British officer, Captain Mercer, wrote about their horsecare: "These beautiful animals they had brought with them ... and I shall never forget the grief and indignation with which they parted with them. Affection for, and care of, his horse, is the trait, par excellence, which distinguishes the German dragoon from the English." The German would sell everything to feed his horse; the English would sell his horse itself for spirit (...). In the Peninsula the only means of enforcing some attention to their horses amongst our English regiments was to make every man walk and carry his saddlebags whose horse died or was ill." The cavalry of KGL followed the pattern of treating their mounts first, grooming, trimming, saddle and hoof cleaning, and so forth, so it kept their horses in great condition when many of the British cavalrymen (but not the Guard) were walking because their neglected horses had broken down or were sold for alcohol.
This is said that the German cavalryman would give his last food to his horse and be hungry himself. But it was not the same case with the English cavalry who even sold horses' forage. During the campaigns in Spain and Portugal the losses in the KGL cavalry were approx. half of the English. The heavy loss of horses was not as big problem for the English as for others, thanks to British naval supremacy and strong economy. Excellent horses were send regularly from Great Britain to the cavalry campaigning in Spain. The Germans knew that eating green crops was very dangerous for the horses. Some of the British cavalrymen didn't really care. According to Sir E. Wood ("Cavalry in the Waterloo Campaign" 1992): "The British cavalry arrived shortly before nightfall and bivouacked in fields of standing wheat and barley, the leading brigade on the battlefield and the reminder at Nivelles, and many horses died from having eaten the indigestible green crops."
