Debbie introduces Savanna to the irreplaceable role horses played in WWI. We talk about the Christmas Truce, about Warrior, about Dorothy Brooke, and there may even be a dad joke thrown in there. This one is a sad one and as we approach Christmas, we remember the things that matter, making the Christmas Truce of 1914 an important story to share.

When WWI began in 1914, horses had been essential to warfare for 4,000 years. But the machine gun changed everything. Just months into the war, half a million horses were dead—yet on Christmas Eve, something miraculous happened in the trenches. This episode tells the story of the Christmas Truce of 1914, a real war horse named Warrior who beat impossible odds, and Dorothy Brooke's mission to save forgotten war horses that sparked a movement still protecting working equines worldwide.

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PRIMARY SOURCES

Brown, Malcolm, and Shirley Seaton. Christmas Truce: The Western Front December 1914. Pan Grand Strategy Series, Pan Books, 1984. Revised ed. 1994.

Seely, General Jack. My Horse Warrior. Hodder & Stoughton, 1934. Reprinted as Warrior: The Amazing Story of a Real War Horse, Racing Post, 2011.

Hayter-Menzies, Grant. Dorothy Brooke and the Fight to Save Cairo's Lost War Horses. McFarland & Company, 2017.

"British Army Veterinary Service, 1914-1918." Official War History, British Veterinary Service. Government Archives, 1920.

"Horses in The Great War." University of Kansas Medical Center, School of Medicine, Department of History and Philosophy of Medicine, kumc.edu/school-of-medicine/academics/departments/history-and-philosophy-of-medicine/archives/wwi/essays/veterinary-medicine/horses.html. Accessed 15 Dec. 2025.

"Horses in World War I." Imperial War Museum Collections and Archives, iwm.org.uk. Accessed 15 Dec. 2025.

"The Christmas Truce." Imperial War Museum, iwm.org.uk/history/the-real-story-of-the-christmas-truce. Accessed 15 Dec. 2025.

"Christmas Truce." Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., britannica.com/event/The-Christmas-Truce. Accessed 15 Dec. 2025.

"Our History." The Brooke, thebrooke.org/about-us/our-history. Accessed 15 Dec. 2025.

"Warrior: The Real War Horse." Warrior War Horse Official Site, warriorwarhorse.com. Accessed 15 Dec. 2025.