Monday, June 29, 2009

Musical Ride!

I know that everyone has been hoping that I've been to see the Musical Ride: the equestrian exhibition that a special division of the Mounties do, frequently going on wold tours, spreading love, joy, and the Canadian 'eh'.

Luckily for you, and even luckier for the Moms, the Musical Ride was going its yearly Ottawa-home-base series of performances! This is one of the buildings at the RCMP stables in Ottawa.











Mum is very happy to be heading to the Musical Ride.














There were loads of families and kids.


















But the Moms enjoyed all of it too. Especially the song, "I'm Lucky to Live in Canada!" - which they decided was the Canadian version of "Proud to be an American! (where at least I know I'm free...)". Either way, we were all lucky to be at the Musical Ride.














Today at the ThinkTank I asked Supervisor Greg is he was familiar with "I'm Lucky to Live in Canada" and he was not. He was also highly amused and somewhat disturbed when I recited the lines of "I'm Proud to be an American".

Some dignitaries were escorted to the performance area via Musical Ride Carriage.














The US Army Golden Knights exhibition parachuting team was making a special visit to Canada and jumped out of an airplane as part of the beginning festivities of the Musical Ride.

Which is why we sang "O Canada" to this as opposed to a flag on a pole:














Then, because the Canadians are friendly and nice and the Golden Knights were visiting, we listened to the "Star-Spangled Banner":














There were also bagpipers.










You can see how excited Mum was about the bagpipers. (Her university had pipers. One of her neighbors was a piper. He would go out drinking, then decide to play a few little tunes for all of his neighbors. Marching into their apartments and piping. Needless to say, Mum is not a fan of bagpipes up close and personal.)














Some of the newer equestrian Mounties carried this small structure out onto the field. The a bad guy raced into the arena, grabbed a 'spectator' from the crowd and held him hostage in the little structure! (Soundtrack - "Bad Boys").














And then the special agent Mounties swoop in to catch the bad guys and save the hostage! They even threw a small explosive device toward the structure in which the bad guy was hiding. It was very exciting. Some of them went inside to tangle with the bad guy: the structure shook on its foundation at this point! (Soundtrack - "Shaft").














The hostage was saved and bad guy (in the flannel) gets put where he belongs.














Everyone enjoyed this part: mom and baby horse took a lap. (Soundtrack - "Embraceable You")














Finally - the Musical Ride!!!










































Very impressive, eh?!?














I've been practicing the appropriate use of the term "eh" at work. It makes everyone in the paper lab laugh.

Since the festivities were more formally titled something like, "The RCMP's Musical Ride Sunset Ceremony," the flag was formally lowered and folded while everyone stood at attention. Alas, there was no wind, so the flag doesn't look very impressive in this picture.


















Horses included. Afterwards the horses came along the sidelines to hang out for their cooling down time. People were welcome to go up and meet the horses, pat their noses, and to talk with their corresponding Mountie. We met a very nice horse named Vimy. Vimy's Mountie was friendly too, but we didn't catch her name.













Not my video, but I really hope it works this time.

3 comments:

Ynn said...

This was so impressive! I was delighted when I found that we would be seeing the Musical Ride. Thank you again and again, Dearest Girl, for sharing your adopted home with me and the other Travelling Moms! See you soon!

Mum said...

This time the video worked perfectly! This was amazing and so much fun to share the experience with you and the other Moms. I am glad that we got to go.

Mary Ann said...

This is a great account of our Musical Ride adventure. It was almost like being back there again. It was a most unique experience and I am so glad that the Moms were able to share it with you. Thanks again.