"One has hooves the size of dinner plates, one upstaged Father Christmas at last year's festive gathering and another is fussy about crisp flavours. Alamein the drum horse, Private Derby the ram and Shenkin the goat are members of a privileged, elite group of official regimental mascots.
Many regiments keep unofficial pets among them ferrets, Staffordshire bull terriers and bald eagles but only eight have the stamp of approval from the British Army: two drum horses, two Shetland ponies, two Irish wolfhounds, a goat and a ram. To gain official status, a mascot must have an important symbolic significance that ties it to a regiment.
Some, such as the Mercian Regiment's Swaledale ram and the Irish Guards' Irish wolfhound, have a regional connection and others have historic links that can be traced back for centuries…."
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