Latest / Ridiculous History / The Nazi Super Horse Program, Part 2: A Horse-filled Heist

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The Nazi Super Horse Program, Part 2: A Horse-filled Heist · Ridiculous History

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: back to the show Ridiculous Historians. As always, thank you
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: for tuning in. When we last met together here in
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: podcast land, we explored the strange, obscure story of the
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: Nazi obsession with horses, which they took to uh just
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: bizarre lengths. Hi, I'm bet, I'm no, I hope I'm
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: not canceled after my um my Nazi horse intro on
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: the last episode. I thought it was funny. I'm not
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: gonna do it now though, or ever again? What why?
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: I don't know, man, I just I canceled myself after that.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: I'm I'm kidding. I thought it was cute. But this
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: is the part of the story, as we tease in
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: the last episode, where things kind of take an interesting turn.
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  Speaker 1: Not right away, but if you stick with us, I
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  Speaker 1: think you will be rewarded. Oh On, agreed, So let's
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  Speaker 1: ride out to the rest of the story. Of course,
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: with the help of our better third super producer, Casey
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: pegrum Boom. We're back in Germany. It's clear that German
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: forces are going to lose the war, and this is
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  Speaker 1: where a veterinarian named Rudolph Lesson comes into play at
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  Speaker 1: the farm at hostile our hippologist Raw has appointed this
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: veterinarian Rudolph Lesson, and when the tide of war has
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  Speaker 1: clearly turned against Germany, this veter anarian Lessening and a
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  Speaker 1: small group of Nazi officers who also happened to love horses,
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  Speaker 1: start to worry that these regal stallions that they love
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  Speaker 1: so much will be I don't know, uh, subject to degradation,
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  Speaker 1: I guess stolen or eating. Oh my god, Because it
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: turns out that Russian forces were known for capturing enemy horses,
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  Speaker 1: killing them, and eating them. That's yeah, okay, that's one
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  Speaker 1: of those things that I've always been fascinated. But I
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: don't want anyone to think that I'm a monster. But
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  Speaker 1: where do these lines in the sand get drawn? Like
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: we will? People will eat rabbit. It's probably a little
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  Speaker 1: lower on the you know, accepted food chain for most,
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  Speaker 1: but you definitely hear about rabbit stew or you know,
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: lambs are about as cute as they come. Is it
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  Speaker 1: a cuteness quotient? Is it a functionality quotation that makes
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  Speaker 1: certain animals more or less acceptable to eat? Even today,
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: I'm still a little bit perplexed by this whole continuum
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  Speaker 1: of like which animals you know, squig people out if
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  Speaker 1: you eat them? Yeah. I mean I'm the worst person
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  Speaker 1: to ask about this because I really practice that line.
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  Speaker 1: I mean I horse before, and it was I think
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  Speaker 1: more for the cultural experience where I was. Was that
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  Speaker 1: in Korea or Japan? That was in Japan? Yeah, but
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  Speaker 1: you know, still I I have some of the same lines,
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  Speaker 1: like a horse meat is a more common thing, definitely
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  Speaker 1: outside of the US and Canada, But I think a
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  Speaker 1: lot of people have a line or two, like I
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  Speaker 1: would not be comfortable eating, say a dog or a
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  Speaker 1: cat unless I had to to survive, you know what
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  Speaker 1: I mean? Uh huh, I do. And um maybe that's
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  Speaker 1: what was happening with the Russians. And I'm making no
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  Speaker 1: judgment on one way or the other. I was using
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  Speaker 1: this as an opportunity to broach this subject. Casey, where
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: do you fall on this? And I don't want to
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  Speaker 1: derail this too much, but I think it's fascinating where
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: do you fall on this? Like which animals are to eat? Line?
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  Speaker 1: Is it about cuteness? Is it about utility? What is
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  Speaker 1: it for you? Yeah? I think I think if we're honest.
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  Speaker 1: I think it's the cuteness thing. And it's also like
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  Speaker 1: you know, domesticated cuteness versus like in the wild cuteness.
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  Speaker 1: That's probably part of it too, But honestly, I mean intelligence, right,
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  Speaker 1: if we're if we're gonna be fair, if we're gonna
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  Speaker 1: be ethical, intelligence is gonna be a big part of it.
