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Two horses in London caused chaos after becoming fearful due to builders moving rubble. The horses, named Vida and Quaker from the Household Cavalry, were spooked as they traveled through Wilton Crescent in Belgravia. It happened around 8:40 am when a loud noise came from the dropping of concrete by a builder’s travelator.
During the incident, five horses were frightened in total, with Vida and Quaker being severely affected. Sadly, they are now in a critical condition and have required surgery to treat their injuries.
Additionally, three soldiers who were riding the horses and two other individuals suffered injuries during the horses’ two-hour, six-mile rampage through the city. The chaotic events took place on Wednesday and caused distress to both the animals and the people involved.
It emerged that Vida, the blood-soaked white horse, reportedly has a history of being spooked and even allegedly kicked a soldier in the head during the King’s Coronation.
One of the five tried to bolt but was caught in time, but horses Trojan, Quaker and Tennyson all joined Vida in running loose.
Yesterday morning, six soldiers and seven horses from the Life Guards were on an extended Watering Order, an exercise to keep up the fitness of animals not involved in the public-facing King’s Life Guard duties.
They are thought to have been spooked by the noise and five bolted, with two remaining in place.
An Army spokesperson said: ‘Two of the injured horses were operated on last night, with one transferred to an equine hospital. All remaining horses are being closely observed.
‘All three soldiers involved are expected to recover fully and to return to duty.
‘Of the seven horses which were spooked, five tried to bolt and four, Vida, Trojan, Quaker and Tennyson, broke loose.
‘Our horses receive the highest standards of care, and those that did not undergo surgery are expected to return to duty in due course.
‘We want to thank everyone who has shown such kindness and concern towards our soldiers and horses.’
Defence minister James Cartlidge said Vida and Quaker were ‘in a serious condition, but as I understand, still alive’.
He told Sky News today: ‘[They] are unfortunately in a relatively serious condition and obviously we will be monitoring that condition.’
The military horses who ran loose through London was an ‘exceptional’ situation, the minister added, explaining more than 150 animals are on exercise in the capital each day.
He told LBC: ‘Obviously, we didn’t want that situation to happen. What I would stress to you is that this is very exceptional.
‘You are probably aware that the army has horses out on exercise in central London every day of the week. It is about 150 horses on average exercising every day.
‘So this is extremely unlikely this scenario. Unfortunately we have seen what has happened, but all I can say is the crucial thing, as you said yourself, no serious injuries to the public as far as we aware, and of course we will be keeping an eye on the situation.’
An Army source told The Sun that the white horse that was drenched in blood, Vida, was ‘lively’ and had a history of being spooked.
Vida is thought to have kicked a soldier in the head during the King’s Coronation.
Usually Household Cavalry horses are black, however the regiment’s state trumpeters always ride white or grey horses such as Vida.
Four soldiers were unseated as the spooked horses bolted and three servicemen were injured and taken to hospital. None are in a life-threatening condition.
Onlookers yesterday said one of the Household Cavalry soldiers was left ‘screaming in pain’ after he was thrown from his horse when it struck a car by the Clermont Hotel on Buckingham Palace Road, Victoria.
The horses rampaged for six miles before they were finally caught in Limehouse, east London. The injured horses saw a vet and all of the animals are now back at the Army’s camp.
One of the horses has also seemingly ran into a double-decker bus, smashing its windscreen, while another reportedly crashed into a black cab.
Emergency services rushed to help the injured soldier, who was seen being treated on the road.
Construction worker Adejo Are said he saw one of the horses crash into the front of a Big Bus as it fled down Buckingham Palace Road.
‘The were running down the street at a very high speed. It was very scary,’ he said.
‘It’s rare to see horses stampeding down the street like that.
‘I heard a big bang from further down the road as the horse ran into the bus. Two others then also hit it and fell to the ground before getting up and running off.
‘The first one just stood there like it was stunned and turned around and then back again.
