The RCMP Musical Ride will make its first-ever stop on the Sunshine Coast this summer with one performance in Gibsons.
The famed Mountie troop will perform July 30 at Ryan Dempster Field, next to the Gibsons and Area Community Centre, Sunshine Coast RCMP Staff Sgt. Herb Berdahl announced March 26.
"We're very fortunate -we really are - and very pleased as a detachment," Berdahl said. "This gives us an opportunity to give back to the community. For some folks, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see them. I think it's a great thing."
Berdahl told the Sunshine Coast Regional District's policing committee last September that he had requested the Musical Ride include the Coast on its 2013 tour schedule, and final confirmation came after a March 17 meeting between RCMP brass from Ottawa and Sunshine Coast Rotary clubs.
"As host club, Rotary will be involved in much of the logistics," Berdahl said.
Money raised from the performance will go through Rotary to charity.
While the horses will be stabled in the Gibsons arena, the riders themselves will be staying in Sechelt, Berdahl said, adding that it was "a Musical Ride decision" based on what organizers felt was "appropriate accommodation and space."
The Musical Ride, scheduled to tour Northern Ontario and B.C. this season, generally performs in 40 to 50 communities between May and October.
Officially started in 1887, the Musical Ride is performed by a full troop of 32 riders and horses, plus a member in charge, who execute figures and cavalry drill formations choreographed to music.
"One of the more familiar Musical Ride formations is the Dome, once featured on the back of the Canadian $50 bill," says the RCMP website. "The highlight of the Musical Ride is, without a doubt, the Charge, when lances, with their red and white pennons, are lowered and the riders and their mounts launch into the gallop."
RCMP members can volunteer for the Musical Ride after at least two years of active police work and remain with the troop for three years.
"Most members are non-riders prior to their equestrian training with the RCMP; however, once they complete the courses of instruction, they not only become riders but ambassadors of goodwill," says the website. "Working through a unique medium, they promote the RCMP's image throughout Canada and the world."
Thirty-six riders, 36 horses, a farrier, a technical production manager and three non-commissioned officers travel with the Musical Ride, the website says.
