Lord Mayor's Show Horses: 250 Horses and the Shire-Drawn State Coach

Lord Mayor's Show horses: what happened on Saturday

The Lord Mayor's Show horses were out in force on Saturday, November 14, 2026: about 250 of them joined roughly 6,500 people and more than 50 floats on a 2.86-mile (4.6 km) loop through the City of London. The best known are the heavy horses on the gilded State Coach, which carried the new Lord Mayor, Bronek Masojada, from Mansion House to the Royal Courts of Justice and back.

Those figures come from the City of London Corporation and the BBC, and the 250 is an approximate official number, not a head count. Organisers expected more than 350,000 people along the route, and one official on the day described it to the BBC as sunny but cold.

Masojada is the 698th Lord Mayor of London. Note that this is not the mayor of all London: the Lord Mayor heads the City, the historic financial district. The parade, more than 800 years old, exists so that each new Lord Mayor can travel to swear loyalty to the Crown.

Where the horses come in

Not all 250 horses do the same job. The official 2026 procession list and the City's own announcement point to four groups.

One detail from this year: the City Marshal learned to ride especially for the Show, according to the City of London Corporation. That tells you how seriously the organisers take the mounted roles.

What about police horses? The official listing we checked does not name a mounted police entry, so we are not counting them here.

The State Coach and its six-horse team

The Lord Mayor's State Coach was commissioned in 1757 from the coachbuilder Joseph Berry of Holborn and has been used for the Show ever since. It is a carved, gilded wooden carriage with painted panels, and its body is slung on straps instead of resting on steel springs. Today Kevlar bands carry the load, hidden behind traditional-looking leather straps, according to Wikipedia's entry on the coach.

Reference listings put its weight at about 2.9 tonnes, which goes a long way to explain the walking pace. The six horses are a matter of rank, not weight. In a Gresham College lecture on the Show's history, Pageantmaster Dominic Reid explained that the number of horses on a ceremonial coach is set by the rank of the person inside: six for the Lord Mayor, and eight only for the Sovereign.

Who supplied the horses this year?

At the pre-dawn rehearsal on Wednesday, November 11, six Shire horses from Fairbourne Carriages were hitched to the coach, IanVisits reported.

Organisers have not published a horse list for show day itself, so treat that as the confirmed rehearsal team and the likely show team. Older reference entries, including Wikipedia's page on the coach, name a different Shire yard, which suggests the supplier has changed over the years.

How a six-horse team is driven

Six horses are harnessed in three pairs, one pair behind the other. On this coach, the standard description is that the front pair is guided by a postilion (a rider sitting on one of the horses) while a coachman on the box drives the other two pairs.

• Wheelers: the pair nearest the coach. They steer the turn and hold the weight back by leaning into the harness.
• Centre pair: they add pulling power and keep the line straight.
• Leaders: the front pair. They set the pace and meet the crowd first, so they need the steadiest nerves.

Brakes were only fitted to the coach in 1951, according to the same reference entry. For almost two centuries before that, slowing it down was up to the horses.

Why Shire horses suit ceremonial draught work

The Shire is Britain's tallest native heavy horse, bred to pull. The Shire Horse Society's breed standard asks for stallions of at least 17 hands (173 cm), geldings of 16.2 hands (168 cm) and mares of 16 hands (163 cm) at maturity.

Three things make them a natural fit for a coach like this one:

• Power at a walk. A heavy horse is built to lean into a collar and move a big load slowly and steadily, which is exactly what a parade needs.
• Temperament. The breed standard calls for a docile expression, and a calm horse is a safer horse when the kerb is lined with children, although even a quiet one can still be startled.
• Presence. Black, brown, bay or grey coats, often with white legs, and silky feather (the long hair on the lower legs) look right in state harness. See our guide to feathered horse breeds for more on that hair.

There is a conservation angle too. The Rare Breeds Survival Trust lists the Shire as an At Risk breed on its 2026-27 Watchlist, and ceremonial work is one of the public jobs that keeps demand for trained heavy horses alive.

If you want to compare the Shire with other breeds, start at our breeds hub.

How parade horses are prepared for crowds and noise

No horse is born calm around drums, flags and cheering. Ceremonial carriage horses and mounted units get there through slow, repeated exposure, starting far below the level of a real parade.

Mounted police trainers interviewed by Horse Illustrated describe a method any owner will recognise:

1. Start on the ground. Introduce tarps, flags and umbrellas in hand before anyone rides or drives.
2. Build up gradually. Walk over tarps and poles, then through gaps that get narrower as the horse relaxes.
3. Let the horse look. Stopping to study something is fine. Running away is the habit being trained out.
4. Practise with people. Helpers walk, wave, carry signs and make noise so a crowd is nothing new.
5. Keep sessions short and finish on a calm response.

The Show adds its own layer. The coach, horses and Lord Mayor Elect did a run-through on near-empty streets before dawn on November 11 (the coach was brought out at 4:30 am) because, as the Pageantmaster told IanVisits, once the procession sets off there is no stopping for a second try, so it has to go right the first time. The one planned break is the pause at the Royal Courts of Justice while the Lord Mayor swears the oath, the Show's official FAQ says.

For your own horse, our step-by-step on groundwork and the basics of horse behavior cover the same principles. The key lesson from the professionals is that it takes patience and repetition, not one weekend.

How to watch safely next November

The Show has been held on the second Saturday of November since 1959. By that rule the next one falls on Saturday, November 13, 2027, but check the official Show site before you plan travel.

This year's published schedule, as set out by Time Out, gives a good idea of the day:

• 11:00 am: the procession left Mansion House.
• 12:10 pm: the Lord Mayor joined in the State Coach, with a blessing at St Paul's Cathedral and the oath at the Royal Courts of Justice.
• 1:10 pm: the return leg began. Time Out notes the second half tends to be a little quieter.
• Just over an hour: the time the whole procession takes to pass.

Watching from the pavement is free, the official Show site says. If you take children to see the horses, a few habits keep everyone safe:

• Stay on the pavement, and behind barriers where there are any. The organisers describe the Show as an event with no gates, barriers or boundary fences, so follow the directions of police and Show marshals.
• Never reach out to touch a passing horse.
• Keep balloons, flapping flags and umbrellas low and still when horses go by.
• Do not use a camera flash at close range.
• Leave the dog at home, or keep it well back from the kerb.
• Bring ear defenders for small children. The bands are loud.

The rules around London's ceremonial horses are stricter than many visitors expect. Our piece on whether you can touch a King's Guard horse explains why.

What to watch next

• Show-day confirmation. Look for the organisers or the supplier to confirm which horses drew the coach on the day.
• The 2027 date and route. Expect an announcement on the official Show site well before November.
• Driving as a sport. If the six-horse team caught your eye, read how competitive driving works in our report on the Spanish Carriage Driving Championship.
• The wider carriage debate. Ceremonial driving is very different from daily city carriage work. Our explainer on horse-drawn carriage bans covers that side.

More stories like this are on our trends page.