Although the State Opening of Parliament happens every year pretty much without fail, the people involved in it tend not to be there every year, so the huge precession needs to be practiced before the live event.

While a fair bit of the public procession is basically following a route along easily defined roads from point A to point B, it is still nice to try the route out in person, and on horseback.

In the absence of a fake Westminster to play with, last night at around 3am, parts of Westminster were sealed off to traffic and various members of the Household Cavalry and other ceremonial horsy types cantered around Westminster in rehearsal of the formal event later this week.

Thinking this would be potentially quite an interesting thing to watch, I checked the night bus options,  dutifully went to bed rather early last night…

…and slept through the whole thing.

Therefore, I don’t have a selection of photos of large contingents of horses ceremonially parading around a deserted Westminster to present to you this morning.

Sorry.

You can see the main event on Wednesday though (Nick Clegg not withstanding) and if you wear very dark glasses maybe try to imagine what it would have looked like last night.

There should be two State Openings next year – one for the new government and one following the Summer recess – so maybe I will manage to stay awake for one of those rehearsals. Maybe.