The 2nd Dragoon Guards (Queen's Bays) was a cavalry regiment of the British Army. It was first raised in 1685 by the Earl of Peterborough as the Earl of Peterborough's Regiment of Horse by merging four existing troops of horse. Renamed several times it was designated the The Queen's Regiment of Dragoon Guards in 1746 as it evolved into a dragoon unit. (Dragoons described a force of highly mobile mounted infantry equipped with lighter,faster horses and carrying firearms) and later named the 2nd Dragoon Guards (Queen's Bays) in 1767 to reflect the custom of its soldiers riding only bay horses.