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  Speaker 1: You know, we a lot of people eat pork, and
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  Speaker 1: pigs are very very smart, and that's, uh, that's kind
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  Speaker 1: of a conundrum. I still eat pork all the time,
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  Speaker 1: but you know, I feel increasingly less great about it.
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  Speaker 1: So the octopus as well, right, Fried Columnar, I mean
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  Speaker 1: that's a supersentient being casey on the case. But back
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  Speaker 1: to the Russians and you know, picking off these horses
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  Speaker 1: and making fast work of them. Culinarily, Uh, these Russians
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  Speaker 1: were absolutely moving in and the walls were closing in
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  Speaker 1: on the Nazis, and these Russians really had none of
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  Speaker 1: that reverence or cuddly sweet empathy that the Germans seemed
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  Speaker 1: to have for you know, horses rather than humans. And
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  Speaker 1: they just couldn't be less impressed by these, uh, these specimens,
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  Speaker 1: and they didn't differentiate them from any old run of
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  Speaker 1: the mill nag. You know, is that a thing isn't
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  Speaker 1: a nag just like a regular horse. That just means
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  Speaker 1: a female horse, doesn't it. I don't know. Well, nag
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  Speaker 1: can mean a small horse, but it often has a
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  Speaker 1: connotation of a older, useless horse. There you go, there
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  Speaker 1: you go. Okay, well I use the word relatively appropriately there.
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  Speaker 1: So they were again just not seeing what the Germans
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  Speaker 1: were seeing when it came to these horses that they
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  Speaker 1: ran across. But the Germans at hostile at this you know,
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  Speaker 1: this facility. I mean, sure, were they tools of the
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  Speaker 1: Third Reich, participating in a breeding program to create a
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  Speaker 1: super horse you know, used for war. Yeah, But at
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  Speaker 1: the end of the day, why were they there? Because
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  Speaker 1: they were the best in the brightest in the country
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  Speaker 1: when it came to animals, And you know, like you say, Ben,
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  Speaker 1: I mean, we know that people who really truly love
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  Speaker 1: animals are typically good people. I'm not trying to like,
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  Speaker 1: you know, like soft pedal this or say these were
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  Speaker 1: the good horse handler Nazis, but they definitely, you know,
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  Speaker 1: cared about the animals under in their charge, and they
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  Speaker 1: didn't want these bloodthirsty Russians coming in and make a
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  Speaker 1: minced meat out of their prize lepositors. Right, yeah, I
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  Speaker 1: think it can be a very good traits to like
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  Speaker 1: and love animals, But I don't I don't think that
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  Speaker 1: necessarily make you a good person. But you know what,
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  Speaker 1: from the horse's perspective, these were great people, right, fair enough.
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  Speaker 1: I also wouldn't point out one very interesting thing here.
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  Speaker 1: We're talking about the problem of sentience or eating meat,
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  Speaker 1: and asking where we draw the line. Adolf Hitler himself
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  Speaker 1: was a vegetarian. That did not make him a good person.
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  Speaker 1: People on the Internet love to point that out. That's like, um,
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  Speaker 1: it's it's like a sub subsection of um, what's the
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: lives of Godwin's law? That all Internet debates will end
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: up invoking Nazi Germany at some point, Not to be
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: confused with Gladwin's law, which is something else that I'll
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: let Ben define. Oh gosh, oh man, we should probably
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: check with him off air to see what what his
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: law might surely surely he has what really quickly, I
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: just got to do this. I I've been just butchering, butchering,
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  Speaker 1: butchering not horses, but the pronunciation of this particular breed
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  Speaker 1: of force, because I just clocked myself saying it weird,
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  Speaker 1: and I kind of decided to do a double take,
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: and it is lip is honors, not Lipos. So I'm
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  Speaker 1: not gonna go I'm gonna go ahead and own that
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  Speaker 1: one right now, as opposed to like going in and
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: like fixing every single one. Now, we don't do that
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  Speaker 1: here on ridiculous history, but I will cop to it
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: right now and from here forth we will refer to
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  Speaker 1: them as liposners. So I and I followed your lead
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: on that in episode. On the fact is, though, Ben,
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: we could I could have gotten it right the first
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: time when I read it more closely and then gradually
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  Speaker 1: just kind of bastardized the pronunciation as we've made of
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: this two parter, and God knows, we don't remember what
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: we talked about from minute to minute, or at least
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: that's speaking for myself. But I think we're in a
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  Speaker 1: good place now. We we were right with God and
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: we can reasonably progress forth with the story. Yeah, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: there's another character here we have to introduce. His name
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  Speaker 1: is Lieutenant Colonel Hubert Rudofski. Lieutenant Colonel Hubert Rudowski is
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  Speaker 1: also a horse lover, and he's in charge of the
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  Speaker 1: care of the horses on this farm. And when Lessen
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  Speaker 1: and Rudofski and the other horse loving Nazi officers realized
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  Speaker 1: that the Russians are coming and will steal their horses
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  Speaker 1: or even worse, in their minds, eat them to survive.
