As the Palace prepares for this year’s Trooping the Colour celebrations, a source close to the Prince William has shared his verdict on reprising his vital role in the King’s birthday parade procession
With the Trooping the Colour celebrations right around the corner, Royal Family is busy preparing for the momentous day. As is tradition, senior royals are set to mount their horses and follow the King’s carriage in a procession from Buckingham Palace to Horse Guards Parade.
While King Charles will be reportedly riding in the carriage alongside his wife, Queen Camilla, Prince William will join Princess Anne and Prince Edward and follow the procession on horseback. As the Colonel of the Welsh Guards, William rode alongside other senior royals in the 2024 Trooping the Colour procession, as he sported the red uniform with a leek symbol on the neckline paired with a traditional bearskin cap adorned with the regiment’s white and green plume.
He also wore his Most Noble Order of the Garter Sash, Royal Air Force Pilot Wings and four medals: the Gold, Diamond, and Platinum Jubilee medals, plus the Coronation Medal.
And a source told the Sunday Times how the heir to the throne feels about taking part on horseback, saying: “He really enjoys it.”
William’s thoughts on riding ahorse during the Trooping the Colour procession comes after it was reported that the King would be riding in a carriage for a second year.
While Charles is not expected to ride at the parade again, this weekend’s event will be the first time that the Princess Royal has ridden in public since she was hospitalised following a suspected horse injury last year.
Anne, 74, plans to ride in the parade this year in her role as gold stick, the colonel of the Blues and Royals, alongside the Duke of Edinburgh as colonel of the Scots Guards and London Guards and Prince William.
King Charles rode in the parade for many years, both for his mother’s birthday celebrations and his own, but due to his ongoing battle with cancer, the 76-year-old monarch will reportedly again travel in a carriage as he also did last year.
A royal aide recently opened up about King Charles’s health, saying: “The thing you learn about this illness [cancer] is that you just manage it. And that’s what he does.” The aide continued: “Medical science has made incredible advances and I genuinely see no difference in him… As long as you just do what the doctors say, just live your life as normal as possible.”
The royal aide elaborated: “It’s no secret that he is still having treatment but because he is incredibly fit, he is just dealing with it all incredibly well. As everybody knows he is driven by duty, so he just gets on with it.”
The last time the King rode at the ceremony was in 2023, which was the first time a monarch had ridden in the parade since Queen Elizabeth did in 1986. After the late Queen’s trusty horse retired, she travelled in a carriage from 1987 until her final appearance in 2022, when she took the salute from the balcony of Buckingham Palace.
The Trooping the Colour event, which takes place every year in June, has been held to mark the sovereign’s official birthday since the accession of King George IV in 1820, except during the world wars and a national strike in 1955. In 2020, a scaled-back version of the celebration was held at Windsor Castle due to the Covid pandemic.
Trooping the Colour 2025, officially known as The King’s Birthday Parade, will take place on Saturday June 14, in London.