Charge of the Light Brigade horse 'fragile but safe'

The family of the Earl of Cardigan, who led the infamous Charge of the Light Brigade, said the head of his horse Ronald was very fragile but remained safe underneath a staircase.

It is one of the most popular attractions of his ancestral home of Deene Park, Northamptonshire, now owned by Robert and Charlotte Brudenell.

The Charge of the Light Brigade was a military engagement of the Crimean War in 1854.

"He's safe here and we can talk to him... well, my husband does," Mrs Brudenell said of the horse.

Deene Park, the historic country estate near Corby, was once home to the 7th Earl of Cardigan, James Brudenell.

He had his favourite horse Ronald shipped out to Crimea to fight in the battle of Balaclava, and on the 25 October 1854 the pair led the now infamous Charge of the Light Brigade.

The charge went down in history as a terrible blunder which saw Lord Cardigan and his fellow cavalrymen ordered to ride straight into the fire of the Russian guns they were meant to be reclaiming.

It was later immortalised in verse by poet Alfred Lord Tennyson.

Mrs Brudenell said Ronald carried the 7th Earl safely through what became known as The Valley of Death because he was a "big, strong hunter and used to jumping over obstacles… albeit these were not usually Russian cannon balls".

After the war, Ronald returned to his stables at Deene, where he remained until his death on 28 June 1872.

Before his death he was called into action to follow Lord Cardigan's coffin as part of his funeral procession in 1868.

"Being of strong Spanish blood Ronald was rather frisky and so they gave him laudanum to calm him down… but unfortunately he fell asleep and they had to sound the reveille of the Light Brigade to wake him up," she said.

Mrs Brudenell said Ronald's head, preserved after his death, was safe under the cantilevered staircase in the White Hall.

But she said he had "a crack on the side which was repaired with shoe polish" and eventually they will have to "prop up his chin".

The head now stands in a glass case alongside one of his hooves and what remains of his tail.

The walls of Deene Park are hung with portraits of the families' favoured horses including a portrait in the Great Hall of Ronald carrying the 7th Earl.

Mr Brudenell added: "Since the 7th Earl had no legitimate children, horses and hunting were his life, your horse was your friend.

"You had to look after them and that's why Ronald was so revered and loved."

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