Taffy has braved imitation gunfire, smoke and flames.
The off-white horse with brown speckles will now have to use that expertise to calmly walk through a Calgary hotel.
This week the 12-year-old leopard Appaloosa will swap out the vowel in his name to take on the role of Tuffy, the fabled title for whichever horse is set to recreate the CFL Grey Cup tradition of walking through a hotel in the host city.
“He’s just got the right disposition, the right mind to be around people, music, noise,” said John Scott, standing in wet, trodden dirt on his ranch just beyond the doors of the stable where Taffy was saddled.
For nearly 80 years, some version of Tuffy has recreated the iconic moment when a Stampeders fan rode a horse into the lobby of the Royal York Hotel, one of the fanciest hotels in downtown Toronto, in 1948.
What could have been a little horsin’ around became a decades-old tradition filled by, likely, as many different horses as years the custom has lived on.
For the 113th Grey Cup, it’s Taffy’s turn.
The Grey Cup Festival kicks off Tuesday, culminating in Sunday’s championship game between the Edmonton Elks and the Montreal Alouettes.
On Thursday, and as Tuffy, the horse is set to trot into the Homewood Suites hotel in Calgary, led by a group of bagpipers and drummers. Scott said they expose the horse to those kinds of loud sounds and music ahead of time.
With Steve Sommerfeld, chair of the Calgary Grey Cup Committee, in the saddle, the horse is to check in with the receptionist. Whether he’ll register under Taffy or Tuffy is anyone’s guess.
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