Five military horses being prepared for participation in a ceremonial event ran wild in central London on Wednesday morning, the BBC and other news outlets reported, traveling distances of as much as 5 miles before being calmed and given veterinary care.
Although one horse appeared to be bleeding in photographs and videos of the scene, no serious injuries involving pedestrians, the animals, or their (initial) riders have been reported. A video statement issued by an army spokesman describes the horses as having been brought “to safety.” (The video concludes, “We are grateful for the due consideration given by the members of the public to not making loud noises around our horses.”)
The horses are part of something called the Household Calvary, a military unit that takes part in royal ceremonies, and were being “inspected ahead of rehearsals for the King’s birthday parade.” (Well, at least there was a good reason to have them in a noisy urban environment.) They were reportedly spooked by concrete falling off a conveyor belt in Belgravia, a neighborhood whose homes are notorious for being purchased (but not occupied) by Russian oligarchs and other megawealthy foreigners with ties to organized crime.
Per the BBC’s incident map, the horses broke loose near Buckingham Palace, and two of them passed through the Strand and were eventually seen as far away as the Limehouse Link tunnel, a distance of some 5 miles or 8 “kilometres.” Two animals were captured on “the Highway,” the BBC writes (a road which is, in fact, just referred to as “the Highway”). TMZ says the horses ran amok for about two hours.
The BBC’s reporting includes several instant-classic quotes in the “man on the street” genre, such as the 24-year-old who described the rampaging horses as “not what you expect to see when you are going to work in the morning,” and the member of a clean-up crew who said that he and his co-workers “normally attend other types of traffic accidents” rather than collisions between cars and horses.
As unusual as it may have been, the scene has not displaced other news across the websites of leading U.K. tabloids; the Mirror’s top current story is, quote, “YUMMY MUMMY: Ant McPartlin’s pregnant wife Anne-Marie cradles baby bump during date with very famous pal.” This is labeled as an “EXCLUSIVE” on the site. The “famous pal” referred to in the headline is “former footballer Jamie Redknapp.” Life goes on, it seems, for the United States’ transatlantic neighbor.