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  Speaker 1: Because you know, of course they did not consider Russians
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  Speaker 1: entirely human, right, so they would think a horse is
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  Speaker 1: way more important in the grand scheme of things. So
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  Speaker 1: they did something that they would have never done. They said,
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  Speaker 1: we need to reach out to our enemies, the American forces.
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  Speaker 1: We need them to help steal the horses to safety.
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  Speaker 1: Rodowski says, okay, look, the American forces are the only
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  Speaker 1: way to save these horses. So he sends a spy
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  Speaker 1: across the border, across the German border to meet with
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  Speaker 1: the oncoming American forces and say, hey, I know we
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: got a lot of stuff going on right now. I
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: know there's a little bit of tension access and allies
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  Speaker 1: and so on. But you guys love horses, right, You
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  Speaker 1: guys are cool with animals. Will you help us save ours? Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: they're they're appealing to that kind of common bond. Whether
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  Speaker 1: or not they like hate each other ideologically, they can
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  Speaker 1: both at least agree that horses are cool and probably
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  Speaker 1: shouldn't be like, you know, openly slaughtered. So they basically
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  Speaker 1: joined forces in like a weird buddy comedy kind of situation.
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  Speaker 1: You know, Uh, what do we say? Sort of almost
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  Speaker 1: like an Inglorious Bastards but a little bit kinder and gentler.
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  Speaker 1: It's like clever Hans meets in Glorious Bastards. Yeah, and
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  Speaker 1: here's what goes down. So we know that Germany surrenders
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  Speaker 1: on May seven, that's with the official announcement, but about
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: eleven days earlier, more than a week earlier, that German
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  Speaker 1: intelligence officer we talked about, the one that Rudowski ended
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  Speaker 1: up sending. He surrenders to the US second Cavalry Group.
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  Speaker 1: And when he surrenders, this is his strategy. Whendy surrenders.
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  Speaker 1: He has a bunch of photographs of these Thoroughbred horses,
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  Speaker 1: so he's like throwing up his hands and say I surrender,
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  Speaker 1: and then like showing the pictures and the horses same,
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  Speaker 1: please save our stallions. Uh. And then this guy was
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: a Luftwaffe colonel I believe his name was Walter Holters.
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  Speaker 1: So he gets interrogated the way any surrendering officer would
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  Speaker 1: and he says, quote, not far from here, some of
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  Speaker 1: the most valuable horses in the world are being sheltered.
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  Speaker 1: These are no ordinary horses. These are royal. Give it
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  Speaker 1: to me one more time, you'll la pass right. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: there were from its lips, slip, its lip, its honors,
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  Speaker 1: double lips, honors. These are royal lips from Vienna. He says,
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  Speaker 1: he did say this, and then he says, the German
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  Speaker 1: army sent them to this farm hostile for safekeeping. Now
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  Speaker 1: they're going to get captured by the Russians and they
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: have to figure out what they're going to do. They
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: sure do. So that's the We've got our hero of
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: the the day, or the moment, at least, a Colonel
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: James Hancock Hank Reed, who reached out to the head
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: Hans show the man himself, General George S. Patton. And
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: when word reaches Patton that those stallions were stuck behind
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: enemy lines in Czechoslovakia, you know, he I get, I
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: don't know. This is just a little bit of editorialization. Again.
