DCHP-3

musical ride

DCHP-2 (Jun 2016)

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Musical Ride

n.

an equestrian drill performed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (see Image 1).

Type: 4. Culturally Significant — Musical rides evolved from cavalry drills designed to prepare riders and mounts for the battlefield. Early musical rides were performed by the Royal Canadian Dragoons, for example (see the 1887 quote). The predecessor of the RCMP, the North West Mounted Police, developed a musical ride that was first performed on 16 Jan. 1887 before Commissioner Lawrence Herchmer and his wife in Regina, SK, and consisted of 32 riders. The force began performing the ride in public in 1901 (see RCMP Veterans' reference). Today, the term is now almost exclusively connected with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The RCMP musical ride has become a national symbol (see the 1970 and 2006 quotations). See Chart 1 on the frequency of the term in Canada.
See also OED-3, s.v. "musical".

Quotations

1887
Mounted Police Items. The last Regina Leader describes a very interesting musical ride performed by the force at the barracks there. When the reporter arrived, the band, under Mr. Farmer, was playing a spirited march, and sixteen mounted policemen with lances at rest, in the large pit of the riding school, which reminded the spectator, as he gazed down from the gallery, of an old Roman amphitheatre, were putting their horses through a series of geometrical and other figures with remarkable accuracy and skill, and with a most pleasant effect.
1894
There will be military displays by the Royal Canadian Dragoons, Governor-General's Body Guard, Toronto Field Battery, [...] musical ride, lance exercise, ambulance drill, May pole, sword, physical, bayonet, manual and fencing exercises.
1894
The musical ride by the Royal Canadian Dragoons was the most striking of the evening.
1901
On Wednesday afternoon the cadets of the R.M.C. in their splendid free gymnastics, the musical ride by the R. C. Dragoons, single harness horses, saddle horses and the jumping class over fences will be among the principal events.
1911
The bands of the various corps put in a good afternoon's practice for the military tattoo to-morrow night. The program calls for a musical ride by a troop of the Royal Canadian Dragons.
1920
The musical ride is one number of which the audiences never tire. It always provides a thrill, and the performance given by the "mounties" left little to be desired.
1939
One feature of last night's show was the musical ride staged by a group of nearly fifty Cubs. Riding wooden horses, the Cubs trotted around the ring in the Coliseum for nearly five minutes, performing many of the intricate patterns staged by the Royal Canadian Dragoons in their famous musical ride.
1948
The RCMP musical ride, apparently considered passe by exhibition authorities, is still the big feature spectacle at the New York Horse Show in Madison Square Garden.
1957
Three years later, Winnipeg had so trained its pedestrians that they moved off the curb when the light turned green with the precision of the Musical Ride.
1970
I read with unusual interest in the April 1969 Quarterly the performances undertaken by the present RCMP Musical Ride in so many places on this continent in the United Kingdom. To me there is no finer instrument to promote or maintain international relationships.
The Ride is such a delight to the eye, a lift to the morale and it enhances Canadiana. This duty brings out the best in men, develops and sharpens control -- something never to be forgotten by those fortunate enough to have served on a Ride.
1989
They don't teach horsemanship to the new recruits anymore but experienced officers wishing for a change of pace can volunteer for special equitation training in Ontario. There they train with the horses for eight months before qualifying for the musical ride. Each year about 33 per cent of the riders are replaced.
2006
The musical ride and its 32 riders and horses previously rode into town in 1987 and 1999. In its 120th year, the musical ride is one of the most popular Canadian symbols in the world. Each year, it performs in some 50 locations throughout Canada, the U.S. and other international venues between May and October.
2015
[oral transcript] Jesse Brown: "John I wanna talk about the RCMP's musical ride [mhmm], uh and what happened there. I didn't know about the RCMP musical ride and I and I just been catching up on what that thing is. I guess you call it, like, a horsey show that the RCMP puts on for families?" John Barber: "Well the musical ride is a famous institution, it's a spectacular equestrian show in which the they they've uh put on for a century in dress uniforms with uh really impressive you know mock charges and formation drills and what not and, sure, I mean, the RCMP musical ride is one of our more famous, you know, cultural institutions, I think, in Canada." Jesse Brown: "Then everyone should just excuse my ignorance um for calling it a horsey show."

References

Images

Image 1: <i>Musical ride</i>, North Vancouver, 2013. Source: Wikimedia Commons. Photo: Shaundd

Image 1: Musical ride, North Vancouver, 2013. Source: Wikimedia Commons. Photo: Shaundd

Chart 1: Internet Domain Search, 16 Aug. 2012

Chart 1: Internet Domain Search, 16 Aug. 2012