Grand tradition returns to Manitoba

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This article was published 24/07/2016 (3634 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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The RCMP’s Musical Ride is back in Manitoba this summer.It’s fresh off the international stage, where the famed troupe of 32 riders and horses performed at Windsor Castle for Queen Elizabeth’s elaborate public birthday celebrations in May.

While everyone knows the ride showcases mounted drills set to music, what many don’t know is the riders are novices. Most never sat on a horse before taking on the three-year tour of duty.

Flash forward to this weekend and the Musical Ride, with its stunning choreography of human and horse, performed for cowboys and broncos at the Morris Stampede & Exhibition. It’s half a world away from the royal stage, but it’s close to home turf for one of the troupe’s riders, the only RCMP constable in the ride who was born and raised in Winnipeg.

Being a Mountie was a second career for Janis Kelly, whose name will be immediately familiar to the city’s athletic circles. A former Olympian, Kelly played for Canada’s national volleyball team for more than a decade through the 1990s.

Sunday will be the first time Kelly’s family has ever seen her ride.

“My mom’s coming to the show. I’m pretty excited about that… I have a big family, so all I hope my brothers and sisters are coming out. I have a twin brother. There are seven of us.”

The ride consists of an execution of a variety of intricate figures and drills that demand control, timing and co-ordination, the Mounties’ Musical Ride website notes. 

Truth be told, the former Olympian was apprehensive of horses at first.

Kelly made the admission in a phone interview from the highway Saturday morning when the mounts, their riders and gear rolled out in a convoy of three horse trailers and a truck to Morris. 

“To tell the truth, I was always fascinated and scared,” she said. “And deciding to do this, it was something I wanted to do for the history and the tradition of the force, and I had to get over that fear of horses.”

Her first time on a horse was last year. She was 44 years old. “I was in pretty good shape. I’m in better shape now,” she chuckled.

Her first performance was for the Queen in May. “That was amazing. A lot of good energy and other countries there as well, at Windsor Castle. It was an honour to meet the Queen. We gave her another horse, Fergus. Fergus’s name is Sir John now.”

For years, the Queen’s favourite horse was Burmese, another mount from the Mounties. This is the monarch’s second horse from the RCMP.

Pichou is Kelly’s other half in the ride.

At 19, the mare is a veteran and has been with the ride for 12 years.

“She’s a good horse, a very good horse. You do have to know what you’re doing with her because older horses are smart. When they don’t feel like doing something, they don’t want to. You have to make them do it. You want to turn a corner, and they want to go the other way,” Kelly said.

“The nice thing with a horse is you build a bond with them. I swear Pichou would run to the ends of the Earth for me.”

The Musical Ride has brought Kelly an unexpected bonus, in that bond the Mounties talk about with horses.

“They can feel you, they can feel your tension, and when you’re calm, they’re calm because they trust you. It’s a really neat thing,” she said.

The musical ride is based in Ottawa, and its most iconic performances have Parliament Hill as a backdrop. Every summer, the ride takes to the road to tour a different part of the country. This summer finds it in Manitoba for the first time since 2012, as well as Ontario.

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca