The Household Cavalry and the King's Troop

The Life Guards returning from Buckingham Palace

The British Army still has working cavalry and is well known for producing good farriers.  It is a little bit of pagentry and a good bit of living history and we took a Thursday off to go down to London and see it all.

The Household Cavalry are based at the Knightsbrige barracks, right across from Hyde Park.  I am not a military person, so please excuse my inexact terminology, but there are two parts: the Life Guards wear red with white plumes and the Blues & Royals wear blue with red plumes.  I don't know what or why the difference, but they do alternate days protecting the queen.  When we arrived the Blues & Royals were getting ready to set off and when we left we passed the Life Guards returning.  Yes, they do have special classes to learn how to ride in all the fancy gear and are still trained in maneuvers to protect the queen if she were to be attacked while out and about.

Knightsbridge main gate

Farrier Major Neil Sherlock gave us the grand tour of Knightsbridge.  It is a very odd place, really, and is referred to as a "concrete jungle," although I think I prefer "highrise for horses."  It is a monstrosity of '60's architecture, although it has been updated into quite a nice facility.  There are ramps leading to all levels of stabling, with, I assume housing and offices above that.  The forge is located at ground level, immediately behind the parade ground.  When you go out the back of the building you are looking at some of the most expensive real estate in London.  I was also amazed by the lack of security- we litterally walked up to the main gate, asked to see the farriers and were led straight in.

The "High Rise for Horses." The Stabling is mostly behind this block, the parade ground is right in front of it and the forge is in the back of this block at ground level.

An aisle- the straight stalls ("stables") are hinged so that they will swing around and turn into a box stall ("stable").

The horse walker, located below ground level.  The stairs to the Forge are just to the right of it.  Behind it is the Pharmacy, complete with two vets and one tech.  The saddler's shop is buried somewhere to the left.

The Forge

 There are over 120 horses at Knightsbridge.  The day that were were there, they had at least forty horses to shoe.  This seemed like a lot, until I found out that there were eight farriers on duty. There are about twelve or thirteen farriers total, including apprentices, although two have to be provided to Buckingham and there are also some apprentices away to college.  The farriers get an accelerated course, having only a three year apprenticeship.  Any farrier deciding on a military career- meaning more than the obligatory seven years for a farrier- is required to pass their AWCF. 

  The horses we saw being shod were coming in off the grass (they are treated to several months rest every year), and this will probably be the only time that they get an entire set.  They are shod as necessary, usually in pairs of feet, every one to four weeks. They are inspected several times a week, if not daily, by the farriers to see if they need shoeing.  Neil says they are all trimmed to a T-square balance and that a flat landing is critical for these horses working on hard surfaces all of the time.  Apprentices pull and trim (which is evaluated by a qualified farrier), the qualified guys fit up and they may tack shoes in place, and then apprentices nail and clinch.

 

The Shoeing Floor.  The floor itself is made up of vertically laid wooden pegs and is absolutely lovely to work on, and much more tough than a traditional wooden floor.  The white board on the post has a list of all the horses currently in service and any special notes that about them.  To the left, out of the picture, is space to tie at least two, if not more, horses.

The sample shoe board for apprentices, showing them all the shoes they will have to make competently by the end of their apprenticeship.  The board to the right is where they can hand in shoes to be looked at and critiqued.

They just came off the grass and there wasn't much to work with.  The brands on the feet indicate the regiment it belongs to as well as the horses number.  This was started so that cavalry men couldn't sell their horses off on the black market, which they were wont to do, apparently.  In order to be issued a new horse they had to bring back the leg with the horses number to prove to the quartermaster that the old one was dead.

Branding irons for replacing the hoof markings as necessary.

The Farrier's Ax.  This is a ceremonial one, used in parades, although one would have been issued to every army farrier.  The spike is for dispatching wounded horses and the ax was for chopping the leg off as proof of death.

After the grand tour at Knightsbridge we took the Tube over to Woolich, where Farrier Major Alan Bould met us and gave us the grand tour of the King's Troops new facility.  At £17.5 million the brand new home of the artillery regiment is enough to make anyone green with envy.  This regiment is a little bit odd, because, despite their new place, they are a self-funded regiment.  As such, they go around and do shows with the guns, musical drives, etc. to earn income.

Row after row of stable aisles, enough space for 130 horses

One aisle with box and straight stalls.  The straight stall walls are hinged and can swing in the event a horse gets cast.

The Forge

The new place has a state of the art forge, complete with its wooden peg shoeing floor.  Alan and his crew evaluate horses every Monday and decide if and when they need to be done that week.  Because they are driving horses they tend to wear out hind shoes more quickly, with some only lasting a week, while an occasional pair of fronts may even get reset.  Alan is thinking about doing his FWCF at some point soon and using these horses to conduct a quantitative study about shoe wear.  Currently, he thinks that the wider webbed shoes last longer than the thicker ones and may use this as his thesis topic.

A spare horseshoe pouch.  A front and hind shoe go in the main pocket and the nails go in the little pocket in the flap.  This was developed during some war where the British were in the mountains and every time a horse pulled a shoe they had to kill it because it went too crippled to get it out of there.

The Saddler's Shop.  The King's Troop has its own saddlers, just like the Household Cavalry.  Saddlers, like farriers, have an apprenticeship and have various levels of examinations.  The tack for these horses is very specialized, as for the Household, and maintaining it is a full time job.

Cleaning it is also a full time job.  The polish, called "Bliffing" is absolutely outstanding, if somewhat nuts.  The King's Troop also agrees with me, and as of January bliffing has been officially stopped, although the tack is still polished the same mirror shine is not required (it is still very clean) and the effort is being concentrated on cleaning the guns.

The King's Troop, as already stated, is the artillery regiment.  The guns they have are original WWI guns that actually saw service during the Great War.  They are still impeccably maintained and perfectly functional, although they only fire blanks these days.

 

Alan demonstrates how a gun is positioned.  Firing one is a four man job.

They have a lot of guns.  To the right are all of the munitions wagons that were pulled behind the guns, and behind those was an extra string of six horses.  The harness for the front six is designed so that if the gun flips over the harness will rotate and the team will not be taken down.

There is also a hearse in the room with the guns.  Apparently, the other job of the Farrier Major of the King's Troop is to detatch the coffin in the event of a state funeral.  The screw that holds the coffin in place is just visible at the top of the hearse, towards the back of the wheels.