I have seen quite a few videos of King’s Guard ceremonial horses, such as the horse carrying a Blues and Royals soldier, and another on Horse Guards Parade, Whitehall, London, gently biting tourists while they capture their precious selfies in front of the horse and guard.
It appears to be happening enough to come to the conclusion that the horses might have been trained to do it in order to deter tourists from becoming too pushy and interfering with the guard.
Here is a screenshot from a video on the Express newspaper. The horse bites to the point where the man cries out. There is an issue of criminal assault here it seems to me. I don’t want to get too serious about it. But what if a horse drew blood one day? The guard could be sued vicariously as he is in charge of the horse 😃.
I have seen guards shout at tourists under the same circumstances. In one of these videos, I see the rider smiling wryly when he horse gently bites the tourist who yelps in pain! The bite is not that gentle. Horses bite with 500 pounds per square inch force which is more than twice that of humans. And they have big incisor teeth!
I can’t guarantee that the video will keep working I am afraid. If anyone knows for sure that the horses are trained, please comment.
I can’t see any other reason for it. Horses don’t normally bite strangers and these horses are well trained. In addition to the reason for biting that I have mentioned (trained to deter people) there are two other reasons: aggression and playfulness.
These horses are not aggressive and they are not behaving aggressively. The first reason is discounted. Playfulness is definitely a possibility. The horses must be bored standing still for how long? An hour or two? Apparently, it is one hour. Quite a tough call for a horse.
I just have this gut feeling that either the horses are trained to nibble tourists or they are bored and want to mess around to brighten up that long hour standing still. You can see the horses struggling to do it. They move their head a lot. In contrast the human on top, is static. They know why they are doing it. The horses don’t.
Below are some more articles on horses.
