[ad_1] Article content After more than a year of being confined to barracks by COVID-19, one of the Canadian military’s most celebrated ceremonial units is back in the saddle. Article content And the Edmonton-based Lord Strathcona’s Horse (Royal Canadians) mounted troop are dusting off their show at the Calgary Stampede with musical rides on most
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After more than a year of being confined to barracks by COVID-19, one of the Canadian military’s most celebrated ceremonial units is back in the saddle.
And the Edmonton-based Lord Strathcona’s Horse (Royal Canadians) mounted troop are dusting off their show at the Calgary Stampede with musical rides on most days of the exhibition.
“We had a lot of time during the pandemic to train horses and work on our tack to make sure it’s good for the shows,” said Cpl. Ron Gauthier, 31.
“This is better than waiting around for shows to come up and gets us back into it.”
He spoke a few metres from the unit’s 19 horses quartered in stables just to the south of the Scotiabank Saddledome, where visitors snapped up $15 black baseball caps emblazoned with the mounted unit’s brand.
In a few minutes, Gauthier and his colleagues would be preparing for the day’s 45-minute musical ride in the nearby Nutrien Western Event Centre.
After fighting in the First World War, the unit traded in its horses for tanks and battled the Germans as an armoured force on the Italian front.
But the mounted troop’s connections to its origins remain in a tangible way: 120 years later, their animal of choice remains the American Quarter horse, originally adopted due to its overall riding qualities.
Across the Stampede grounds from their stable, Lord Strathcona’s armoured vehicles are on display and Gauthier said he’s ready to pivot from the saddle to crew one of the behemoths.
“Every year we have to keep up our training and we can get called up to do actual soldier stuff at any time,” said Gauthier, who’s been a gunner in a Coyote light armoured vehicle.
But the 13-year member of the Canadian Armed Forces said he prefers life in the saddle.
“It gets us out into different situations,” he said.
“I get paid to ride a horse, so it’s pretty good.”
After a similar hiatus at Spruce Meadows, the mounted troop will be returning to the equestrian venue in September.
on Twitter: @BillKaufmannjrn
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