The King will no longer ride in the Trooping the Colour due to his ongoing cancer treatments, it was reported last night.
As a former polo player and one of the Royal Family‘s most accomplished equestrians, King Charles rode for years in the parade – both for his mother’s official birthday celebrations and then for his own.
But he will not appear on horseback at the event this weekend and will instead travel in a carriage for the procession from Buckingham Palace to Horse Guards Parade and back, according to The Sunday Times.
It is understood that he will not ride at the parade again.
His illness is said to have curtailed the ‘monarch in the saddle’ tradition that he briefly revived in 2023, the first time the monarch had ridden in the parade since Queen Elizabeth did in 1986.
The late Queen rode her trusty mare Burmese until the horse was retired when she began travelling in a carriage until her final appearance in 2022, where she took the salute from the balcony of Buckingham Palace.
The King, 76, was admitted to hospital for treatment to an enlarged prostate in January 2024 and shortly after was diagnosed with an unspecified form of cancer.
It meant that he travelled with Queen Camilla in a carriage at last year’s parade to be safer and more comfortable.
King Charles’s illness is said to have curtailed the ‘monarch in the saddle’ tradition that he briefly revived in 2023 (above) – it is now understood that he will not ride at the parade again
Charles (right) travelled with Queen Camilla (left) in a carriage at last year’s parade to be safer and more comfortable
The King’s reviving of the tradition in 2023 meant it was the first time a monarch had ridden in the parade since Queen Elizabeth (above) did in 1986
This came a year after what is now known to be his last appearance on horseback for the celebration, which did not go particularly smoothly for Charles.
He was riding Noble, a black mare which appeared unsettled throughout – at one point even breaking into a canter in the Mall.
One television commentator described Noble’s behaviour as ‘if it was going into the starting stalls at Newmarket’.
And while Charles is not expected to ride at the parade again, this weekend’s event will be the first time that the Princess Royal has ridden in public since she was hospitalised following a suspected horse injury last year.
Anne, 74, plans to ride in the parade this year in her role as gold stick, the colonel of the Blues and Royals, alongside the Prince of Wales as colonel of the Welsh Guards and the Duke of Edinburgh as colonel of the Scots Guards and London Guards.
