Trooping the colour. I have horse questions.

[Tock]

I have no hose knowledge aside from what I have learned from Jilly Cooper.

why do they nod their heads up and down so violently?

how do you ride with no hands like the band?

do they get to choose the colour of their horse? I’d like a grey one but there aren’t many of those.

what happens if they are really bad? Is there an understudy?

@SpudsForBreakfast What exactly is your point? If you are trying say the horses and soldiers spend the two weeks undergoing hard training and no R&R then you are very, very mistaken. Stop posting snippets from your chair and go out and get a proper life!

Highly unlikely that a horse with an unsuitable temperament will be pts. Not unless they're truly unsuitable to be re-homed into either a quieter life or a more demanding, competition home, depending on where they're best suited. Some horses might lack the patience to stand quietly in a line up all day but would be brilliant in a busy hunting yard. Some might be overwhelmed and never get used to the noise and atmosphere but would excel in a quiet one on one yard just hacking round the lanes. Pts would be a last resort.

Stop posting snippets from your chair and go out and get a proper life!

I have one thank you very much. Perhaps you should take your own advice.

The point is that people are talking as though it's two carefree weeks with the horses running free on the beach and being able to take the whole time off from their duties when in fact though I'm sure it's a nice change of scenery for them and they get some breaks, it is just another training camp and though you objected to the term, a training camp is exactly how it's described in numerous articles.

Years ago they tried a synthetic material for the Bearskin hats, it didn't work as they held water therefore increasing the weight.

I thought the horses did very well this morning. After 2 years lockdown they will be as out of practice at big events as we humans are. I guess quite a few would never have taken part in one before too after such a hiatus.

Did you see the one in front of the duchesses carriage leaving BP who saw the crowds and tried to run away. The rider had quite a job on her hands but persuaded him/her eventually to come out and join in.
Yes I saw the riderless horse too, I'm guessing as it was bright bay it may have come from the Kings Troop?

I am only going on what was said by @DrawSwords - and it was news to me, despite most of my adult life being involved with horses one way or another.

Re. stallions though - I think it would be the presence of the ladies that might cause them to be upset, as of course stallions are the most intelligent and "trainable", whereas geldings are more docile and malleable. I worked for a short time with a team of six Arab stallions, and they could be led with one hand on all six ropes, and responded mainly (French) verbal commands. They weren't ever so big though, it must be said.

Interesting how posters like @SpudsForBreakfast and @Imabouttoexplode who have never been in those regiments and do not know what goes on can reject what I, who have been in those regiments and knows precisely what goes on, have posted when trying to be informative by posting facts.

Plus static would make the 'hair' stand out rather than lay flat.

Years ago they tried a synthetic material for the Bearskin hats, it didn't work as they held water therefore increasing the weight.

There are new alternatives all the time and that doesn't seem to be their main issue. It's the appearance.

The defence minister Mr Quin said that while newer synthetic hats performed well in wet conditions, the MoD was concerned that they might not be breathable enough or maintain their shape well.
He also said even the best-performing alternatives "performed poorly on the visual assessment", meaning the Ministry of Defence judged that they looked bad.
It's probably still a prettier sight than a heap of dead and skinned black bears.

Others argue that the alternatives are suitable.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/bearskin-hats-guards-faux-fur-uk-b2030394.html

Interesting how posters like SpudsForBreakfast and Imabouttoexplode who have never been in those regiments and do not know what goes on can reject what I, who have been in those regiments and knows precisely what goes on, have posted when trying to be informative by posting facts.

Please do not @me and it's interesting too that you objected to my use of the term "training camp" when numerous articles use it and clips show that it is exactly that.

Also, as for your experiences. Toy soldiers could be as close as you've got to the military for all I know. You may well have served time in these regiments but anyone can say anything online.

The only good place for a bear skin is on a bear. I wonder if them being referred to as a Busby was meant to distance them from their source?

(My Uncle was in the Grenadier Guards - he hated them, wearing them, and because of what they were. He was quite ahead of his time actually - he is 86 now.)

There is an element of training, but it really is small. It is overwhelmingly R&R - fact. If there was no element of training you would get a whole bunch of wankers writing in the paper about taxpayers' money, blah, blah, blah.

Horses and soldiers deserve R&R and it was great fun. Fantastic years, both with the horses and in the armoured divisions.

Changing name now and going back to threads where there is no bullshit. Bye saddo!

When I was younger we were at some sort of military family day and there was a stand with all the different type of hats on. I asked the soldier if the bearskin was made out of real bear and despite my Mum desperately shaking her head behind me he said yes. I kicked him in the shin and told him he was a horrible man my Mum was mortified.

Those who think the horses are having such a bad time, do pop along to a stable and try and get a horse to do something it doesn't want to do...

^ This 😂

With your leather shoes no doubt.
What an obnoxious little oik I’m not surprised your mother was mortified!

The horses are definitely given long periods of rest at grass. A close friend of mine trained the horse guards until a couple of years ago and so I did get to know a lot more about what went on.

www.hcavfoundation.org/household-cavalry-mounted-regiment-equine-clean/

I would also add that I have had horses all my life and never owned a single one that didn't enjoy being ridden. My horses always come to greet me and get excited at the prospect of going out to a horse show or even a hack around the lanes. Horses are like dogs, they love to please and will do anything for an owner that treats them kindly. Horses in the wild have a much more difficult life and as a result have a much shorter life expectancy.

@MountainSun well probably but I doubt many children especially in the 80s were given the choice by their parents of wearing vegan clothes.

here are so many ways that half a ton of horse an do harm (or even a 38" miniature, as I have felt), and they choose not to - which is why they are such wonderful, noble animals. There is a famous picture - so famous, I don't remember it's title or artist), of a white horse being attacked by a ?mountain lion, on it's most vulnerable spot, it's back. And yet that is where it allows us to sit, and to command it's every move --- not something I especially agree with any more, after, as I have said, too many years to count as a part of or on the periphery of, the horse world.
One rather sweet theory about the evolution of the horse-human relationship is that horses could "see" that cows were getting eaten, and so in order to escape that fate, they allowed themselves to be used as a beast of burden, and in return got housed and fed, rather than being a food source themselves. This then became a companion relationship which we then took to the next level, in a way, abusing the trust they placed on us.

Serriedranks
Well said!

"There's nothing as good for the inside of a man, as the outside of a horse" 🐎

Some of my happiest memories have been just being in the same vicinity as horses.

We weren’t well off as kids but we had a rich friend with horses.

Such an escape. Such love. Such magnificence.

We were lucky to have camp stables in my forces days and those horses were cherished. And rightly so.

Found it - it's Stubbs.

The bears are culled anyway, so you may as well use the pelt for something....

Yes - Ronald had it right. There really is nothing like them.

Towards the end of his life, my horse was my touchstone. Knowing that I had done right by him every day, in his retirement, gave me a peace that I have never been able to recreate.

That's part of the problem. And humans do constantly get horses to do things that they would rather not do

do you eat meat?

what do you think an animal would rather do, working life, treated like vip’s- i’ve worked with horses and they seriously get top of the line vet care, every comfort possible. And yes they do tend to get as much turnout and relaxation time as we can manage, as a stressy horse won’t perform as well. Then onto retirement.

or you could be a chicken living in a crowded barn for it’s entire life before being shipped off in a crowded truck to an abbatoir. Which are not pleasant places.

They get turned out for months each year in a herd in Melton Mowbury.

durng lockdown they were all in Melton.

follow the regiment on insta and it tells you all this.