GEORGE RICHEY —SEAGOING COWBOY 1946.

EPISODE  1,473  700 WILD HORSES WITH GEORGE RICHEY…’JUST TURN THEM LOOOSE’.

ALAN SKEOCH

DECEMBER 23, 2025

SETTING: JUNE, 1946.

S.S.  Benoit Victory

George Richey, Seagoing Cowboy

near Hamberg, Germany

Mysterious disappearance of 700 horses.

“What do we do with the horses now, George?”

“All 700 old them?”

“Yes…and do it fast…we cannot feed them.!”

“Let them go….all 700 at once on streets of Hamberg…(700 horses running wild…were never seen  again.)

“What will happen to them?”

“No one knows…I bet most of them will be eaten. The people are starving and do not have the time

or the energy to tame the wild ones.   We will never know.  No one keeps records and thousands of

horses are being shipped to Europe on Liberty ships like ours.  Ships that once carried tanks, troops

and oil are now carrying horses. heifers, donkeys even chickens.  thousands of them…so many

have been slaughtered.  Better chickens eaten now than waiting for them to lay eggs.  Starvation.”

Same with our 700 horse.

“Surely not that bad.”

“Worse than you can possibly imagine, George. Just go for a walk along the rubble strewn streets of Hamberg.

(Bombers from England had pulverized Hamberg…imagine the sudden arrival of 700 horses from America.)

“Imagine the sudden arrival of 700 horses running free through the rubble…our horses some or

which must have been captured in the Rocky mountain wilderness…wild horses.”

“Wild is right.”

“One bit me…hurt…big teeth clamped on my arm.”

“Difficult enough for 12 of us to feed the horses as the ship heaved its way across the Atlantic.  So many ships full of animals.”

“Some ships can carry 1500 horses.  All we have to do is get them to Germany or Poland alive.”

“Then what happens?

“guess.!”

“Have you ever seen something about them?”

Not a word.”

“Take cows for instance…

“Milk is needed  desperately,  Dairy herds gone.  Some cows were shipped but not many.  Suppose we had to milk 700 cows every for

nine days…impossible”

Cows have to be milked daily.  If not milked cows die an agonizing death…they scream.”

“Dairy herds that survived were few in number but I don’t really know.  No records…like

our 700 horses.   We can only guess their fate. Those that could be harnessed were

were very valuable but the others…eaten I bet.”

Does anyone know what h