Three military horses that ran free through central London earlier this year will line up for Trooping the Color on Saturday.
Five horses of the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment (HCMR) were injured while fleeing through the capital after being startled by debris falling through a plastic tunnel during an exercise in Belgravia on 24 April.
The horses are recovering in “specialist care” and the army said Tennyson, Trojan and Vanquish showed “aptitude and enthusiasm”.
Tennyson will travel in the prestigious Sovereign’s Escort, while Trojan and Vanquish will join the King’s Life Guard in the Horse Guards, providing the ceremonial guard for the official entrance to the Royal Palaces.
“Tennyson returned to duty without missing a step,” said Captain Charles Carr-Smith, 1st Troop Leader, HCMR Life Guard Squadron.
“Knowing that this brilliant horse will once again carry his rider carefully down the Mall or gallop, leaping over piles of logs at Melton Mowbray, is a comfort to our less experienced riders, who will no doubt strive to put their names alongside his , by daily exercise.”
Photo: PA
The other two horses seriously injured in the April incident, Vida and Quaker, remain at the charity The Horse Trust and “will do this for as long as they need”.
Three of the five pilots injured in the incident have recovered and are back on duty, while the other two are expected to return later.
Photo: PA
Confirmation of the horses’ participation in the event comes after animal rights group Peta wrote to the army urging them to withdraw the horses and retire them permanently.
Kate Werner, senior campaigns manager at Peta, said in the letter: “Tradition is never an excuse for animal suffering, and every horse deserves to live free from the stress they endure when paraded through a busy, noisy capital with a human on their back. . , all for the amusement of noisy and unpredictable crowds.”
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Trooping the Color, held at Horse Guards Parade in Whitehall to celebrate the monarch’s official birthday, will be attended by the king after he returns to public duties.
Charles will inspect the soldiers in a carriage, not on horseback, as far as is known.
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