A solemn sunset service at Marsden Valley Cemetery with intermittent whinnies and barks was attended by hundreds on Sunday.
The third Nelson Purple Poppy Day commemorations paid tribute to all animals who served and continued to serve in conflict.
Formalities included horses and a police dog led through purple smoke, a wreath laying, The Last Post, and the release of 40 pigeons which returned to their Richmond base.
Richmond’s David Bethwaite attended the service to honour war horses since their sacrifice had saved his father’s life at Le Quesnoy in France towards the end of WW1.
“He was on an 18-pounder artillery piece which involved six horses to pull the limber, and the story goes that he was watering the horses the day after the liberation of Le Quesnoy, and the Germans put a shell down in the middle of them,” he says.
“Unfortunately, all the horses were killed, but fortunately for my father, because of the horses around him, he survived.”
Guest speaker, Nelson MP Rachel Boyack, shared a tribute by Regan Blogg who is a former corporal in the NZ Army.
He’d handled a Springer Spaniel named Chuck and a labrador named Yardley in Afghanistan, where they were the first New Zealand Defence Force explosive-detector dogs to be deployed overseas.
The dogs were set to posthumously receive the inaugural New Zealand Animal Distinguished Service Award on 24 February at the Purple Poppy Day commemorations at the National Army Museum in Waiouru.
