I’m like Bertie with a bone – I want to chew over three bits of the Birthday Parade you missed on TV.
In reverse order, as they say at awards ceremonies, a musician was unmounted. The horse dashed up to the front of the procession and capered around stable mates. If you are a mounted musician the reins are attached to your ankles so much, much longer than the reins you nervously clutched as a child on Blackpool beach and they became tangled in the horse’s legs. After a circuit of Horse Guards the horse was collected, reunited with its rider and returned to Wellington Barracks under a cloud.
At the end of the ceremony the parade ground was combed to collect medals that fell off. Apparently vigorous stamping dislodges medals. My expert on Thursday told me that a silver star got lost on the Mall during a Birthday Parade. It was hoped it would be returned but it wasn’t. It was a fancy bit of kit resulting in an insurance claim and a job for Garrard to make a replica. Later, much later, a horse was being re-shod and the crushed silver star was found embedded in its hoof.
And something you definitely didn’t see on TV. I dropped my tube pass through a narrow crack in the stand on Thursday morning, showing unexpected dexterity.
Ah, thanks for explaining about the horse. I saw it on the telly and was wondering where its rider was.