All the King's Horses
practicing what's ordinary to be ready for extraordinary service in the world
The fog of this new posting’s earliest days is beginning to clear. Those are the days in which one straddles between being a tourist and a resident. While my husband is already hard at work, the kids and I have been enjoying our new digs like tourists and also learning how to do ordinary life here — learning which grocery store has what, and how to get to them all on foot; getting phones, metro cards, etc., in the Danish way; and hitting every ordinary obstacle that comes with learning a new place and trying to set up a new life. That liminal space of playing tourist is coming to an end with school’s start on the horizon.
Our oldest returned to the US to begin her move to university, a marked seasonal shift for our family in the midst of all the other changes, spinning wheels in the middle of wheels. Knowing that this deadline was approaching, we played tourist a little longer and with a little more gumption than we normally would have because we knew we had a much shorter timeline to do so with her, as a family of five. She developed a wishlist of achievable places to explore, and we got to a lot of them before she departed.
One of the items on the list was Christiansborg Palace, where it is possible to visit the royal stables, kitchens, art and tapestries, a fairy tale library, and the ruins of the earliest fortress settlement of Copenhagen down beneath the palace, dating to the 1100s. We each enjoyed every working part of the palace, but a few details stood out from the stables.
The stables house the royal horses used by the royal family. When the stables were first inaugurated in the mid-1700s, there were somewhere between two hundred fifty to three hundred horses as well as humans employed in the enterprise. This was, of course, back when horses were as ordinary as automobiles are today. That world is long gone, but the stables remain, especially in service of the royal family for official events. Today, there are not more than 20 horses, grayish white Czech Kladrubers, and a much smaller staff of stable master, royal coachman, and others keep them. On our visit to the palace, there were a few horses in the stables, huge regal animals, and a few were out on the riding grounds outside. The horse showers in the stable were adorable and sensible (especially as we’ve been getting used to our own less sensible bathroom fixtures!), and equally fascinating were the various carriages and coaches on display.
One thing that caught my attention was the fact the horses are exercised daily, regularly trained to experience and navigate the streets of Copenhagen and its traffic conditions. Since these are working animals, still used for official royal events and visits, including to carry some ambassadors for their formal credential presentation appointments, the horses have to put in their practice time on today’s streets to ensure they are fit for their tasks.
On a handful of mornings when I’ve been up a little earlier than the rest of my family, I’ve heard what has sounded like the clopping of horses’ hooves out on the street below. I’ve never gotten my head out of a window fast enough nor craned it far enough to see anything, so I’ve wondered if it was just wishful thinking on my part. But this morning, Hannah both heard and witnessed with her own eyes, a pair of those royal horses being driven by whom we suspect is one of the royal coachmen, in a red dress coat, down our street. Quite a sight!
It also got me thinking about how strange it is that this rather anachronistic but captivating form of transport continues to be practiced, even in the midst of ever newer forms on the streets. Yes, it’s a fast paced digital world, but there are still horses who practice their skills and competencies as horses, who daily practice (that is, risk!) dealing with futuristic Teslas and electric Lime scooters, and the humans who operate them.
I suspect that the working hours of these horses for official events and visits has shortened over the centuries; they are likely not carting the royal family to the IKEA at the nearby mall to pick up a few things. They are not likely put into high ceremonial service on a daily or even weekly basis, but I’d be delighted to be corrected otherwise. Nevertheless, they still have to practice daily, to ensure they are properly prepared to be fit for the King.
I hope I get to catch a glimpse of them on their practice drives one of these days, but in the meantime, I’m nourished by their witness and humbled by their diligence. No matter how old or anachronistic we may feel, we can still practice what’s ordinary to be fit for all kinds of extraordinary service in the world.