A mount from the Mounties, again by royal appointment
King Charles meets Noble, a gift from Canada, which will carry him during his first Trooping the Colour
IT IS a relationship that dates back to 1904, when King Edward VII bestowed a royal title on Canada’s North West Mounted Police, the predecessors of today’s famous Mounties.
Now that long relationship has found its latest incarnation in the shape of Noble, a seven-year-old, 16.2 hands high black mare.
She has been gifted to King Charles and is settling into her new home at The Royal Mews in Windsor, where His Majesty met her for the first time last week.
The King is expected to ride Noble at his first Trooping the Colour as monarch on June 17, when the mare will join more than 200 other horses, 1,400 troops and 400 musicians for the official birthday celebrations.
Noble is the latest in a line of horses to be given to the Royal family by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).
After taking part in the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953, the Mounties went on to present her with eight horses throughout her reign.
The first of these was Burmese, in 1969, who the late Queen rode at Trooping the Colour for 18 years. Now it will be Noble’s turn to trot into the limelight. The mare first caught the eye when she toured with the RCMP’s Musical Ride – a showcase of their calvary’s equestrian skills – in 2022.
Here she was recognised for what Buckingham Palace described as her “superior physical and athletic ability, as well as her composed personality”. Having demonstrated her potential during the tour, participating in 90 performances at 50 different locations across Canada, Noble was selected as the ideal horse for King Charles because of her size and ability. Equine experts said her calm demeanour “allows her to thrive in the sometimes raucous atmosphere of exciting public events”. Noble was bred and trained in Pakenham, Ontario, as part of the RCMP breeding programme and received her name through the annual ‘Name the Foal’ contest. In fact, her registered name is Her Noble, following the convention of naming Hanoverian mares with the same letter as their sire, in this case High Spirits. However, the RCMP have always used just the name Noble on all identifiers such as name plate, halter and tack boxes. Such is the strength of link between the RCMP’s horses and the Royal family that four of its members, riding horses they had gifted to the late Queen, took part in her funeral procession in September 2022.
The RCMP, which marks its 150th anniversary this year, has in recent years faced criticism over its relationship with indigenous people and environmental protesters, both subjects close to King Charles’s heart. There was particular controversy over its handling of protests by indigenous peoples against plans for an expansion of the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain oil pipeline through First Nations territory in British Columbia.
In May last year, during their tour of Canada, the then Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall were given a display of the Mounties’ skills when they took front row seats for the spectacular Musical Ride.
The Duchess was seen tapping her feet to the music as the Mounties carried out a complicated and choreographed display.
They were later led round the stables, where they met and stroked the nose of a five-year-old mare called Victoria who had been given to the RCMP by the late Queen.
Other horses given to her were Centennial, gifted in 1973 to mark its centenary, and James, who the King, as Prince of Wales, regularly rode for Trooping the Colour.
As Prince of Wales the King also rode George, who was gifted in 2009 to mark the 40th anniversary of the presentation of Burmese, for Trooping the Colour. It was Burmese that the late Queen was riding when six blank shots were fired at her as she rode down The Mall to the Trooping the Colour in 1981.
The horse was momentarily startled but the Queen, riding side-saddle in the uniform of Colonel-in-Chief of the Grenadier Guards, used her riding skills to bring it under control.