Meet Taffy, the horse set to trot through a Calgary hotel in Grey Cup tradition

CALGARY – Taffy has braved imitation gunfire, smoke and flames. 

The off-white horse with brown speckles will now have to use that expertise to calmly walk through a Calgary hotel.

This week the 12-year-old leopard Appaloosa will swap out the vowel in his name to take on the role of Tuffy, the fabled title for whichever horse is set to recreate the CFL Grey Cup tradition of walking through a hotel in the host city.

“He’s just got the right disposition, the right mind to be around people, music, noise,” said John Scott, standing in wet, trodden dirt on his ranch just beyond the doors of the stable where Taffy was saddled.

For nearly 80 years, some version of Tuffy has recreated the iconic moment when a Stampeders fan rode a horse into the lobby of the Royal York Hotel, one of the fanciest hotels in downtown Toronto, in 1948.

What could have been a little horsin’ around became a decades-old tradition filled by, likely, as many different horses as years the custom has lived on.

For the 113th Grey Cup, it’s Taffy’s turn.

The Grey Cup Festival kicks off Tuesday, culminating in Sunday’s championship game between the Edmonton Elks and the Montreal Alouettes.

On Thursday, and as Tuffy, the horse is set to trot into the Homewood Suites hotel in Calgary, led by a group of bagpipers and drummers. Scott said they expose the horse to those kinds of loud sounds and music ahead of time. 

With Steve Sommerfeld, chair of the Calgary Grey Cup Committee, in the saddle, the horse is to check in with the receptionist. Whether he’ll register under Taffy or Tuffy is anyone’s guess.

After getting a complimentary basket of food, it’s off to the hotel bar and, since Sommerfeld and Tuffy are on the clock, just an order of water please.

Sommerfeld said Tuffy, or Tuffy Nuff as he’s officially known to the Calgary Grey Cup Committee, will be a spectacle to hotel guests who don’t understand what’s going on and a scheduled smile for children who have come to see him. 

“I think it’s awesome; and being a born and raised Calgarian, I’m just loving it,” Sommerfeld said. 

The horse’s home near Longview, Alta., a ranch on the edge of expansive plains that roll into the Rocky Mountains, looks like a world away from a hotel’s tight hallways and a bar. 

But, Scott isn’t worried.

Taffy, a cast horse for actors, is with John Scott Productions and has made a career staying cool through simulated danger. The company has more than 100 horses with different talents.

Scott, who is in his 80s, wears a black rancher hat that shades his eyes from the sun. He speaks with the gruff voice of a cowboy as he talks about Taffy’s roles in the TV shows “Billy the Kid” and the “Magnificent Seven.” He was also rode by Jhane Myers in the Emmy Award-winning movie “Prey.”

“He’s just been an all-around horse,” Scott said.

Scott has spent more than a half-century in the film business, working on movies including “The Revenant” and “The Lord of the Rings.” In some he has been a stunt man, others an animal co-ordinator.

“I provide the animals in front of the camera, anything from a butterfly to an elephant,” he said. 

“That’s just basically what my job is, is making sure an animal works in front of the camera.”

Walking through the hotel lobby with the horse could be, in effect, a walk in the park — but you can never account for the unexpected, Scott adds.

At the Calgary Stampede, Scott said he remembers seeing a little girl on a sidewalk who let a balloon slip through her fingers. It floated under a horse’s belly.

An inopportune pop could have spooked the horse and potentially spark chaos. Scott prayed it didn’t, and the balloon floated onward intact.

There are ways to prepare.

Tuffy will be wearing something to help him walk across the slippery hotel floors — like rubber shoes.

Just in case, insurance has been put in place for the large animal’s promenade.

“All in all, I think he’s going enjoy it as much as we do,” Scott said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 10, 2026.