This week is a busy one for the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment (HCMR), the senior regiment of the British Army. And these soldiers aren’t slack on an average week, given that their days normally begin at 6am.

But this is in a different league: on Monday night soldiers lined the steps of Buckingham Palace ahead of the state banquet for Donald Trump. This weekend, it’s the Queen’s Birthday Parade (QBP), or Trooping the Colour, featuring the five regiments of foot guards alongside the King’s Troop, Royal Horse Artillery. The cavalry provide the Queen’s personal escort from Buckingham Palace.

Preparations began in earnest for this, the Queen’s 67th QBP, in February, explains Lieutenant-Colonel Paddy Williams of the Blues and Royals, commanding officer of HCMR. A soldier of 18 years’ service, he took over command of HCMR last July having never ridden before. On Saturday he will ride out on his first QBP on his horse, Javelin.

Like the other 200 cavalry horses – great black Irish beasts called “cav blacks” – in February Javelin returned from grass in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire.

The Major General’s inspection

Once back, the horses are clipped, re-shod, and their fitness built up in time for the Major General’s Inspection in April. This is a cavalry-only rehearsal for QBP in Hyde Park, inspected by Major General Ben Bathurst, Major General commanding the Household Division. After Easter, the work really begins.

“We start with troop training in the park [25 horses and men], then squadron training [100 horses and men], and then regimental training [the full complement of 200],” says Col Williams.

Then the early-morning rehearsals begin, with soldiers getting into work at 2am. Several of these take place before the triumvirate of public events on successive Saturdays – Trooping the Colour reviewed first by the Major General, then by the Colonel of the Regiment (this year, Grenadier Guards’ colonel HRH the Duke of York) and finally QBP this weekend.

Horses on the streets of London

Life at Hyde Park Barracks is busy; the morning exercise through the streets of London is at 7am, after which preparations for Queen’s Life Guard commence.

As well as the plumes on top of their metal helmets – red for the Blues and Royals and white for the Life Guards – ceremonial kit comprises a metal cuirass (a breast- and back-plate of armour) and heavy leather jackboots, all of which must be pristine. Up to eight hours of work can go into the boots alone.

Trooper Kyle Tagg of the Blues and Royals is also riding on his first QBP this year, and admits he is “100 per cent excited” about it. “You don’t join the Household Division not to parade in front of the Queen.”

The ‘Blue Mafia’

Among the 1,400 Household Division soldiers on QBP this year are the cavalry’s riding staff, nicknamed the “Blue Mafia”, after their navy uniforms. Staff Corporal Carl Lacey, a senior riding instructor, has been in the regiment for 19 years. His role on the parade is to look after the young horses still in training.

“They’re babies, so they won’t have seen the crowds before,” he says. There is little that can be done if a cavalry horse decides that enough is enough on parade. “The best thing to do is sit tight,” says SCpl Lacey.

He is famous for being able to walk into a yard and name every horse. “About 10 years ago I managed to name 37 out of 40 horses just looking at their faces.”

The drum horses

While the horses are used to going out on parade every day for Queen’s Life Guard duties, in the stables at Hyde Park there’s a group of horses with a different job – the drum horses.

These four Shire horses are looked after by Trooper William Calcott-James from the Life Guards. He rides them out on the road at walking pace. “We want a horse that doesn’t want to trot or canter so on the parades they’re not mucking around,” he says.

While the cav blacks are big, the drum horses tower over them. Young Harry, for instance, who is yet to pass out of drum horse school and be officially named by the Queen, is 18.2 hands (6ft 2in).

The Queen’s Birthday Parade

It’s an enormous privilege to be involved in the Queen’s Birthday Parade, says Corporal of Horse Garreth Cowen of the Blues and Royals. “For that moment in time, there’s no divisions in the country, or at least it feels that way. To say you’ve ridden on that parade in full state kit is pretty special.”

Col Williams has seen a lot of soldiers come and go through the regiment. “Ask them what’s your best day in the army, and they’ll say the QBP. These are the memories that will live forever.”