Horses

[Waterloo]

One question that has always bothered me since I was paintings Napoleonic figs, is that I never quite now what colours my Napoleonic horses should be.

Can anyone give me information as to the colours of the horses of the cavalry of both the French and British armies at Waterloo.

I know some info, such as the Scots Greys, but other than that, I'm at a loss.

Thanks.

Colin

[Martin]

Hi Colin,
As far as I know on British side:
The Scots Greys had grey horses
The Horse Guards rode on blacks.
The rest rode on whatever was available
Trumpeters rode greys or whites.
On the French side:
The Carabinier regiments on rode blacks.
If the Guard Grenadiers a Cheval rode blacks too, I don't know for sure.
The rest rode on whatever was available.
Trumpeters rode greys or whites.
Hope this helps.

[Peter]

I know only one other regiment who had specific horse colors.

The Empress dragoons => Brown horses.

You're right Colin, not much information to find about the horses. Let's go and find some more information.

Greetings Peter

[Waterloo]

Thanks for that info Martin.

And to Peter, its good to know I'm not the only one who can't find information on this stuff. YAHHHH!!!!1

Thanks

Colin

[Adam]

There were specific regulations for the French specifying horse colours in decending order from the squadrons too, but if there was ever a regiment on the face of the earth where this was the case even nearly I'd be surprised.

[Jarek]

http://napoleonistyka.atspace.com/French_Cavalry.html

(...)During peacetime the regiments of light and line cavalry had color of horses according to squadron :
I Squadron: 1st 'elite' company rode on blacks, 5th company on browns nad blacks
II Squadron: 2nd company rode on bays, 6th company on bays
III Squadron: 3rd company on chestnuts, 7th company on chestnuts
IV Squadron: 4th and 8th company on grays and whites (...)

[Captain Blicero]

I think it would be a mistake to portray any given unit mounted on horses of a uniform color. A sad fact of warfare is the amazing amount of horseflesh (and other flesh) it chews up. Almost no French cavalry returned from Russia, and the French were also known to take poor care of thier mounts. This combined with Napoleons tendancy of using heavy cavalry as shock troops would make it very difficult if not impossible to mount entire squadrons on horses of the same color.
Just paint em' however you fancy, as long as you stay awy from the American breeds.
This website is pretty informative on horse colors.

http://greenfield.fortunecity.com/dream ... colors.htm

Regards,
Eric

[Valion]

I think Eric is more than right on this matter, I thought exactly the same as there was that "in peacetime"-restriction made in the quote before.
Like tanks in World War II, there would surely have been quite some compromises concerning the look, rather emphasizing on function and availability.

Still, I would dare to paint the whole Scots' Greys in exact "their" color.

I found it very inspirating to simply watch a herd of horses on a paddock one warm summer evening, as I'm not used to see horses on a regular base. How they move and what colors they have - you can't really catch that in pictures on the web..

[Peter]

@Eric and Marc: historicly I agree with both of you. When we're talking about The Battle of Waterloo (end of the hundred days), they took every horse they could get (regimental colour or not). But when you want to make a maquette like Colin I should also paint the horses in the color of theyr regiment (Scots Greys for example: Grey-White horses).

Greetings Peter