Teddington's Park Lane Stables have a Royal day to remember
By Ellie Brown - Local Democracy Reporter 17th Nov 2021
Volunteers from Teddington's Park Lane Stables finally took up their invitation from Her Majesty The Queen to visit the Royal Mews at Buckingham Palace.
The exclusive Royal invite had been sent in February in recognition of the 'hard work' by the team at the Stables, for what Buckingham Palace described as the 'amazing campaign' to raise over £1 million to buy the Teddington stables from the landlord.
Park Lane Stables RDA founder Natalie O'Rourke and nineteen riders and volunteers from the Stables, which are now temporarily based in Ham, spent over two hours at the Palace.
During the tour they met the Head Coachman and had a close encounter with the Gold State Coach, which has been used in every Coronation since that of George 1V in 1821.
The huge (7m long and 3m tall) gilded Gold State Coach is the grandest coach at the Royal Mews. Weighing almost 4 tonnes, the coach needs 8 horses to draw it and never moves faster than walking speed.
Overwhelmed Natalie told Nub News: "We were at the Royal Mews for around two and a half hours and we were treated like royalty ourselves.
"On arrival we were split in to three groups and allocated a senior team member to show us around. We were taken in to private areas so we were very privileged and it was so interesting for me to see how they face the same challenges as us of keeping horses in London.
"The horses are all used for ceremonial duties and are ride and drive, in that they can pull a carriage and be ridden. The horses were all grey or bay.
"The Windsor greys are used for occasions when the Queen or a member of the royal family is present. The bays are used for other duties. The Queen names all the horses and my favourite one was Icon.
"We were lucky enough to meet the Queen's chauffeur and he showed us all the special cars that he drives the Queen around in and a special blanket that she loves.
"The vehicles are all bespoke and he is specially trained. We were also lucky enough to see the Coronation coach up close which is amazing."
The Stables have been negotiating to return to their former home at Park Lane, Teddington, and are hopeful of completing the deal in the next few weeks.
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