The Castle Home: Royal Mews

Sunday, September 1st - Jan, Audra, Audra's friend, Santana, Sofia and I visited the Royal Mews (stables) one block from our apartment. The Royal Mews is responsible for transportation (car and for ceremonial occasions- horse and carriage) for the Royal Court and is only open for tours at certain times (in Sept. Sat. and Sun. at 14.00 only). Employees at the Royal Mews are responsible for care of the horses and The King's motor and carriage park.

The groomswoman who led our tour has been working at the Royal Mews for 17 years and was the first woman hired to work there. She said she felt bad that she was breaking the tradition of the male groomsmen but the King was happy to see a woman as part of the Royal horse procession. Also, when she started working at the Mews the youngest princess was 11 years old and was happy to have a woman to ride with instead of one of the 'old-men'!

The horses are exercised and trained every day so that they get used to crowds, noise, cars, flags waving, etc. We often see the horses on the street on our way to school. They always have the Royal pads and the riders are wearing their official Royal riding jackets, hats, etc. (Sorry, clearly, I do not have the technical names down!) Sometimes we'll see two horses pulling a carriage for practice. After the horses are exercised they are free to run and play in the interior courtyard.

The Mews is a large, red brick building with a large interior courtyard built around 1851 when the king at the time had around 110 horses. The Royal family now has around 14 horses at the Mews. There are several apartments in the front of the building where the grooms-people and some Royal employees are lucky to have apartments.