There is a song by Corb Lund from Alberta...
called Horse Soldier, which honors the horse's
contributions to battle thru the years...

and by way of introduction he mentioned that
there is presently a cowboy who is teaching
mounted troops about combat in afghanistan .

I seem to recall another song about a horse
in the civil war or at Little Big Horn who
died for his rider, and was given honor as a
human combatant would have been.