After seeing that the Queen is still riding at the age of 92, I thought I would write about her and her horses this week and once I started researching I found out all sorts of interesting things that I feel like I should share with everyone!
1) Queen Elizabeth II has been riding since she was 4 years old, when her father King George VI gave her a Shetland pony named Peggy.
2) Actually if you think about it the Royals are quite a horsey bunch. The Queen Mother was an avid National Hunt Racing fan, Princess Anne and her daughter Zara Phillips both became top event riders and the Princes William and Harry both play polo.
3) All the horses that you see in the royal parades are kept at the Royal Mews at Buckingham Palace, “one of the finest working stables in existence.” The Queen names each horse that lives there.
4) The Royal Mews is where they keep all the carriages, coaches and cars used by the Queen. It is also where the palace staff and their families live. However you will only find only 2 types of horse there, Windsor Greys and Cleveland Bays, the Windsor Greys draw the carriages for the Queen and the royal family and are called Windsor Greys because in Victorian times they were kept at Windsor. The Cleveland Bays are used to pick up high commissioners and ambassadors visiting the Queen.
5) The Queen is famous for always riding without a helmet. Not something I would ever recommend by the way. Apparently the staff at Windsor Castle joke that “the only thing that comes between the Queen and her heir is her Hermes scarf”.
6) The Queen owns many racehorses, having initially inherited the breeding and racing stock from her father King George VI.
7) As of 2013, horses owned by the Queen have won over 1600 races. She has had winners in all of the British Classics except the Epsom Derby.
8) USA Today reported that the Queen has actually made $9.3 million from her race winnings.
9) Monty Roberts AKA The Horse Whisperer has trained the Queens horses since 1989. He has been honoured by the Queen and is a honorary member of the Royal Victorian Order. They have shared a close friendship since he began training her horses. She even named a Corgi after him.
10) The Queen breeds Throughbreds, fell ponies, Shetland ponies and Highland ponies.
Do you know any other facts about the Queen and her horses I haven’t mentioned? Get in touch if you do!
Check out my other lists here.
16 Facts You Didn’t know about The Horses in Game of Thrones
7 Celebrities you didn’t know could ride!
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In Due Horse 
Very interesting! I knew she bred thoroughbreds but I didn’t know she was so involved in pony breeds too. It’s so inspiring that she’s still riding in her 90’s, we can all hope to be so lucky! 🙂
– Alyssa Joyce
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Yes I’d love to be still riding when I’m her age!!
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I’ve been to the Royal Mews in London and it is literally one of the most gorgeous barns/stables/yards I’ve ever seen. I only saw two horses there (mostly because I made the mistake of visiting in the middle of summer so most of the horses were on holidays!) but it was absolutely breathtaking.
But I did not know that Monty Roberts trained her horses!
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The Queen also has been gifted horses by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and in turn has gifted the RCMP several horses. In fact, one of her favourite horses that she rode during the Trooping of the Colour was a RCMP horse named Burmese.
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The Queen has also received three horses from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police: Burmese, Centenial and St. James.
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Lordy, this is my heritage. Loved this and at 65 I hope to ride until my 90’s. My 84 year old sister is still riding. My mother who was the doppelganger of the Queen Mom never road but she loved horse racing. My grandmother road bareback across the prairies in her underwear., but road her horse to church on Sunday side saddle and full dressed. I grew up with Shetlands, nasty little bastards but now love a sorel quarter horse and a sassy smokey black paint pony. Something about women and horses or should I say old women?
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