Thanks to GerryM for alerting me to this song, over in the “Aussie-Kiwi Horses and Dogs” thread.
The lyrics and Eric's notes are taken from one of the two Mudcat threads on the song.

AS IF HE KNOWS

Eric Bogle

It's as if he knows
He's standing close to me
His breath warm on my sleeve
His head hung low
It's as if he knows
What the dawn will bring
The end of everything
For my old Banjo
And all along the picket lines beneath the desert sky
The light horsemen move amongst their mates to say one last goodbye
And the horses stand so quietly
Row on silent row
It's as if they know

Time after time
We rode through shot and shell
We rode in and out of Hell
On their strong backs
Time after time
They brought us safely through
By their swift sure hooves
And their brave hearts
Tomorrow we will form up ranks and march down to the quay
And sail back to our loved ones in that dear land across the sea
While our loyal and true companions
Who asked so little and gave so much
Will lie dead in the dust

For the orders came
No horses to return
We were to abandon them
To be slaves
After all we'd shared
And all that we'd been through
A nation's gratitude
Was a dusty grave
For we can't leave them to the people here, we'd rather see them dead
So each man will take his best mate's horse with a bullet through the head
For the people here are like their land
Wild and cruel and hard
So Banjo, here's your reward

It's as if he knows
He's standing close to me
His breath warm upon my sleeve
His head hung low
It's as if he knows.


these are Eric's notes from the CD, Colour of Dreams :

During WWI, Australia shipped about 53,000 horses overseas to serve in the various theatres of that war. Of that number, only one returned to Australia at the end of the war, and it was, of course, a General's favourite mount. The rest, or at least the survivors of that original 53,000, were not allowed to return home mainly because of quarantine restrictions, it was feared they could spread anthreax and similar diseases throughout Australia's cattle industry. So the ANZACS were ordered to get rid of what horses they had left. In the European theatre of war many of the horses were sold or given to French and Belgian farmers and peasants and such like. But in Palestine the Light Horsemen refused to either give or sell their horses to the local Arab population, as they thought that the Arabs in general treated their animals with dreadful cruelty. Mind you, I can't think of anything more cruel than subjecting innocent horses to the horrors of modern warfare, but I guess those were the prevailing attitudes of the times. So, rather than leave their horses to a lifetime of slavery, as they saw it, the Light Horsemen shot them. Each man shot his best mate's horse, and that was that. I wrote this song after reading an Anzac Day newspaper artivle about an old veteran Light Horsemen called Elijah Conn, who was talking about his horse, Banjo, and how his best mate shot Banjo just before they marched off to the ship that was waiting to take them home to Australia. Even after 70 years, Elijah's eyes filled with tears when talking about it. This song is for Elijah and Banjo. Sorry to take up so much of your time with this little story, but it's one that deserves to be heard I think.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXXWFbPjgmc
This version of Eric’s heart-rending song is by Peter Pratt and has a slideshow with many interesting images. If you read through the YT Comments (which I tend to do!), and also the posts on the 2 x Mudcat threads concerning this song, you’ll see that as with everything, there was more to the story, and other points of view, complicating this history. There were something like 1.5 million riding horses, mules, donkeys, draft horses et al, used by the allied forces for the Empire – hard to get one’s head around the implications of that figure!   One poster points to the possible influence on Eric of Banjo Paterson’s “The Last Parade”, writing about the same situation in the Second Boer War.

PETER PRATT, the "smooth western crooner” ….. is from a family of wheat farmers in southern New South Wales and a lover of the western country song. Roy Rogers, Gene Autry and Smoky Dawson are his musical hero's….. A former drover, ringer and rouseabout, this wool classer lives and works in regional Australia. His love of this land’s heritage is also evident in his involvement with the Australian Heritage Light Horse Troop…..

See Also : http://www.lighthorse.org.au/poetry-and-song/


R-J
[My Great Uncle, Bill Youd of Collie, left Albany, WA with the first wave of soldiers - as a Blacksmith with the Australian Light Horse. Thankfully he returned, but spent the rest of his working life quietly, keeping to himself and raising Poultry.]