‘A man from the street came over and guided it out of the road and calmed it down. I was very impressed because he wasn’t in any uniform. He just knew how to deal with the horse.
‘The front of the bus was completely shattered from the impact.’
Bashir Aden, 48, a construction worker, told The Telegraph: ‘I saw a soldier falling down into the street after the horse ran into a car. One of my colleagues called the police.
‘The man hit the floor hard, he was screaming in pain.
‘You could see blood all over the parked car.’
A silver Mercedes-Benz people carrier was also hit by another horse, with damage to its side and two rear windows broken.
The Mercedes taxi driver spoke of his ‘shock’ after a loose Household Cavalry horse smashed into his car near Buckingham Palace.
One of the horses smashed into his people carrier, shattering his windows and leaving deep dents in his car.
There were also specks of blood splattered across the side.
The driver, called Farez, revealed how he was completely unaware of the horses until one slammed into his car.
He had been waiting for a passenger when the horse struck his car.
He told LBC: ‘I was just sitting in the car to pick up my passenger, but on the other side there was a [horse] but I didn’t see.’
‘When the horse hit my car then I saw, it was like a smash.’
Recalling how bystanders came over to the car to check on his welfare, Farez added: ‘I was ok, but it [the car] is damaged.
Then we stopped all the traffic and the one military guy fell down.’
He added: ‘I saw about three, four horses. The think the white horse hit my car.’
Another man was trampled by one of the horses as he cycled to work along Fleet Street.
Onlookers say they saw two horses – one black and one white – charging down the street towards Ludgate at around 8.30am.
The man, described as in his late 30s to early 40s, was knocked off his bike by the white horse outside of the International Arbitration Centre (IAC) in Fleet Street.
The horse continued galloping down the street after the collision, shedding a horseshoe further down the busy road.
Mark Camps, who works at the IAC, said he saw the cyclist lying on the street in front of the building.
‘He was conscious and lying flat on his back in the road, but wasn’t able to speak,’ he explained.
‘Some passersby ran over to help him and carried him to the pavement. He still had his helmet on, luckily.
‘The ambulance eventually came around 9am and were able to move him.’
Police were reportedly in hot pursuit of the escaped horses, flying down the street five minutes behind the horses.
A shopkeeper on Fleet Street said she heard the noise of the horses first as they galloped down the road at high speed, before hearing a commotion quickly followed by sirens.
‘There are usually police on horses around here,’ she said. ‘But this was clearly very different just from the sound. And then I saw the horses charge past, one covered in blood.
‘I texted my friend immediately after at 8:39am.’
Buckingham Palace Road was closed after the shocking incident and a cordon was put in place.
A blue tarpaulin tent was put up around the injured soldier.
The horses ran through the streets of Victoria and got as far east as Aldwych before they were calmed and contained by police on the Highway near Limehouse.
Officers are now waiting for Army horseboxes to take the animals away.
A woman who saw the horse crash into the Mercedes told LBC: ‘One of the horses hit the Mercedes van and the rider was on it, fell back on this little middle bit of the road and the other woman lost control of her horse and she managed to grab the railings.
‘The horses were injured obviously from the glasses that they had broken. [The injured soldier] was laying there on the ground. He looked like he hurt himself pretty bad. It was terrible.’
The horses were all caught and accounted for by 10.30am, the Met Police said.
Footage of two horses being caught outside Gordon House on the Glamis Estate in Limehouse, east London, appeared to show that the white horse had broken its leg.
Still drenched in blood, the horse’s back left leg was bandaged and the animal seemed unwilling to walk on it.
The police worked with soldiers to contain the horses before moving them into an Army horsebox.
The animals were reportedly calm and stationary by the time the police reached them.
Held at the side of the road by several officers, the white horse bled all over the road and was treated by vets at the scene.
Footage shows it bleeding profusely from its back leg as police gathered around to stem the flow.
Builder Tom Cahill saw the horses being collected by the army.
He said: ‘The horses had stopped and the police caught up to them.
