4000 Horses! Crikey! That does seem an awful lot of horses.
I have....sorry had.. a foot in both camps, as it were, spent many years in the Line Cavalry (but sadly we existed on our own horses) regardless, the ceremonial duties conducted by the HCMR significantly reflect the precedence - that the Nation was built from the back of the horse, the Soldiers boot and endless dollops of rum sodomy and the lash. That 'The Few' once saved us, is without doubt - but I'm afraid that 300 or more years of history and tradition set against a hundred years of some, quite frankly, dubious habits should not be the measure of the Nations pride in the Armed Forces.
It seems to me that 4000 horses is indeed far too many, when the number of tanks is (or about to be) 1/10th of that or even less...so how about ..say 400 horses (surely that should be sufficient for the ceremonial duties...it really does take a long time to get a horse to that standard and keep it there...that irony won't be lost on the pilots of course) and a commensurate reduction on the part of RAFAT .....so....er...0.9 Red Arrows then...but I think we could round that up?
This is of course the lunacy of such a thread, I wonder if all those on ARSE are doing the same? Some how I think not.
There are so very many measures that are availible to reduce the Nations real 'costs' and all it will take is for our leaders (and voters) to see that.
Sadly though, I think this thread should be discontinued - for fear of giving them too many 'good' ideas.