Grey Cup horse walks through Calgary hotel

Detailed summary

Taffy the horse walked to the tune of screaming bagpipes through a tight Calgary hotel lobby.

CALGARY – Taffy the horse walked to the tune of screaming bagpipes through a tight Calgary hotel lobby.

It was recreating a decades-old CFL championship tradition ahead of the Grey Cup game between the Edmonton Elks and Montreal Alouettes on Sunday.

A horse given the name and title of Tuffy has ridden through a hotel in the host city of the championship annually since 1948, the year a Stampeders fan rode a horse into the lobby of a fancy Toronto hotel.

Taffy, a brown-freckled and white horse, took on that mantle as he sauntered to the check-in counter at the Homewood Suites in Calgary and then to the bar to slop up a bowl of Guinness beer.

Taffy — filling the role of Tuffy — is a 12-year-old cast horse who has braved simulated danger, which helped him keep calm surrounded by loud sounds and music.

Picture-hungry fans also took photos of and with the horse, some dressed in football team jerseys.

“Who sees a horse in a hotel, right?” said Lisa McKay, a Calgary Stampeders fan, at the downtown hotel on Thursday.

“I’ve done a couple Grey Cup festivals before, but never saw the horse, so super excited to check that one off on the bucket list.”

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