Children's Story — Burmese's Tale

Once upon a time, in Fort Walsh, Saskatchewan, a pure black filly was born at the RCMP Breeding farm. Pure black horses are priceless to the RCMP, because they use only the blackest horses for their world-famous Musical Ride. They nicknamed the filly Blackie, and she was everyone’s favorite, but people thought she was too small to be in the musical ride. Then one day, to everyone’s surprise, the RCMP decided to give Blackie a chance to train for the Musical Ride!

When Blackie arrived at the training camp in Regina, she was given a new name to demonstrate her noble birth and her proud position. All the foals and fillies born that year were given names that started with ‘B’, so the Mounties gave Blackie the new name Burmese. Burmese went through training for three years and then she started teaching new Mounties how to ride. One day, RCMP Headquarters announced that the horseback riding would be moved to Ottawa and that only specially chosen Mounties would ride the horses.

Burmese was still a favorite with the Mounties and she did so well in training that Burmese moved to Ottawa with the other horses. Since the Musical Ride already had all the horses they needed, Burmese became a back-up horse and kept training so that she would be ready when her big chance came!

A few years later, some of the old horses retired and Burmese got her chance to be in the Musical Ride. All her training was worth it - she was amazing! Burmese kept working hard and soon she was the best horse on the team and lead all of the other horses in the show. Can you believe that once everyone thought Burmese too small for the Musical Ride?

When the RCMP was planning a trip to England they heard that Queen Elizabeth of England was looking for a new riding horse. The Mounties decided they would give the Queen one of their best horses as a present. Queen Elizabeth said that she would be proud to ride one of the RCMP’s beautiful black horses, even though kings and queens usually rode grey and white horses.

Burmese was about to become even more famous - the Mounties chose her as the horse they would give to the Queen. When the Mounties traveled to England to present Burmese to the Queen, they were surprised to hear that the Queen wanted to see her new horse perform the Musical Ride one last time, before making the royal stables at Windsor Castle her home. The Mounties were worried - this would be the biggest crowd that Burmese had ever performed before and she hadn’t practiced in a while. Could she do it? Would she be too rusty? Of course not! Burmese performed every step like a professional, winning the hearts of the Queen and her people.

Burmese went on to become one of the most famous horses in England. She participated in mounted patrols in the city of London, took the Queen for her weekly rides, and marched in the Queen’s birthday parades. After Burmese retired, she had a home in a pasture next to Windsor Castle, so that the Queen could watch her favorite horse while having tea. After Burmese died, a statue was built in her honour at Windsor Castle, and her relative - a horse named Centenial (sic) came to England to be the Queen’s new riding horse.