Eat My Dust
In the late, late summer, my husband announced an end-of-summer celebration. We went to the P.N.E. (Pacific National Exhibition). There we enjoyed a wide range of entertainment. My favorite of the day was the Canadian Mounted Police Musical Ride - where officers from all over the country showcased the talents of their horses in an inspirational one-hour show. The first time we'd seen the show was about twelve years ago, when my youngest son was calling horses "Yee Haws". I was so excited to see them again. They put on quite a show. 
We got there in time for the warm up.
Each horse has a Maple Leaf shaved into it's flank.
The reason I know this is because of where my husband found seats for us. Right in the front row. I could have reached out and patted the horses. I 'd never been that close before. It was incredible! And I found out that horses kick up a lot of dirt as they go by.
There were lots of impressive maneuvers . One had the look of a wagon wheel. The inside horses made the spokes and the outside horses circled them as the wheel as they went round.. This one, they
called "Threading the Needle".
The horses crossed paths with each other without running into each other. If only the rush hour traffic would work so well. I got my son to take a hundred million pictures, until the battery ran out. But really, the pictures don't give a good representation of the complexity of what those horses were doing. 
This one I borrowed from [http://www.lakesuperiornews.com/News/News2009/TheMusicalRide/tabid/1151/Default.aspx]
to show you the formation that was on the Canadian 50$ bill for many years.
The most exciting one was the cavalry charge. They all yelled "CHARGE!" and away they ran towards the end of the stadium
It's other name is "Whataloddadust".
An interesting side note was when one of the officers lost his hat as he rode by.
It lay there in the dust and we all wondered what would happen. Not to worry. It was rescued by this officer
who stood at attention with it until, the other man could retrieve it.
At the end of the presentation they introduced all the officers by region. The B.C. officers got the loudest applause. Then they took one more ride around and stationed themselves at various points of the stadium, in case the audience members wanted to ask questions. The man behind us had lots of questions for the gal from Quebec who was talking to us. It was her first year with the Ride. Her horse was 11 years old. She was very knowledgeable about the topic and told us all sorts of interesting tidbits of information - from where they trained, to where the horses go when they get too old to be in the ride.
Too soon, it was time to go. "Bye Bye Yee Haws" I said silently, as my son had said as he waved to them 12 years ago. "Thanks for the memories."
We got there in time for the warm up.
Each horse has a Maple Leaf shaved into it's flank.
The reason I know this is because of where my husband found seats for us. Right in the front row. I could have reached out and patted the horses. I 'd never been that close before. It was incredible! And I found out that horses kick up a lot of dirt as they go by.
There were lots of impressive maneuvers . One had the look of a wagon wheel. The inside horses made the spokes and the outside horses circled them as the wheel as they went round.. This one, they
called "Threading the Needle".
The horses crossed paths with each other without running into each other. If only the rush hour traffic would work so well. I got my son to take a hundred million pictures, until the battery ran out. But really, the pictures don't give a good representation of the complexity of what those horses were doing. 
This one I borrowed from [http://www.lakesuperiornews.com/News/News2009/TheMusicalRide/tabid/1151/Default.aspx]to show you the formation that was on the Canadian 50$ bill for many years.
The most exciting one was the cavalry charge. They all yelled "CHARGE!" and away they ran towards the end of the stadium
It's other name is "Whataloddadust".An interesting side note was when one of the officers lost his hat as he rode by.
It lay there in the dust and we all wondered what would happen. Not to worry. It was rescued by this officer
who stood at attention with it until, the other man could retrieve it.
At the end of the presentation they introduced all the officers by region. The B.C. officers got the loudest applause. Then they took one more ride around and stationed themselves at various points of the stadium, in case the audience members wanted to ask questions. The man behind us had lots of questions for the gal from Quebec who was talking to us. It was her first year with the Ride. Her horse was 11 years old. She was very knowledgeable about the topic and told us all sorts of interesting tidbits of information - from where they trained, to where the horses go when they get too old to be in the ride.
Too soon, it was time to go. "Bye Bye Yee Haws" I said silently, as my son had said as he waved to them 12 years ago. "Thanks for the memories."
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