MOUNTIESIN STEPONUKSOIL AGAIN
MOUNTIESIN STEPONUKSOIL AGAIN
Canadian Mounted Police are acclaimed worldwide for
their horsemanship skills. Jacqueline Sarsby catches
up with the Mounties on their first visit to this country
for more than a decade
IT is a rare treat to see the Royal Canadian Mounted Police on the green grass of Devon – or anywhere else in the UK, for that matter. They may seem familiar to us, but their last visit to these shores was in 1988.
This year, after escorting the Queen at the Royal Windsor Show, they went on to provide one of the most spectacular attractions at the Devon County Show. In their musical ride, the troop of 36 horses and red-coated riders form and reform into patterns of black and red. They group into a maze, or a wagon wheel, they become swinging gates and revolving turnstiles, all in time to the music, filing, circling and folding into one another like elegantly shuffled cards.
If their mounts appear controlled and imperturbable, this comes of patient schooling. Riding master Sgt-major Bill Stewart, who has been a police officer for 28 years, says: "We dont even allow people to use the term breaking horses. We train them very, very slowly."
* Hanoverian mares
The horses are bred from Hanoverian mares crossed with thoroughbred stallions and raised on the RCMP stud, 40 miles from Ottawa. The young horses do no work until they are three-years-old and then they are brought in to train for two-and-a-half years before being put to their full work, which is the musical ride.
Sgt-major Stewart emphasises that the horses must be mature, not just in muscle and bone, but in every sense of the word. "Mental maturity is very important for our horses. Horses have got to get used to parades." They have also found that training the horses slowly and relatively late gives them a longer working life, and some of the horses in the ride are 20-years-old. They have one horse aged 29 which they use for new riders.
* Horses not used
The RCMP has not used horses for policing for more than half a century, so all their duties are ceremonial. The constables are allowed just three years as riders and then return to normal policing – in cars. So that the horses do not become too attached to any one rider (or vice-versa), riders normally change horses every year.
The horses are, of course, the stars of the show and everything is done to make the constant travelling less stressful for them. Their diet is kept simple – Timothy hay and whole oats – because it can be difficult to find particular mixed feeds in different towns, and horses can be picky. Like most of us, they prefer what they are used to.
Because they are grazing animals with small stomachs, they are fed four times a day – small quantities and often – and if one of them gets travel sick, with a fever, it is carefully nursed.
Farrier Dan Polegato travels with the troop and keeps a spare set of shoes, tailor-made and ready, for each of the horses. Finally, two stable guards are always with them, day and night, the constables taking it in turns, on 12 hour shifts.
The Mounties themselves raise thousands of Canadian $s for charity and have been promoting a campaign called Say nay to drugs, directed at children. On this trip to England, they visited 15 schools to put their message across.
They are a troop of skilled ambassadors. At the end of every performance at the Devon County Show, they would ride out to the edge of the arena, mounts patiently facing the crowd, riders smiling and happy to answer peoples questions, joking and making friends.
* Farmers sons
Some of them, like their sgt major Stewart, are farmers sons. He was brought up on a 60.7ha (150acre) mixed farm in Ramsayville, Ontario. There, farmers have to contend with snow and temperatures of -30F to -35F, and winter their livestock in open-sided barns called loafing barns.
Other difficulties have a more familiar ring. Sgt major Stewart says: "Dad quit milking after quotas came in." After their father went over to beef, sgt major Stewart and his brother used to breed and show Aberdeen Angus cattle, but no longer. The small farmer has generally had to give way to big corporate business farms.
Sgt major Stewart joined the RCMP in 1971, while his younger brother stayed on in the farm until two years ago. Now, the family farm has gone and sgt major Stewart leads a troop of remarkable ambassadors, not only for Canada, but also for skill and courage, for care and respect in their relationship with horses, and for caring responsibility towards young people in the modern world.