He ran like the Devil.
by Graham Scott
Seventy years have passed since Trooper Colin McGregor fought his war in the desert, but still fresh in his memory are the exploits of a horse called "Taipo".
"He could run like the devil and was one of the best," says the spry 97-year old, recalling his partnership with Taipo in the hot hell hole of wartime Arabia. Trooper McGregor joined the Anzac Mounted Division in 1916. He and Taipo soon teamed up and were to spend several years together trekking the desert in the First World War and trying to outrun enemy fire.
The alert old trooper has never forgotten the oncoming drone of the "terrible Taubes," and the "mad scatters" on the sand as the. German fighter pianes approached.
"We would ride like hell into the desert, looking up into the sky." The srategy was to spread the horseflesh far and wide in the hope that Taube bombs would not cause multiple carnage.
He says that New Zealand could always remain proud of the quality of horses it shipped to the desert war theatre. They had arrived in finer fettle than equine exports from other countries and had more readily adapted to the harsh conditions.
Taipo, he said, bad been a cut above most, and had also been imbued with a thoroughbred streak - and a Maori name, that meant "devil."
McGregor, who now lives a quieter life on the seashores at Onerahi in Northland, says: "I'm not one to skite, but I was a really good horseman and Taipo was a top horse, one of the best."
A twinkle comes to McGregor's eye when he recalls the friendly desert rivalry that pitted New Zealand horses and men against the Canterbury Yeoman Cavalry. "They thought they were pretty big time. Britishers, who, according to themselves, were the salt of the earth."
He chuckles as he recounts what had always happened in the mounted wrestling and tent-pegging contest: "We knocked hell out of them."
The old trooper thanks a great New Zealand soldier who rode by the stars for teaming him up with Taipo - Lieutenant-Colonel A. C. M. (Bob) Finlayson, a fellow Northlander, had pointed him in the direction of the horse. Finlayson. later earned fame in the desert for his ability to plot the stars and lead his troops in the dark.
Trooper McGregor was hard-hit in the desert by malaria and a virulent type of influenza but he avoided being gunned down by Taubes or opposing troops.
Taipo was not so lucky. The horse was shot through the neck during a battle and was packed off to a veterinary hospital. For two months; McGregor had to make do with another horse from the line: "I found it pretty hard losing Taipo, I can tell you."
But Taipo recovered. The partners were reunited and together they rode out hostilities. Eventually, Trooper McGregor rallied from the illness that bad laid him low and returned home to Northland from Palestine. Taipo stayed behind, as did all the New Zealand horses shipped to the area.
However, the end of the war did not spell a finish to Taipo's exploits. In peacetime in Palestine, Trooper McGregor's old pal lined up in several races. Other starters chased his tail.
From Cenotaph search:
16427 Lance Corporal Colin Daniel McGregor, Farmer, 17th Reinforcements NZMR, embarkation: S.S. Manuka, Wellington 5th October 1916 - Suez, Egypt - page 40 Nominal Roll.
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