In the viral TikTok clip, the ‘respectful’ young girl is greeted with a sweet ‘kiss’ by a King’s Guards horse outside St James’ Palace in response to her kind gesture
Sweet new footage shows the moment a horse from the King’s Guard gives a girl a ‘kiss’ in reward for her kind gesture.
In the viral clip, filmed outside St James’ Palace, the youngster can be seen patiently approaching the King’s Guard and his horse, with her mother close stood close behind her. Then, she leans over to the guard and places small amount of cash inside his boot, before returning to stand beside the post. A couple of seconds later, the horse moves turns towards the girl and gently presses its muzzle on top of her head – leaving her beaming with joy.
After the video of the heartwarming interaction was posted on the TikTok fan channel royalguards_england21, many joked that the horse appeared to be ‘thanking’ the little girl for her small donation.
One wrote: “The horse gave her a kiss!”
Another commented: “And this is how you respectfully approach the guardsmen and horses.”
Someone else said “she’s more respectful than most adults there”, while a different user commented: “This is how it should be done – ask first then show complete respect. Well done young lady.”
Though the practice is not encouraged by Palace staff, with signs warning that it is dangerous to get too close to the horses, some tourists choose to leave pound notes inside the boots of mounted King’s Guards as a thank-you gesture.
Any cash left is collected for military charities.
In March, charming footage showed the moment a King’s Guard broke protocol to interact with a young blind boy.
In a video, eight-year-old Amin is seen walking over to the foot guard while guided by a voice off-camera, and stamps his foot to salute the guard.
In response the soldier – who is wearing his customary helmet – salutes the youngster back by stamping his foot.
And in July 2023, a King’s Guard was praised for posing with a man with Down’s syndrome in another unusual breach of protocol. Mike van Erp, also known as YouTuber Cycling Mikey, said he had taken the youngster to get a photo at Buckingham Palace and had tried to stand close to the Guard – something which can sometimes see visitors given a stern telling-off
Instead, the Guard moved nearer to the pair so they could get a better picture of the day at the Horse Guards Parade. As he walked away, Mike said: “What a nice man. What a cool thing to do.”