‘It looked like the white horse had broken its leg.
‘At first there were just a few police officers but then they called the army in.
‘After they took the horses away they were trying to clean up all the blood but they didn’t have enough water.
‘There was so much blood they had to call the fire department to clean it up.’
Many people living in Gordon House saw the commotion as they left for the school run.
Junaid Ahmed said he saw the scene from his bedroom window.
He said: ‘It was so sad – I have pets myself and seeing all that blood dripping onto the street….I just hope he’s alright.
‘I even saw some of the police officers crying as they were treating the horse.’
An Army Spokesperson said: ‘A number of military working horses became loose during routine exercise this morning.
‘All of the horses have now been recovered and returned to camp.
‘A number of personnel and horses have been injured and are receiving the appropriate medical attention.’
The City of London Police said: ‘At around 8.40am, we were called about horses that had became loose and were travelling through the City.
‘Our officers have contained two horses on the Highway near Limehouse. We’re waiting for an Army horse box to collect the horses and transport them to veterinary care.’
London Ambulance Service said: ‘We were called at 8.25am today to reports of a person being thrown from a horse on Buckingham Palace Road, SW1W.
‘We sent resources to the scene including ambulance crews, a paramedic in a fast response car, and an incident response officer.
‘Our first paramedic was on the scene in five minutes.’
The Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment Commanding Officer Matt Woodward said: ‘Our immediate priority was the safety and wellbeing of our soldiers, members of the public and our horses.’
The Household Cavalry – the regiment the horses were from – guards the monarch at Buckingham Palace and acts as the Sovereign’s mounted escort on state occasions.
It also provides reconnaissance support to airborne forces on operations and has seen more than a few famous faces among its ranks.
Popstar James Blunt served in the regiment in the 1990s after training at Sandhurst military academy and went on to see active service in Kosovo.
Both Prince Harry and Prince William were also soldiers in the Household Cavalry’s other regiment, the Blues and Royals.
Prince Harry was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the regiment in 2006 before being joined by Prince William later that year.
Blunt, 50, served in the Armed Forces for six years. As a Household Cavalry Life Guard, he stood sentry as the Queen Mother’s body lay in state and rode as the Queen’s Sovereign Escort on ceremonial escort.
He was also one of the first peacekeepers to enter Pristina, Kosovo’s capital, where he encountered chilling evidence of ethnic cleansing. This experience inspired his song No Bravery.
Speaking of his time in Kosovo in 2021, he told of a tense encounter with Russian forces.
He said: ‘I was the lead officer of 30,000 NATO troops.
‘We got to an airport where the Russians were there already. I was given instruction to overrun and overpower them.
‘Fortunately, a general who had been given that instruction was confronted by our own general who said, ‘I’m not having my soldiers start World War III and told us to pull back’.’
Meanwhile, Harry, the Duke of Sussex, rose to the rank of lieutenant in the Blues and Royals before he retrained as an Apache helicopter co-pilot in 2012 for his second tour of Afghanistan.
He chose to wear his regimental uniform when he married Meghan Markle at Windsor’s St George’s Chapel in 2018.
The duke had been expected to follow his father King Charles and grandfather Prince Philip into the Welsh Guards after graduating from Sandhurst.
He was said to have opted for the Household Cavalry so he could pursue his love of horses.
William, who passed out of Sandhurst military academy after his younger brother, joined his brother in the Household Cavalry because of the variety of roles that the regiment undertakes.
The Palace said that William was attracted by the regiment’s record in recent conflicts, including the Falklands War, the 1991 Gulf War and operations in Northern Ireland.
The Blue and Royals and the Life Guards are the oldest and most senior regiments in the Army.
Princess Diana’s former lover, James Hewitt, served as a captain in the Life Guards.
Harry left the Army in March 2015 and then had to give up his honorary military appointments after ending his role as a working royal.
Prince William went on to serve with the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy before leaving active service in 2013.
