In honour of the 50th anniversary of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II

Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom

Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...

, the province of Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....

 commissioned Saskatchewan sculptor Susan Velder to create a larger-than-life-sized bronze

Bronze

Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal...

 statue

Statue

A statue is a sculpture in the round representing a person or persons, an animal, an idea or an event, normally full-length, as opposed to a bust, and at least close to life-size, or larger...

 of Her Majesty riding her favourite horse, Burmese

Burmese (horse)

Burmese , a black RCMP Police Service Horse mare, was given to Queen Elizabeth II by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and ridden by the queen for Trooping the Colour for eighteen consecutive years from 1969 to 1986.-Royal Service:...

.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police

Royal Canadian Mounted Police

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police , literally ‘Royal Gendarmerie of Canada’; colloquially known as The Mounties, and internally as ‘The Force’) is the national police force of Canada, and one of the most recognized of its kind in the world. It is unique in the world as a national, federal,...

 (RCMP) presented Burmese to Her Majesty in April 1969. The Queen rode the Canadian black mare in 18 consecutive birthday parades

Trooping the Colour

Trooping the Colour is a ceremony performed by regiments of the British and the Commonwealth armies. It has been a tradition of British infantry regiments since the 17th century, although the roots go back much earlier. On battlefields, a regiment's colours, or flags, were used as rallying points...

.
The statue was unveiled by Her Majesty during Saskatchewan Centennial Celebrations in 2005 and is located north of the Legislative Building

Saskatchewan Legislative Building

The Saskatchewan Legislative Building is located in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, and houses the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan.-History:...

 at the south base of the flower garden

Flower garden

A flower garden is any garden where flowers are grown for decorative purposes. Because flowers bloom at varying times of the year, and some plants are annual, dying each winter, the design of flower gardens can take into consideration to maintain a sequence of bloom and even of consistent color...

.

The province contributed to the cost of creating the Queen's Golden Jubilee

Golden Jubilee

A Golden Jubilee is a celebration held to mark a 50th anniversary.- In Thailand :King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the world's longest-reigning monarch, celebrated his Golden Jubilee on 9 June 1996.- In the Commonwealth Realms :...

 Statue with a grant of $50,000 when the project was announced in 2001. Other major donors recognized today were the RCMP, City of Regina, Regina Public Library, Town of Maple Creek, Henry and Agatha Thalheimer, Jacqui Shumiatcher, Ray Frelich, Conexus Credit Union

Conexus Credit Union

Conexus Credit Union is a credit union based in Regina, Saskatchewan, and at the end of 2010 was the largest credit union in Saskatchewan and the sixth largest credit union in Canada. Conexus has 46 branches in Saskatchewan. , the credit union has $4.4 billion in total funds managed and...

 and Galen and Hilary Weston of Toronto.

With the province of Saskatchewan able to contribute to the statue project, it gives the people of the province a clearer vision of their history — a history in which the monarchy

Monarchy

A monarchy is a form of government in which the office of head of state is usually held until death or abdication and is often hereditary and includes a royal house. In some cases, the monarch is elected...

 and the RCMP have played such a significant role.

During 2003, the city of Regina's centennial and a year after the jubilee, the statue was not yet complete. HRH Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex

Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex

Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex KG GCVO is the third son and fourth child of Elizabeth II and The Duke of Edinburgh...

visited in June for the centennial and turned the sod in the spot where the statue would be placed. The first miniature was also unveiled by the Earl of Wessex at this time and will be on permanent display at the Legislative Building. A miniature was also presented to the Queen in October 2004.