lies the responsibility of another war which this time might well be a war that would end all wars with the destruction of all mankind.

To horsemen V-J day means more than to most for the restrictions imposed on sport were so crippling, so confining, as to make an uphill struggle that defied all the powers of persistence, ingenuity and good sportsmanship.

Over this moving scent of sport, the shadow of war has cast such a lengthy shadow that it is hard to visualize what peace means. It means horse shows, with transportation, gasoline, tires, freedom to go racing, freedom to go hunting, freedom to put a horse in a van and take him across state lines to any competition his owner may wish and have the pleasure of seeing his skill, his fitness, his obedience tested and proven as his owner has wished that he would do.

There is only one sober and reflecting thought that must remain in everyone’s heart: This war must be forever a lesson to all of us in all its grim and tragic phases, that never can Americans, whether they be the nation’s most successful sportsmen or the man who works to clean the street, never can this country forget that “we have just begun to fight, to keep the peace.”

Tour Of Duty
Oct. 4, 1945

Dear Sir:
In the last three years, I have enjoyed The Chronicle to no end. It has kept me informed in the doings of the horse world and of many of my friends. I think as a horse journal, it can’t be beat.

On my tour of duty, my copies have been read by many in the following countries: Panama, New Caledonia, New Hebrides, Guadalcanal, Russell Island, Canton Isle, Oahu, Africa, Italy, France, Ulethi, Enewetok, Guam, Okinawa. I have made some life long friends both to myself and The Chronicle.

Sincerely yours,
Syd. Sterner, Warrant Officer
Madison, N.J.

Mr. Stewart’s Foreword
Dec. 7, 1945

Mr. Stacy B. Lloyd, Jr., publisher of The Chronicle, has asked me, as President of the Masters of Fox-hounds Association, to write a foreword to this issue, which contains the Roster of hunts.

For the first time in four years, the foxhunting season has started in peace time, and never before has Thanksgiving Day, which occurred last Thursday, Nov. 22nd, meant more to each one of us. I cannot help but feel that as the years pass by, the realization will become clearer and more profound that we were much closer to subjugation than we now think, and that what actually saved us was that gallant and invincible stand of our British cousins at the crucial and critical time.

No matter what intense sympathy we feel for friends, whose dear ones have paid the supreme sacrifice, we know life must go on with all its many ramifications, and that foxhunting, like all other sports, must carry on.

It is but natural that we, who are the devotees of the noble sport, should stop and give thought as to how plans can be made for its future welfare. This we know would be the wish of those gallant boys who loved the sport and who lie at peace somewhere in Europe and the Pacific area.