136,000 Australian horses ‘walers’ were sent overseas during World War 1 with only 1 horse returning: ‘Sandy’. Sandy initially belonged to Major General Sir William Bridges who passed away at sea from wounds received at Gallipoli. Between 1915-16 Sandy continued on to work in Egypt then France. In October 1917 the then Minister of Defence called for Sandy to return to Australia. After a lengthy quarantine Sandy came home in September 1918. Sandy enjoyed his retirement years on the greener pastures of Maribyrnong before being humanely euthanized due to increasing blindness and frailty in May 1923.
