The Royal Canadian Mounted Police force’s Musical Ride is a colorful exhibition of precision horsemanship. And it’s become one of Canada’s most recognizable institutions.
The Mounties formed in 1874 as Canada’s national police force and were mostly charged with the task of keeping order on the country’s expanding western frontier. Over the years, their role evolved to include protecting national and international dignitaries, enforcing federal laws, and policing rural areas. Today, more than 24,000 Mounties make up the force.
Since the beginning, the Mounties’ work and image have been associated with horses. In fact, until 1966, equitation training was mandatory for all new recruits. Each was assigned a horse and saddle right along with the uniform and handcuffs.
The Mounties’ Musical Ride is a colorful, precision performance of 36 men on horseback. The riders wear traditional Mountie uniforms (red coats and wide-brimmed Stetsons), and they execute a variety of cavalry maneuvers. The techniques date back to the 1700s and the days of Prussia’s Frederick the Great. Later, other European countries adopted them. And since so many of the riders who worked with the original Mounties had roots in Great Britain and had been trained in the British tradition, it was only natural that they’d integrate that training into their group’s displays. At the turn of the 20th century, the Mounties decided to show off their training to the public, and those maneuvers were choreographed to music. The first official public Musical Ride took place in 1901.
The Mounties were excellent horsemen, but adding music did teach them a hard lesson or two along the way. Initially, they experimented with bands on horseback, but as soon as the instruments sounded, the musicians’ horses spooked. At one exhibition at RCMP Headquarters in Regina, Saskatchewan, the horses threw their musical riders and bolted at the first trumpet blare. By the time the Mounties rounded up all the animals, several had run as many as 40 miles. From then on, the band stood apart from the horses—and remained on the ground.
The Musical Ride has become a well-known event, both in Canada and abroad, and with the exception of the World War I and World War II years, it has an uninterrupted history.
The first international event was in 1902, when the Musical Ride traveled to England to represent Canada at the coronation of King Edward VII. In 1937, the Musical Ride packed New York’s Madison Square Garden and, two years later, was back in the Big Apple to perform at the World’s Fair. And it’s still going strong—in 2008, the Musical Ride traveled to several American venues, including the Vermont State Fair and the Pennsylvania National Horse Show.
Thoroughbreds and Hanoverians are the standard breeds used for the Ride. The RCMP has even set up its own inhouse breeding program. The horses selected for the Musical Ride are always black, weigh 1,000 to 1,400 pounds, and stand 16 to 17 hands.
The breeding farm and year-round training facility are just a few miles from Ottawa, Canada’s capital city and the site of RCMP Headquarters. The horses spend three years there before moving to the training stables. Another two and a half years elapse before a horse is ready for the Ride.
During those years, the horses learn everything from traditional commands to the intricate Musical Ride formations. Another important part of the training process involves getting the horses accustomed to performing in front of large crowds. The arenas and stadiums where the riders perform can be loud, chaotic, and distracting for animals who spook easily.
The Mounties who participate in the Musical Ride perform several maneuvers during the show, but the two most famous are the Dome and the Charge.
•Dome: The horses form a circle and face the center, while the riders hold their lances up, forming a dome shape in the center of the circle. This formation is so famous that it used to appear on the back of Canada’s $50 bill.
•Charge: The most exciting part of the Musical Ride, this maneuver requires the riders to lower their lances while their horses gallop at full speed.
Today, the Musical Ride carries out about 50 performances during its annual summer tour. Riders also perform in parades and other special occasions. Thirty-six horses and horsemen—33 for the Ride and three alternates—travel to events all over the world. Some of these are for charitable causes and raise more than $1 million annually.
In prehistoric times, horses roamed across North America, but about 12,000 years ago, the animals went extinct there. Fortunately, about a million years before, many of them had migrated to Asia across the Bering Land Bridge. That kept the species alive, and horses finally returned to North America in the 15th century with European explorers.