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  Speaker 1: He must have had that same little animal, you know,
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  Speaker 1: part of his heart and soul that that gave that
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  Speaker 1: has brought him to two tears with the thought of
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  Speaker 1: these cuties getting sliced up by enemy forces, and so
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  Speaker 1: he decides to make this a priority and sends that
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  Speaker 1: cavalry to save them. And they have to do it
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  Speaker 1: in secret, Patton says, get them, meaning the horses, make
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: it fast. The reason it has to be in secret
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: is because the U. S Army had already cracked in
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: agreement with Stalid. Remember the Stalin in the US did
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: not trust each other. They just had a common cause.
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  Speaker 1: So they cracked this agreement with stalind that they would
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: advance no further than Germany's border with checklist Slovakia. And
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  Speaker 1: the horses again are over the border. So it's against
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  Speaker 1: that agreement for the US to intervene. But the die
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  Speaker 1: is cast and their path is set. A small group
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  Speaker 1: of Nazi German soldiers and US soldiers decided to put
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: the war to one side, to bracket it, or as
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: they say in corporate America, to put a pinion it
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  Speaker 1: for a moment, and team up to get to the
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  Speaker 1: farm and rescue these horses. Oh and really quickly. Uh yeah,
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  Speaker 1: I mentioned that Patton his eyes lit up in in
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: the as much as like a dead eyed you know,
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: military strategist genius like that size could possibly do. But
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: he was in fact an actual horse lover when he
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: heard that these horses were in need of rescuing. And
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: it turns out he actually was a legitimate, documented horse lover.
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: He was a huge fan of Polo and he had
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: competed in the nineteen twelve Olympic pentatholon. I didn't know
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: anything about Patton's pre military history. That's pretty interesting. Remember
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: Colonel Charles Hancock hank Lee, who was the one who
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: told Patton about this, uh, this whole course situation in
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: the first place. Well, Patton gave the order and moments
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  Speaker 1: later hank ree this gentleman um who was a horseman himself, uh,
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  Speaker 1: the commanding officer of the second Cavalry in Europe. Um,
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  Speaker 1: he dispatched one of his soldiers and who was a
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: writer himself from Tennessee to team up with this particular
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  Speaker 1: Nazi veterinarian to make this as quick and nimble in
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: operation as possible. Because Patton made it very clear. Yeah,
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: like he said a minute ago, Ben that this was
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: something that had be done in secret. But he took
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  Speaker 1: it a step further and said, if they were ever discovered.
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  Speaker 1: Patton would never he would disavow this entire thing and
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: and not you know, uh it was. So that's what
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: makes this a black ops. Isn't that right then? Isn't
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: that what a black like an off book kind of operation? Right? Yeah,
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: plausible deniability because think about it, if they're caught and
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: Russia wants to push the case, this could endanger the
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: alliance of the Allies as the potential to which would
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: change the course of history. Yep. So Hank Greed chooses
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: this guy from Tennessee who's familiar with horses, guy named
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: Captain Tom Stewart, as he said, to team up with Lessing,
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: the German veterinarian. So in the dark of night, they
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: move through miles of forests and the ruins of villages
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: that have been destroyed to capture these horses and return
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: with them to the US forces before the Russian troops arrive.
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: And when Lessie gets back to the farm, he takes
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: Captain Stewart and hides him in his apartment and then
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: he goes to negotiate with the director of the farm.
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: So Lessie tells Captain Stewart, hey, here, hide in my
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: apartment on the farm. Su premisis I'm gonna go to
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: my boss, the director of the farm, and and say like, hey,
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: let's save the horses. And then I'm even gonna go
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: to the German general in charge of this region and
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: be like, hey, bro, don't you love horses too. They
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: just needed to convince the Germans that they would officially
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: surrender the horse farm to the US immediately again, because
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: they thought the US forces would treat the horses better
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: than the Russian forces would. And Stewart actually wrote an
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: official letter to that was like a memo to German
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: commanders at hostile and he just basically appealed to their humanity,
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: you know, and said, the Americans wished to assist you
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: in evacuating the horses safely back across the border to Bavaria.
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: And it hit home. Uh, these German commanders, realizing that
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: they were toasts, that it was over for them as
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: far as like, you know, uh prevailing in the war effort,
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: decided to cut their losses in at least, you know, okay, well,
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: at least we can like do a good thing. And
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: they and they did. They helped them free the horses
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: and they all were guided safely back to Bavaria. Yeah,
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: let's really made an appeal to the horse lover in
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: everyone involved, right. Uh. He says, it is unimportant for
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: us to win the war. Here at this horse farm,
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: it's our duty to do everything we can to save
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: these horses. So they make a flag, a white flag,
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: the old standard of surrender, out of a bed sheet.
