What is Australian Light Horse?
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}} {{Use Australian English|date=May 2011}} [[File:Light horse walers.jpg|right|thumb|Australian light horsemen on [[Waler]]s in 1914, prior to their departure from Australia to serve in World War I.]] '''Australian Light Horse''' were mounted troops similar to both [[cavalry]] and [[mounted infantry]]. They fought in the [[Second Boer War]] and [[World War I]]. [[File:AWM P00220 South Australian Mounted Rifles 1900.jpg|thumb|right|South Australian Mounted Rifles training in Adelaide, prior to deployment to South Africa, ''circa'' 1900.]] By the outbreak of World War I, there were 23 light horse regiments within Australia's part-time military force, consisting of 9,000 personnel.{{sfn|Dennis et al |1995|p=350}} These were organised as follows:{{sfn|Hall|1968|pp=70–71}}{{sfn|Australian Military Forces|1914|pp=10–34}} ==World War I== ===Formation and organisation=== [[File:PikiWiki Israel 10412 australian light horse monument in beer sheva.jpg|thumbnail|right|Australian light horse monument in Beersheeba]] Light horse were like mounted infantry. They usually fought on foot. They used their [[horse]]s as transport to the battlefield. A famous exception to this rule though was the charge of the 4th and 12th Light Horse Regiments at [[Battle of Beersheba (1917)|Beersheba]] on 31 October 1917. In 1918, some light horse regiments were equipped with [[sabre]]s,{{sfn|Bou|2010a|p=14}} so they could fight in a conventional cavalry role in the attack on [[Damascus]]. {{sfn|Bou|2010a|p=14}} [[File:4th Light Horse Brigade Beersheba.jpg|thumb|Troopers of the 4th Light Horse Brigade at [[Battle of Beersheba (1917)|Beersheeba]], 1917]] [[File:Australian camps on slopes of Olivet & Mount Scopus3.jpg|thumb|left|An Australian light horse encampment on [[Mount of Olives|Mount Olivet]] and [[Mount Scopus]] near [[Jerusalem]], 1918.|alt=A wide angle view of an encampment on a hill, there are horses in the foreground and light coloured tents]] [[File:Best turned out light horseman July 1943.jpg|th