Lambert inscribed this work with notes, observing that it was a study of dead horses that had been pulled out from the lines to be buried in the desert, and that the vet had just performed a post-mortem on the horses. He noted that the horse on the left was light bay or buff; that the upper body of the centre horse had been clipped, but the hairy legs were velvet black; and that the disembowelled horse on the right was light buff with a sooty grey between the legs and had white socks, and that the bowels were red pink with dark blood. He also noted that the desert was golden.

By 15 January 1918 Lambert was at the Australian remount depot at Moascar, near Ismailia on the Suez Canal, on the main route from Egypt to Palestine. Here the horses and mules from Australia were broken in and trained. Although he observed the scene with the detachment appropriate to a recorder of events, he found it poignant.