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: They put it up on the farm's flagpole, and then
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: a few hours later US forces officially take over the
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: farm and they start making plans to get the horses
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: to safety. And there's something there. There's a poetic quote
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: about this from the commanding officer of the Second Calvary
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: from Hank Reed, and and it stayed with me. He says,
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: we were so tired of death and destruction, we wanted
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: to do something beautiful. Makes the perfect sense. You're facing
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: your own demise, you know. I mean, they know what's
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: going to happen to them, and maybe they're not going
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: to be executed, but they know their lives are over. Uh,
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: why not go for a moment of redemption? And I'm
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: not saying this is enough to redeem all of the
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: horrible acts of the Nazi Party, but I see the impulse.
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: I understand the drive there, and it's a nice place
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: to sort of wrap up the story or begin to.
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: I think we've got a little bit of epilogue for
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: you as well, don't we. Yeah, So the big question
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: what happened to the horses? And then also what happened
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: to these soldiers? You know the personally just quoted Hank
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: read is he's on the U. S. Side, But everybody
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: in this war has seen so many terrible things, right,
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: and you feel you feel like, even though you're you're
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: fighting for what you see is the greater good, you
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: were also committing acts of violence. So how beautiful it
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: is to maybe save something instead of destroy it. The
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: surrender at the farm is peaceful. Lieutenant William Donald quinn Livin,
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: I love that name was the first of seventy US
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: troops to arrive on the scene, and once they had
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: secured the base, the U. S. Troops thought the mission
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: was over. But on April a small German force that
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: had decided to fight to the death entered into a
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: five hour battle with the soldiers on the farm. It
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: ended up with two US troopstein and that was one
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: of the impetus is for the US military to ship
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: the horses all the way to the US. They say,
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: we're taking up we're stealing them. Like you asked, the
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: safest place we can think of is back home in
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: the good old US of a. Imagine having to transport,
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: having to safely transport these live horses across Europe. That
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: is a tall milkshake, my friends. And it felt like
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: it was the only choice they had because food insecurity
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: was so widespread and rampant that these horses had. Despite
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: their stereotypes about Russians, horses in any country at this
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: point had a very high likelihood of being killed and eating.
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: So in u fall of fifty one of these remarkable
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: horses are airlifted onto the Stephen F. Austin, which is
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: an amphibious docking ship. And that right then, what does that?
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: What does that mean? Exactly? Yeah, there are several US S. Austin's,
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: but this one was the third U S. S. Austin
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: and it is an amphibious transport DOC. So, an amphibious
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: transport DOC is it's a ship that can transport troops
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: into a war zone by sea, usually like shooting out
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: landing craft. Uh. And they also have nowadays, they have
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: the ability to transport helicopters and things like that. So
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: this is a ship that has room for the horses.
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: It is probably the most important part here, Yeah, exactly,
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: and they were allowed to flourish. Uh. And that's kind
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: of the happy ending of the story, you know, Like
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's like we said, Uh, animals like
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: this have no control over their situation. And it always
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: kind of pulls on my heartstrings when you see them
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: kind of used for nefarious purposes. I don't know, I'm
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: not a big fan of breeding and the complications and
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: the moral kind of dilemmas behind all of that. Pure
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: breeding and stuff anyway, or cross breeding, right, we talked
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: about that with the tigers. That's something that you see
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: with like pure bred dogs and dog shows and stuff,
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: and there's a lot of feelings about things like that.
