Lt Huda: “What’s troughing?”
of the Squadron going to The British Virgin Islands to sail with the Adjutant, which by all accounts was fantastic with some testing sailing and sampling of local hospitality. They also managed to blag a visit to Sir Richard Branson’s Necker Island and Tpr Penman even managed to share a pint with the man himself - no one knows who paid! The Squadron Leader took a team of 5 to Mongolia to take part in the Mongol Derby, including Tprs Berry and Moby. The Derby is the longest horse race in the world, taking place over 1000km of Mongolia’s toughest terrain on semi wild horses. Tpr Berry was unfortunately airlifted at the 250km mark due to a fall and a suspected fractured neck, but was luckily fine. Tpr Moby and the Squadron Leader completed the full race. In addition we have Tpr Foster on the Nordic skiing team and LCpl Murphy, Tprs Bramel
LCpl Garrick and Ireland in action
and Yates on the Alpine skiing team. Captain Will Turnor and CoH Doran took a team on the Cambrian Patrol in October, which took place in Wales - as mentioned last year not known for its balmy temperatures! This year proved to be no different from any other and the weather poured out its wrath on the team! They had completed a particularly good training package this year, which paid off in dividends with a fantastic result of a silver medal. To add to this it saw them finishing ahead of teams from the infantry, which is huge accolade and the target of a silver medal has laid down the gauntlet for next year’s team. The Squadron returned from summer leave rested and ready to hit the autumn ceremonial season and began to prepare for the Sovereign’s Escort for
the State Visit of The President of Singapore, Cenotaph Parade and eventually Christmas leave. The Escort went well and the Squadron then began to prepare for the Regimental trip to Zandvoorde to commemorate the centenary of the First World War and to conduct a battlefield tour. The trip was both extremely enjoyable and informative with the two Regiments attending the Menin Gate Last Post Ceremony, parading through Zandvoorde and visiting Allied and German war graves. It was a very poignant trip and all came away with a sense of the scale of loss and better informed on the Household Cavalry’s involvement. Overall, it has been a busy, but rewarding season and the Squadron has put in a fantastic performance. We now look forward to 2015 and what is billed to be a more normal ceremonial year.
Headquarters Squadron
A
s I handover the role of Sqn Ldr and step off to pastures new, I reflect on what I truly believe to be some of the best 28 months of my career. The Squadron is in very good shape with a strong command team and dedicated staff in every Department. The manning levels are better than they have been for sometime and most Departments can
Maj Carter and Maj Douglas enjoying another arduous exercise
boast new faces that have been a welcome addition. The level of continuous support the Squadron is required to provide and commitment to each ceremonial parade, means that we must select the best to join our elite ranks, with only the best surviving the test. The Squadron started the New Year, having returned from a split Christmas break, with preparation for the numerous inspections that take place prior to the start of the Ceremonial Season. The usual start to the season saw us back on the pasture of Hyde Park for the Major General’s Inspection. The previous year saw us break with tradition when the Inspection had taken place on Horse Guards Parade due to poor ground conditions. We were, however, going to spend numerous days on Horse Guards over the summer in preparation for the Queen’s Birthday Parade and Presenta-
42 ■ Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment
tion of Standards, so this was probably a relief. It goes without saying that all parades went very well and the Squadron, as always played a central role. Based around this virtually customary State Ceremonial season, continuation training has been very much the buzz phrase and secondary main effort this year. From March, but with increasing tempo as we approached deployment on Regimental Training, lectures and practical lessons were delivered in order to raise the understanding and knowledge of every mounted soldier in their core role. This training, however, did not stop there with MATTs subjects also seeing additional coverage. New subjects were also added, with Large Animal Rescue proving to be a real success and raised questions why we had not looked before at this subject. We all now have a strong core knowledge