In 1938, when S.T. Wood became commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, he made an unusual stipulation: from then on, all of the Mounties’ horses must be black. Wood had been inspired by the spectacle of the Household Cavalry in scarlet tunics mounted on black horses at the coronation of King George VI in England in 1937. Finding enough horses of the colour, temperament and size required was difficult, so the RCMP started breeding its own stock in 1939. Over the decades, that endeavor has evolved into an elite warmblood breeding program with top European bloodlines that produces horses for the famous Musical Ride and other ceremonial duties.
Today, three stallions, 21 broodmares and more than three dozen youngsters live at the breeding farm on 150 acres in Pakenham, ON. At age three, horses designated as musical ride candidates move to the Rockcliffe Park Equestrian Centre in Ottawa for training. Those not meeting the criteria of colour, temperament, or size are sold at an RCMP auction every two years.
Warming up to Warmbloods
“In the early years, we used to accept some free horses from anyone who wanted to donate one to the program,” says breeding farm manager John Phillips, who has been with the RCMP with 39 years and has worked at the farm for 15. Much of the early breeding stock had a large percentage of Thoroughbred blood. But those horses tended to have hotter temperaments, thus were not well suited for a job that required calm dispositions, and “some of the men in the force were pretty big and the horses were too small and refined,” he explains.