Mounted royal guards, horses and a horse-drawn carriage at the reception of new AMBASSADORS by the Queen

A very formal event and an ancient tradition when the Danish Queen recieves a country’s highest representative at Amalienborg Castle on 9 December.

Text and pictures by Bente D. Knudsen

Find all the details below.

It is an event not to be missed while you reside in Denmark.

It takes place a couple of times a year depending on the number of diplomatic changes and entails the transport of a new ambassador by one of the Royal Stable’s horse-drawn carriages, escorted by members of the Royal Mounted Guard Hussar Regiment.

The ambassador is taken to meet the Queen at the castle where she is in residence. During the winter she is mostly at Amalienborg from December until April and at Fredensborg from April to November.

This event on 9 December will be at Amalienborg Castle as the Queen is in residence there at the moment.

Due to the cost, and practicality of transporting horses and soldiers from Slagelse to Copenhagen, the Queen bundles her receptions and usually receives several at a time.

At this upcoming event she will receive a total of five new ambassadors.

Find out how to participate below.

The main event takes place Friday 9th December when the Queen receives them at Amalienborg. The ambassadors ride in the horse-drawn carriage from Kastellet and along Amaliegade the short ride to Amalienborg.

The escort and horse-drawn carriage will ride from Christiansborg through Copenhagen to Kastellet at around 9:00.

At 09.50, the first ambassador will leave Kastellet to arrive at exactly 10:00 at Amalienborg where he is received and taken to meet the queen.

As there are five ambassadors, there is ample time to watch this event if you arrive anytime between 9:50 and 11:30

It is a beautiful event and there are plenty of opportunities to get a good view of the magnificent parade of horses, traditional uniforms and the horse-drawn carriage along the route.

The escort and horse-drawn carriage will go back and forth five times until the last ambassador departs at 11:30 from Kastellet to Amalienborg.

The palace used for official events is called Christian VII’s Palace.

Five new ambassadors – the article continues below.

The new ambassadors are from Nepal, Italy, Japan, Greece and Mexico. The public can get quite close to the event and route.

At the end of the ceremony the ambassadors are picked up by their cars. Each meeting with the Queen takes about 30 minutes.

For this event the full regiment (up to 45 horses) do not participate.

However, a total of at least20 horses and guard hussars from the mounted regiment and a horse-drawn carriage from the Royal Stables participate in it.

If you are able to take the day off, or plan it in at least once while you stay in Denmark, it really is a spectacle worth seeing.

More information and pictures below.

The horses and hussars will arrive at the Royal Stables at Christiansborg a couple of days before, this is their “horse hotel” while in Copenhagen.

A practice ride will take place on Thursday 8 December from Christiansborg to Kastellet.

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The Royal Stables used to be home to more than 100 horses.

The horses are immaculately maintained and very well behaved as you can see in the pictures below from inside of the Royal Stables at Christiansborg.

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This photo report is from a past occasion when all 45 horses were at the stables at Christiansborg Castle and were preparing for the rehearsal ride of the Golden Coach Tour which takes place in the beginning of January. All pictures courtesy of Christian Lindgren.