Summary: The Army Remount Depot at Lady Birkbeck's Stud Farm, Russley Park, on the Hampshire Downs, August 1918.
Description: Horses from the farm are exercised by young ladies of the Women's Land Army Agricultural Section, acting as grooms. The horses are cantered round a paddock and over a low jump. Each of the eight girls emerges from a stable door, carrying buckets of water, bags of oats or a saddle. Two of them use a pole and noose to hold up a horse's head while pouring medicine down its throat (described as "fastening the bit" in the shotsheet). The girls lead pairs of horses from the stables and through the main gate - one pair shies at the camera - and mount up. Each riding one horse and leading another the girls move out along the country road at a slow trot. Each girl holds the lead reins of her two horses while they graze in a field. A face-on shot of a white-faced bay fades into its girl keeper who is handed her mascot, a tiny kitten. Some of the girls load saddles into a buckboard and drive off with them, waving at the camera. Two girls clean out the stables with rakes and a wheelbarrow. The horses are groomed outside their loose boxes by the girls, one having its tail washed and soaped. Finally the girls wear their full Land Army riding uniform to lead the horses out for exercise as before.