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: So that alone, um kind of makes me twitch a
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: little bit. But then when you know they're being bred
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: for use in war, that's even worse. So it's great
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: to see a hundred and fifty one of them at least,
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: I mean that that that must have just been a fraction. Ben,
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: I know they were trying to breed thousands and thousands
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: of these, right, So think of the ones that that
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: were lost, Yeah, the ones that they that were also
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: never born because the breeding program did not continue. It's
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: strange because this saved the entire concept of these horses, right,
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: because all of the existing living versions of this horse
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: have been gathered in this one arm and if they
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: had not been transported out to the US, they probably
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: would have been lost, you know, whether eaten, whether dying
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: and starvation, etcetera. So, in the midst of all the
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: chaos and terror and in humanity or in horsemanity maybe
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: of World War Two, it's inspiring that there is this
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: one tale wherein people put aside the war that they
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: have pledged to fight in to save some animals. It
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: does tug on the heart strings. And so in a way, you, guys,
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: I think we found a happy ending here. We absolutely did,
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: and I think there's no better place to wrap up
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: than with a happy ending. Not to mention, we're thirty
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: four minutes and eighteen seconds into this recording, and despite
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: a little peek behind the curtain, guys, some of my
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: moments of not picking up the baton when passed to
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: me because dealing with one of the other by products
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: of our jobs here in podcast them. Uh, it's probably
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: gonna shrink down to maybe a little shorter than that.
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: But I think it's a respectable episode and respectable to part.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: And I really appreciate you Ben and you Casey for
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: joining me on this journey. Yeah back catch. I'm watching
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: a fantastic storm gathering outside of my window, so I'm
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: gonna go hang out in the patio and uh probably
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: think a little bit more about obscure inspiring stories from
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: World War Two. We'd love to hear your suggestions in
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: this vein. Uh so hoof it on over to the
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: internet where you can find us on Facebook. You can
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: find us on Twitter, you can find us on Instagram.
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: We recommend our Facebook page or Ridiculous Historians if you
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: want a good historical chuckle or two. And you can
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: find us as individuals as well if you issue. You
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: may find me on the internet on the Instagram exclusively
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: at how Now Noel Brown, where you can find and
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: I do allow my stories. Are you posting cooking stuff
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: and video game nerds stuff and uh things hanging out
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: with my kid? And I can't if you set something
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: that you're into, I'm there and I am on Instagram
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: in a burst of Creativity as at Ben Bowling I
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: am on Twitter as at Casey pegram fan number one.
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: I'm okay, I haven't started that account yet, Casey, but
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: that's her. That's your all account, right then? Yeah, that
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: just means someone else is gonna start it for us. Uh,
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: you can buy me at at Ben Bolan hsw on Twitter.
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: Thanks as always to Jonathan Strickland, a k a. The
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: Quister Huge. Thanks to Christopher haciotis here in spirit, Alex Williams,
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: who composed our theme research associate extraordinariir game Lousierer. I
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: did that because it rhyme with extraordinaire. I wouldn't pronounce
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: it extraordinary, so I should have pronounced it Gabe Losier,
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: And he's never really told us how to pronounce it,
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: So I think it's open season on pronunciation of Gabe's
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: last name. He is a real pill about that, and
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: I think we're gonna have to have a discussion. We've
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: got to have you back on the show. Oh, I
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: had a blast with that one. Another respectable two parter.
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: Uh what did I think I left that? Suproducer, Casey
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: Bagram Huge, Thanks to you, my friend. What's your takeaway?
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: On this epic horse adventure. This is a second horse
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: episode and as many weeks. I'm just wondering if, like
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: Clever Hans was sighted down in Argentina, like after you
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: know things. I don't know, was that World War two?
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: That was World War One? Right, so maybe the timeline
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: would be a little bit off for him being part
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: of this story. But you're right, Casey, Maybe he just
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: I don't know, maybe he made his grand getaway. Maybe
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: Clever Hans is on an island with Tupac and the
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: white tiger that mauled christ Christ Roy whatever his name is.
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: I know he died not the tiger too soon. Sorry, guys,
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: I made this a real bummer at the end, brought
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: it down. I I I can, I can take us
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: from a bummer to a groan. I am finally after
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: two episodes, able to tell you, guys some terrible horse
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: jokes that was saving for the end. Did you hear
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: about the man who went to the hospital with six
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: plastic horses inside him? What do you mean, like in
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: his heart, just in the body. The doctors. The doctors
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: described his condition as stable. I don't know. I thought
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: this was like some sort of like mega fail story.
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: Where the guy had shoved a bunch of plastic horses
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: up his body. Um, okay, just I think we're done
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: with this show. I think we've done all the things
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: and we're just like punchy because it is six fIF
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: on a Friday, and I think we still have some
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: asks to do. So how about we'll just see you
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: next time? Books, How do you make a small fortune
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: on horse racing? Start with a large fortune? M HM.
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the I
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: your favorite shows.