The story of the Queen's lifelong passion for horses

Queen Elizabeth, with trainer Paul Nicholls, feeds carrots to a horse at the Manor Farm Stables in Ditcheat, Somerset. Riding has become an outlet for so many royals. Photo / AP

Since getting a pony on her fourth birthday, Her Majesty has gone on to become one of the most respected figures in the equine industry.

After more than nine decades of faithful service, it was fitting that the Queen chose equine companions to mark her 96th birthday. With fell ponies Bybeck Nightingale to her left, and Bybeck Katie to her right, this photo in her Platinum Jubilee year was a taste of the celebrations to come: A Gallop Through History – an equestrian display featuring more than 500 horses – will run next month, followed by the Epsom Derby on the Bank Holiday weekend.

"The horses are her: they are her life, they are her family," says Katie Jerram, a show rider and producer who has been riding the Queen's horses for almost two decades. "She's an incredibly knowledgeable lady regarding her horses, which gives me immense pleasure."

The monarch's love affair with horses began as a toddler, where footage shows her pulling a horse toy behind her; she kept 30 of them at home, even harnessing her nanny in a pair of red reins with bells on. A first riding lesson followed at the age of three and her affection was such that, for the future Queen's fourth birthday, she was given Peggy, a Shetland mare, by her grandfather, King George V.

Riding regularly throughout her teens, she began breeding horses more than 60 years ago and now owns more than 100, including Shetlands and Highlands at Balmoral, and Fells at Hampton Court.

The Queen was flanked by Bybeck Katie and Bybeck Nightingale in a recently-released image. Photo / AP

Thoroughbreds, meanwhile, are bred at the Royal Stud in Sandringham; the Queen has a handful of trainers on rotation at any one time, with horses looked over by Terry Pendry, her faithful stud groom and manager, and John Warren, her racing manager. Pendry, a "royal favourite", has often been pictured riding the grounds of Windsor with the Queen, including on her 73rd wedding anniversary; he calls her "a fountain of knowledge in all things equine – you might say a living encyclopaedia".

Pendry was among those chosen to form the monarch's Covid bubble when lockdown restrictions were imposed two years ago, such is their closeness. Indeed horses have remained a constant through any tumult in her reign; she has ridden regularly, well into her 90s, which Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, described as "incredible".

Over the past decade, the Queen made "the decision to start riding native ponies", Pendry has said – including Emma, one of her favourites – as they are "a little closer to the ground, so to speak".

Terry Pendry, her faithful stud groom and manager, has often been pictured riding the grounds of Windsor with the Queen. Photo / Getty Images

Nowadays, the Queen describes herself as more of "a rather fair-weather rider", though she maintains a relationship with her horses in other ways. Jerram visits Windsor Castle on "regular occasions" with four horses at a time in tow – including Barbers Shop, "a very special racehorse bred by the Queen Mother". Jerram was atop the homebred gelding in 2017 when he became the first Supreme Champion to be crowned at Royal Windsor for 15 years, which she describes as "the most memorable, enjoyable day I've had in my life". On visits now, Jerram rides for the Queen in the indoor school and, at the end of each session, the monarch produces a paper bag of cut-up carrots to share out among the four-legged visitors. "They love their treats from Her Majesty."

The Queen has, inevitably, come to pick favourites, many from the pivotal moments in her life. There was the characterful Betsy, a black-Burmese that was a "much-loved" part of the royal stable during the Sixties, and Burmese, gifted to her from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, which the Queen rode for 18 years of Trooping the Colour during 1969-86. Pendry noted that "the Queen bred both the horse and the rider" when Princess Anne won the European Eventing Championships on Doublet at Burghley in 1971 (Columbus, another of Her Majesty's chosen ones, was also a favourite of Capt Mark Phillips). Sanction, with whom she appeared on the front of Horse & Hound in 2020 to commemorate her most notable horses, "was almost telepathic and had a very strong bond with Her Majesty", Pendry wrote.

Among her favourite racehorses are Aureole – bred by King George VI, her first runner who came second at Epsom four days after her coronation – and Estimate, who won Ascot's Gold Cup for a reigning monarch for the first time in its two century-long history.

Beaming as he took the top prize in 2013, and as her Warren leapt from his seat, "the smile she radiates when she is pictured around horses… is so natural," says Martha Terry, features editor at Horse & Hound magazine. "I am sure she would have had a job within the bloodstock industry had history and fate not decreed otherwise."

The Queen looked thrilled after Estimate won the 2013 Ascot Gold Cup. Photo / AP

What began as a "childlike love" of the animals has led to the monarch becoming "one of the most respected people in the industry". Her Majesty is believed to have racked up more than 1,600 wins – including four of the five flat racing classics – and earned some £7 million ($13.5 million) from her racehorses over the years, including £584,000 ($1.1 million) last year. "It's not just the horse racing she enjoys, but the breeding side of it too," Willie Carson told Town & Country magazine. The former jockey, who rode some of the Queen's most memorable winners and will line the course at Epsom in June on Her Majesty's arrival, says that it's the horses' temperament that she's really interested in: "The winning post is the end result and she enjoys that, of course, but she enjoys everything before you get to the winning post. That gives her the most pleasure."

It's one that has been shared with many royals: Queen Victoria is said to have once broken the window of the Royal Box at Ascot in her rush to see the finish, while the King George VI Chase was created in 1937 to commemorate the new monarch. Princess Anne's equestrian career as an eventing champion has included competing at the Olympics – which her daughter, Zara Tindall, earned silver in at the London 2012 Games. A world eventing champion, she continues to compete at the top level of the sport. And, of the next generation, Lady Louise Wessex is a "very proficient driving competitor", Terry says, "following in her grandfather's footsteps" and inheriting his ponies, too.

Riding has become an outlet for so many royals, and particularly the Queen, because it is "refreshing in a time of such intense scrutiny", Terry adds. There is also the matter of removing a barrier between royals and commoners as it is an interest that allows mixing with "normal people", such as farriers, dentists and vets, who they may otherwise never meet.

The "discomfort" that set in last year has left the Queen unable to ride of late; staff are said to be "moving heaven and earth" to ensure that she assumes her spot at the Derby, which she has missed only four times in twice as many decades. Come June, all being well, she will assume her place in the Royal Box and, as at so many races before, make history again.