This card gave us the connection with horses, which have always been a very important part of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
In the country, a horse allows a rider to chase further, and faster, and also over ground that a person on foot would struggle, with the ability to leap over any obstacles that block their path. Whilst in a town or encampment, they are taller than any crowd, more physically imposing, and it is harder for anyone to grab their weaponry - but also anyone in need of assistance can spot them and head towards. There is another benefit too, in a crowd, for being on horseback allows the rider to see above the heads of the crowd, to survey the scene in a wide angle and to hone in to spot anyone heading towards them whose intentions may not be honourable, then to reach down and unarm them.
It is not true that the North West Mounted Police were the first mounted crime fighters though - that honour goes to the Marechausee, or marshals, in France way back in the middle ages. There is also reason to give the credit to the Romans, who also had men patrolling on horseback, keeping order, but were not technically part of a regulated police force as we know today.
The Australian `New South Wales Mounted Section of the Police` also deserve a mention, as they began on the 7th of September 1825, and thus are the oldest mounted police to remain to this day in a more or less unaltered, and never stood down, form.
Mounted police units were used in Canada before the inception of a special service, from the early nineteenth century, but they were not banded together as a central force. In fact, very often, they were one man bands, with no back up. The joining together, and standardisation of rules, only happened in 1873 with the founding of the North West Mounted Police. And it soon spread to other areas, the first two of which were Montreal in 1885, and Toronto, in 1886.
You will notice there is nothing about our card. I suspect it to either be a one off, or part of a set of "Circus scenes", but have not managed to track it down. if you know it, please get in touch with us.