HORSING AROUND BY TRIANA ELAN

Related pages

Island Star Equestrian Center Web site

This Week's Horsing Around column

Previous columns

The Original Shetlands

Natural Horsemanship

Horsing Around

Island Star Equestrian Center is born

The British Are Coming!

Next month, Island Star will proudly present a clinic featuring my friend Jody Sole, a horseman extraordinaire who rode with the King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery in England.

Jody rode as a gunner, and after four years with the King's Troop has become a world class horseman, involved in dressage, jumping and racing.

The King's Troop goes way back. Most of us in America have seen them on television pulling the cannons with the coffins of Princess Diana and the Queen Mother in the state funerals. Those cannons have quite a history.

In March of 2001 I had the pleasure of touring the King's Troop stables with Jody. Not just anybody can walk in there; brick and barbed wire fences surround the stables, accompanied by British Army guards yielding machine guns.

111 horses are stabled right there in the middle of London, housed with the cannons, the regalia (saddles, harnesses, sabers, uniforms) and the riders. Military discipline fills the air and no matter where you look you see young men and women polishing leather, repairing tack, polishing cannon parts, mucking stalls, training horses, grooming, cleaning. It's hard work.

Every waking hour is spent on things equestrian. One doesn't have to know anything about horses when they join the King's Troop, but after four years one emerges as a resplendent horseman.

The King's Troop uses Irish Draft horses. These are massive animals capable of doing just about anything. The gunner rig is a six-horse hitch along with three riders. The cannons weigh one and a half tons and have no brakes. A horse's placement in the hitch is dependent on the size and strength of their hindquarters; the lighter horses will lead, the medium horses will be the swing team (center of the hitch) and the buff bottom horses will be the wheel horses (the "brakes"). The pair of wheel horses are responsible for stopping the rig; imagine being the one to be directly in front of a cannon going 20 mph and having to bring all that weight and momentum to a halt!

I love the disciplined horsemanship of the cavalry (not that I am capable of living up to it but one can wish). Seeing old harnesses and gear looking like they just came off out of the factory is wonderful. Staring down a cannon that fired the first shot for the British in W.W.I but looks like it was just made yesterday is daunting.

In December of 2000 while attending the Olympia International Show Jumping Championships, I witnessed a King's Troop display that hadn't been done in 50 years: Jumping the Gun. The entire hitch goes over a jump, the huge cannon is airborne. This is what was done in the war when the cannons had to be quickly moved from one place to another. It is breathtaking.

In viewing the photos that accompany this article, note the fact that the riderless horses have no reins; they are controlled by a baton held by the rider.

So while we await Jody's arrival, enjoy these photos and ponder the possibilities for Island Star Equestrian Center!

For more information about King's Troop visit their Web site.

© 2002 Island Star