Canada Day

Since it's Canada Day, I thought I'd celebrate by taking a look at probably the most internationally famous aspect of Canadian horse culture: the iconic Royal Canadian Mounted Police (a.k.a. the RCMP or the Mounties).

For a brief but fascinating study of the RCMP horse, please check out this site: http://imh.org/exhibits/online/legacy-of-the-horse/royal-canadian-mounted-police/.

There are few model horse makers who have not had a stab at portraying an RCMP horse in their preferred media -- plastic, china, metal, and resin.

Probably the best of the plastics are the two Hartland Mounties.  One, Sergeant Preston of the Yukon, was based on a character featured in a popular television series.  The other, Sergeant Lance O'Rourke, seems to be a Hartland original creation, with no mass media origin:

Breyer's earliest Mounties had no individual names or identities, but they did come mounted on a variety of Fury Prancers:

Later Breyer RCMP horses ("Big Ben" and "Liam") came without riders, but in beautiful RCMP-themed boxes.  In 2015, Breyer also offered an RCMP Christmas ornament, with a rider mounted on a G3 Thoroughbred horse:

Over the years, Beswick Pottery released two porcelain RCMP horses, one mounted and one without a rider:

Royal Worcester released a gorgeous Doris Lindner RCMP sculpture in a Limited Edition of 500:

And Trail of Painted Ponies released a limited edition resin RCMP horse especially for Canadian retailers:

Miniature Mountie figures are also very popular.  They've long been a stalwart addition to the Britains figurine line-up, in both metal and plastic.  Made in China and Made in Japan figurines, too, are often inspired by Mounties, like the adorable Enterprise Exclusive horse and rider salt and pepper shakers pictured below:

And then there are figurines created for model soldier hobbyists and painted by equine miniaturists:
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Although once a necessary part of a Mountie's duties, today's RCMP horses no longer even engage in crowd control -- their use is restricted to ceremonial duties, the most famous of which is the Musical Ride.  However, they are also brought out of the stable on important occasions, such as when they act as escorts to carriages carrying royal visitors to Canada.

Where once any rugged breed of horse would do, after the RCMP retired their horses from active duty during the late 1930s and early 1940s, they set their sights on breeding mostly black horses with a high concentration of Hanoverian and Trakehner influences.  Keeping this in mind, collectors should have no hesitation about adding non-black RCMP horses to their herd.  Horses of any colour were once acceptable mounts of the RCMP.  It's only recently that the Mounties have focused on basic black.

You can meet some of today's horses and riders here:  https://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/en/riders-and-horses.

So, for the RCMP fan, there is certainly no shortage of collectibles to choose from.  A complete model horse collection could easily be created around an RCMP theme.  I don't know off-hand of anyone who's done it, but given that the appeal crosses over into fans of police collectibles as well, I wouldn't be surprised to see it happen.

And now, a patriotic little ditty for all my fellow Canadians (but folks from other countries can feel free to watch it too):

* Images taken from all over the Internet, including Pinterest sites, auction sites like Worthpoint, Identify Your Breyer, Amazon, Music City Cards and Gifts, the Toy Soldier Company, Andrea Europe, and Zachary Lang/Smug Mug.