A Musical Ride to Ottawa

Constantine Ioannou
Feb 13, 2017
2 min read

This past week both Joe and myself were in Montreal and Ottawa on an expansion business trip.

We opted to drive down since it’s only a few hours from our location. This was the perfect time to get hear some pretty interesting stories when he was with the RCMP. One specific story triggered an opportunity to visit the Musical Ride Headquarters in Ottawa with the purpose of helping out one of our client’s requests.

Joe Balz was a member of the Musical Ride Unit from 1982-1983. The names of his horses were Kelly and Hindu. The Musical Ride Unit of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police is a formal event showcasing the equestrian skills performed by 32 cavalry who are regular members of the force. The event is held in Canada and worldwide to promote the RCMP.

The RCMP Musical Ride receives approximately 2,000 applications from across Canada each year. From those 2,000 applications only 40 applicants are invited to Ottawa to tryout for a spot on the RCMP Musical Ride. I found this all pretty interesting while at the same time trying to picture Joe on a horse.

A few weeks ago we received a call from one of our event planners with a very unique request. The event they were planning had a Canada Day theme inspired by our country’s 150th birthday coming up. Many of our clients are aware that we provide “plus” services outside of the security realm, as well they know of Joe Balz who served with the RCMP for over 31 years. The request was that we help provide a few mounted police in uniform on horseback.

Now fast forward to our visit in Ottawa and we just happened to have a few hours to spare. While checking out staple landmarks in Ottawa, this was a perfect opportunity to try and make our event planners request a reality, and so we headed to the Musical Ride Headquarters.

Joe and a current RCMP member of Musical Ride

We connected with the current 32-member unit who were cleaning the stables and feeding the horses. It was pretty interesting to see how the horses were trained and how well they were kept. Most importantly we were able to make connections with the right people to try and help us out with the request.

If you never have heard of the RCMP’s Musical Ride Unit, now you have. While we wait on the formalities for our event planner, if you have never had the chance to see the RCMP Musical Ride Unit in action, wait no more, their Canadian tour kicks off in May and will be coming to Toronto in June. For more details and schedules you can click this link here.