King Charles Reportedly Plans to Break Royal Tradition Next Week

King Charles III will ride in the 2024 Trooping the Colour parade next week, but he will not be riding on horseback. The 75-year-old monarch returned to public-facing duties recently in spite of his ongoing cancer treatment, but not at the capacity he once worked at. According to a report by The Daily Mail, he will skip the traditional horseback ride and carry out the ceremony in a horse-drawn carriage instead.

King Charles signaled a return to tradition in 2023 – his first Trooping the Colour as monarch. While his mother had been doing the parade in a carriage for decades, the king rode on the back of his black mare, Noble, which came with its own problems. If his age weren’t enough to skip the equestrian challenge, his diagnosis makes it pretty forgivable as far as most pundits are concerned. The parade will take place on Saturday, June 15 to celebrate the monarch’s birthday with a show of royal military discipline.

Many fans of royal tradition were glad to see the king on horseback last year, as it was a return to tradition. Queen Elizabeth II had a well-documented love of horses, yet even she stopped riding in the Trooping the Colour parade in 1986. That meant the king was the first monarch to do so in over 25 years, but just for one year.

The king was also a passionate equestrian when he was younger and loved playing polo much like his son, Prince Harry. Now, insiders told The Daily Mail that the king does not ride for pleasure at all anymore, which would put extra pressure on an occasion with so many viewers.

Trooping the Colour is a ceremonial military event held every year in London, with a parade including over 1,200 people and 200 horses. The participants include soldiers and musicians, and usually prominent members of the royal family as well. The role of the monarch is ride past the ranks “inspecting” the troops. The route typically goes from Buckingham Palace to Horse Guards Parade, then back to the palace. The tradition goes back to the 1600s, and King Charles himself has been attending it every year since he was two years old.

The queen rode her treasured horse Burmese in the parade until 1987, when the animal needed to retire. The queen was 61 years old at the time, and decided that she would simply ride in a carriage from then on. As for the king, his decision seemed to be attributed mostly to his cancer treatment. A Buckingham Palace spokesperson told The Times that all “forthcoming engagements will be adapted where necessary.”