Grant Hayter-Menzies - The Lost War Horses of Cairo

A tribute to a courageous woman who worked to reduce suffering. Dorothy Brooke had to be both compassionate and brave to go to faraway places to help horses.

TEMPLE GRANDIN, author of Animals Make Us Human

The legacy of Dorothy Brooke is extraordinary. Her work was inspired in part by another wonderful woman, the founder of World Horse Welfare, Ada Cole. Together they inspired the transformation of the lives of so many animals for the better. This is a story that is truly worthy of being told.

ROLY OWERS, chief executive of World Horse Welfare

A story of deep connection, compassion, empathy, and love. Thanks to the author for making Dorothy Brooke visible, and for taking the time to tell us about a most amazing and compassionate woman.

MARC BEKOFF, author of The Animals Agenda: Freedom, Compassion, and Coexistence in the Human Age

For more than six thousand years, horses have given their flesh, their strength, their patience, and above all their spirit to the human enterprise. But beyond facilities needed to further exploit these gifts, humans have given surprisingly little back. Grant Hayter-Menzies movingly recovers the life of a determined and resourceful woman who dedicated herself to the rescue of horses.Dorothy Brooke paid a bit back, changing the lives of many thousands of worthy horses, donkeys, and mules then and since.

DR. PAMELA KYLE CROSSLEY, coauthor of The Earth and Its Peoples

This lovingly researched, evocative biography of Dorothy Brooke proves her a heroine not just to the battered and beaten old war horses she saved in 1930s Cairo but to those who continue her legacy today.

SUSANNA FORREST, author of If Wishes Were Horses: A Memoir of Equine Obsession

A galloping tale of the intertwined histories of the last days of the British Empire in Egypt, the politics of human-animal relationships, and an organization whose work continues to this day.

ALAN MIKHAIL, professor of history at Yale University and author of The Animal in Ottoman Egypt

This book is a superb tribute to Dorothy Brooke and to her belief that such a charitable venture would form a fitting part of a War Memorial.Utterly compelling.

JOANNA LUMLEY, actress and advocate for human rights and animal welfare

In honor of Cupid and of all the horses, mules, and donkeys whose heroism never faltered in battles they did nothing to cause

In defense of all the animals who still today find themselves caught in the unending crossfire of human discord

In memory of my parents

To Rudi, with love

Forty percent of the authors royalties will be donated to the Brooke Hospital for Animals

A Soldiers Kiss

Only a dying horse! Pull off the gear,

And slip the needless bit from frothing jaws,

Drag it aside there, leaving the roadway clear,

The battery thunders on with scarce a pause.

Prone by the shell-swept highway there it lies

With quivering limbs, as fast the life-tide fails,

Dark films are closing oer the faithful eyes

That mutely plead for aid where none avails.

Onward the battery rolls, but one there speeds

Heedless of comrades voice or bursting shell,

Back to the wounded friend who lonely bleeds

Beside the stony highway where he fell.

Only a dying horse! He swiftly kneels,

Lifts the limp head and hears the shivering sigh

Kisses his friend, while down his cheek there steals

Sweet pitys tear, Goodbye old man, goodbye.

No honours wait him, medal, badge or star,

Though scarce could war a kindlier deed unfold;

He bears within his breast, more precious far

Beyond the gift of kings, a heart of gold.

HENRY CHAPPELL

CONTENTS

ILLUSTRATIONS

Following page 78

FOREWORD

Anyone who knows my work with and love for equines also knows my core principleto leave the world a better place, not only for animals but for people, too. Because without our care, the animals who delight us, who serve us, cannot be healthy or happy.

Yet too many working horses, mules, and donkeys around the world are neither. Thats why I support the work of Brooke, as a Global Ambassador and as a man who loves horses.

I feel a synergy with Brooke, which works to ease the suffering of working equines through education of owners as well as through free expert veterinary care for animals.

I also feel a kinship with Mrs. Dorothy Brooke, the organizations founder. Mrs. Brooke saw suffering and did not look the other way. She rolled her sleeves up and got to work.

Brooke still does this, every day, in countries around the globe. As you read Grant Hayter-Menziess moving account of how an English generals wife saved the lost war horses of Cairo, I know you will be as inspired as I am to follow her example and help make the world a kinder, healthier place for the animals who serve us and love us. As Mrs. Brooke well knew, compassion is the key.

Monty Roberts

PREFACE

When I was about seven years old, and out shopping with my mother, I convinced her to take me into a pet store located in a central California town near where we lived. Those were the days when we didnt know everything we do now about these happily named places of unhappy business.

I remember going into this particular store, holding my mothers hand, and walking down a corridor lined with wire boxes. Animals were living in thema charitable word, livingand most seemed to be nervously eating or hiding or both. I stopped at one cage. In it was a fluffy ginger guinea pig. She was smaller than the others hopping and chortling around her. Her gaze seemed lusterless as she sat there, looking out from the cage; she seemed fragile as the larger, more vigorous guinea pigs raced around her. I asked my mother if I might have her. The store owner told me she was a bad choice because she was ill and wouldnt live long. That made me persist. And I began to cry. I knew the little ginger guinea pig was indeed what the man called the runt of the litter. Her dim eyes didnt shine like those of the others. She seemed just to want to go to sleep and never wake up. But I couldnt bear to let that happen. I had to try to save her.

My mother gave in.

Making Rosie happy became the sole reason for my existence. I put her in a cage, for which my father had made her a little wooden house to hide in. I gave her special treatslettuce, fortified biscuits wed bought from the pet store, fresh water every day. I took her out and held her in the sunshine, which made her red fur look strangely pale. I was so sure that my love could help her get betterthat when I came home from school and saw the look on my mothers face, I refused to believe that Rosie was dead. I found her that way this morning, my mother explained. We looked at the little ginger body lying still. Id written ROSIE over the door of her house, but she had died outside it, as if she wanted death to come and claim her with the least amount of trouble. At least she knew you loved her, said my mother.

I was touched, therefore, to find that Dorothy Brooke, whose rescue of elderly and abused former war horses and army mules forms the subject of this book, was also drawn to what her chief veterinarian Dr. Murad Raghib called the destruction casesthe animals purchased from their owners at Dorothys Cairo hospital with the express purpose of giving them a few days of rest, feed, water, and treats, before sending them off to what Dorothy hoped was the leafy green meadow of equine heaven. She knew, to quote Anatole France, that until one has loved an animal, a part of ones soul remains unawakened. And that until one has reached out to help an animal in need, the purpose of that love seems wasted.