Twenty-one of the Queen's horses were involved in a road incident after they were chased out of their field and onto a nearby road last week. According to various reports, three people on motorbikes were seen revving their engines and beeping their horns at the group of Household Cavalry horses. The animals, part of the RAVC Defence Animal Training Regiment in Leicestershire, cantered up to six miles away from the base. Several were hit by vehicles, causing "absolute carnage" on the road.
The police have appealed for information regarding the incident which took place at around 11.15pm on Friday. All of the horses were eventually rounded up by police, members of the public and vets using cars and horse boxes by 2:30am. In a statement, the Ministry of Defence said: "We can confirm that a number of military horses were released from the Defence Animal Training Regiment fields late on August 4.
The Queen's horses, not pictured, were chased out of their field
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"All horses were subsequently returned to the stables and are making a good recovery. The Ministry of Defence is particularly grateful to members of the local community, the police and veterinary staff from Nottingham University, who helped to get the situation under control and the horses home so quickly."
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A spokesman for Leicestershire Police also said that some of the horses were "involved in minor collisions but no one from the vehicles have reported being injured". Nevertheless, witnesses have described the terror they faced on the road that night. One woman described how she thought she and her mother would be killed by the charging horses. In a post on the Melton Police Facebook page, she described avoiding a head-on clash with another vehicle as 21 horses charged, "smashing the car with glass landing" everywhere.