Blanche OUT OF CONTROL! Military horses in London chaos after escape: Two undergo surgery.
Two military horses seriously injured after running loose through London on Wednesday have undergone operations, the Army has said.
It comes after defense minister James Cartlidge said the animals were in a “serious condition” on Thursday morning.
Four of the animals who broke loose have now been named: Vida, Trojan, Quaker, and Tennyson.
Vida was the grey horse seen in videos and images from Wednesday covered in blood galloping through central London, alongside black horse Quaker.
In a statement on X, formerly Twitter, the Army said one of those operated on had been taken to an equine hospital.
A group of seven horses and six soldiers from the Household Cavalry were on an extended exercise in Belgravia on Wednesday when they were spooked by builders moving rubble.
Four service personnel were thrown from their horses and five of the animals got loose, smashing into vehicles and causing a number of injuries.
The Army said three soldiers who were injured would “recover fully and return to duty”.
The statement said: “Of the seven horses which were spooked, five tried to bolt and four, Vida, Trojan, Quaker and Tennyson, broke loose. Two of the injured horses were operated on last night, with one transferred to an equine hospital. All remaining horses are being closely observed.
“Our horses receive the highest standards of care and those who have not undergone surgery are expected to return to service in due course. We want to thank everyone who has shown such kindness and concern for our soldiers and horses. We will provide further updates soon.”
Mr Cartlidge previously said “There were five horses. All were restored. Three of them are fine, two of them are unfortunately in a rather serious condition and of course, we will monitor this condition.” He added: “They are in a serious condition, but as I understand it, still alive.”
When asked by LBC about the condition of the two horses, the minister said he “doesn’t want to say more” than that they are in a serious condition.
He added: “Obviously we didn’t want that to happen. I would like to emphasize to you that this is very special.
“You probably know that the army has horses for exercise in central London every day of the week. That’s about 150 horses exercising daily on average.
“So this is extremely unlikely, this scenario. Unfortunately, we saw what happened, but all I can say is the key thing is, as you said yourself, no serious injury to the public as far as we know, and of course, we’ll be monitoring the situation.”
Ambulance crews treated four people in three separate incidents in Buckingham Palace Road, Belgrave Square, and the junction of Chancery Lane and Fleet Street in the space of just 10 minutes on Wednesday.
The drama began near Buckingham Palace Road, where witnesses saw a soldier thrown from his horse and one of the loose animals crashed into a taxi waiting outside the Clermont Hotel, smashing windows.
Another of the animals crashed into the tour bus and broke the windshield.
Two horses were then seen walking along the road near Aldwych, one of which appeared to be covered in blood.
Jordan Pettitt, 26, who works for the PA news agency, said the gray horse was “alive” with blood and he heard the black horse collide with the taxi.
The animals were later spotted near the Limehouse Tunnel before being recaptured by the City of London Police and taken to be assessed by army vets.
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