The King is expected to travel by carriage during this summer’s Trooping the Colour parade, providing a break from the tradition of riding on horseback.
As the monarch’s cancer treatment continues, a Buckingham Palace spokesman said that “forthcoming engagements will be adapted where necessary” to accommodate the King’s continued recovery from cancer treatment.
One such adaption is expected to be the more sedate option of travelling by horse-drawn carriage at the monarch’s official birthday parade in June.
A source said: “The King is most likely to be taking part in Trooping via carriage this year but a final decision is yet to be made.”
It is thought that an episode involving a fidgeting horse during last year’s event has done nothing to persuade courtiers to convince the King to appear on horseback again this year.
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The King will join the Queen and Prince of Wales in commemorating the 80th anniversary of D-Day on June 5-6 with engagements in both the UK and France, the palace has announced.
Charles has attended every significant commemoration of the Second World War landings since 1984.
Speaking to the BBC as he marked the 75th anniversary of D-Day in 2019, Charles, then Prince of Wales, said: “It’s probably the last chance to pay everlasting respect to these remarkable people who wanted above all to do their duty.”
Five years on, he will have another chance to pay his respects to the ever dwindling ranks of D-Day survivors.
It had been thought that, due to treatment for cancer, Charles might this year be forced to sit out of the events that pay respect to the almost 25,000 British soldiers who landed in France on June 6 1944 to free the country from Nazi control.
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However, Buckingham Palace announced that the King, who is patron of the Royal British Legion, along with the Queen and the Prince of Wales will attend the UK’s national commemorative event in Portsmouth on June 5 along with Prince William. The following day the King and Queen will be at the British Normandy Memorial at Ver-sur-Mer in France, which overlooks Gold Beach where many of the troops arrived on D-Day.
The Prince of Wales will also attend Canadian commemorative ceremonies at Juno Beach and Omaha Beach. The latter will see him join more than 25 heads of state and veterans from around the world.
Meanwhile, the Princess Royal and Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence will join Normandy veterans and French representatives at the Bayeux War Cemetery before attending a service at Bayeux Cathedral.
The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh will be at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire and the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester will attend a commemorative event at the Royal Albert Hall.
Philippa Rawlinson, director of remembrance at the Royal British Legion, said: “These incredibly moving and poignant commemorations will be our last opportunity to host a significant number of Normandy veterans.”
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In June last year, Charles appeared on horseback for Trooping the Colour — the first time a monarch had done so since the late Queen last rode out for the parade in 1986. However it did not go as smoothly as some might have hoped. Charles was riding Noble, a black mare that was gifted to him when he ascended the throne from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Yet the horse appeared to take some time to get used to its new surroundings at the royal mews in Windsor.
Despite the experience of touring with the Mounties’ Musical Ride, where the horse participated in 90 public performances at 50 different locations across Canada, the pageantry of the palace proved too exciting.
As the King took the Royal Salute by the gates at Buckingham Palace, the horse appeared unable — or unwilling — to keep still.
A television commentator described it as an “awkward” moment in the proceedings, saying the horse looked “as if it was going into the starting stalls at Newmarket”. A flustered-looking groom appeared by the King’s side only to be waved away by Charles who assured him that he did not need any assistance.
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It later emerged that this was not the first time the household had encountered difficulties with 16.2 hands high horse “naughty Noble”.
In the book New King, New Court, Charles III: The Inside Story by Robert Hardman, it emerged that the seven-year-old mare was a “neurotic newcomer” who had “vaulted the fence and twice escaped her Windsor paddock in the week before the parade”.
A former palace aide told the author: “[The King] always used to ride this wonderful old horse, George, who would just go to sleep. That’s not what happened this time. He was on a very feisty horse.”
This time, the King is considering skipping the horseback ride altogether.
While Charles was an accomplished polo player in his youth, it is understood that he no longer rides for enjoyment, unlike his late mother who was still riding almost daily well into her nineties.
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For the King, his public appearances on horseback are now mostly limited to official ceremonies.
Nevertheless, he has a lifelong association with the annual parade, which has marked the sovereign’s official birthday for more than 260 years.
Charles attended his first Trooping the Colour aged two in 1951 when his grandfather King George VI was too ill to attend, his place being taken by Princess Elizabeth. The young Prince Charles rode in a carriage with his grandmother the Queen Mother, and his aunt, Princess Margaret.
In 1981 his mother had been riding her trusty mare Burmese when blank shots were fired at her during Trooping the Colour.
Queen Elizabeth continued to ride in the parade for five more years until Burmese retired, then from 1987 she chose to travel by carriage.
While the King returned to public duties at the end of last month, a palace source has stressed that the public ought not to expect to see “a full summer schedule” from the monarch.
At that time a palace spokesman said that the King’s doctors were “sufficiently pleased with the progress made so far”.
Some close to the King, however, feel that he might do well to ease himself back into public duties more gently.
During a garden party in Rye, East Sussex on Thursday, the Queen has said that that the King was doing well, although added: “Well, he would be if he behaved.” She said that her husband had been “quite cross” not to join her on the visit but just hours later he was on stage at the Royal Opera House taking part in a curtain call with the cast.
A palace spokesman acknowledged that the King’s diary would be “carefully calibrated” over the next few weeks and months to account for his continued recovery.
