Recognition for Blackie a reminder of the horrors that befell the war horse

No sentient soul could fail to be moved by Starchitect's death on Saturday. Those hammered hardest will have been closest to the horse as extraordinary bonds develop between horse and human. As the old saying runs: "There is no secret so close as that between rider and horse."

It is a cross-pollination between admiration and emotional attachment. And an uplifting example of this link emerged over the weekend with the news that a largely unknown grave of a horse in Halewood on the outskirts of Liverpool has been Grade 2 listed and given heritage status by Historic England.

The grave contains the war horse Blackie, who served at Arras, the Somme, Cambrai and Ypres, where he suffered severe shrapnel wounds.