The 14th King’s Hussars was a cavalry regiment in the British Army, first raised in 1715. It saw service for two centuries, including the First World War, before being amalgamated with the 20th Hussars to form the 14th/20th King’s Hussars in 1922.

This is a gorgeous Victorian Era Shabraque, or Horse Blanket, for a horse serving with the 14th King’s Hussars, a very well-known and storied regiment in British history. The shabraque is completely correct for the regiment, and we have found some reference online to back this up. 

The hussar shabraque was four foot four inches front to back and three foot one inch deep at the rear points which were swallow-tailed. The fore-corners in front were squared to fit over the wallets. The ground colour was blue for all regiments except the 10th which was scarlet. The edges were trimmed with a 3 inch gold lace band for three of the old hussar regiments (7th, 8th and 15th) and the recently raised 18th. The 10th and 11th had double 2 ½ inch bands as did the remaining regiments – ex light dragoons and ex Bengal cavalry. The 13th and 14th Hussars had rounded rear and fore-corners. For all regiments, the fore-corners were decorated with the crown over the VR cypher in gold lace. Over the shabraque was a leopard-skin edged with scalloped cloth in regimental colours. The 14th Hussars had a black lambskin instead of the leopard-skin.

The cypher is for VR, indicating Victoria Regina, the reign of Queen Victoria, likely dating this shabraque to the 1880s or 1890s.