Elizabeth II had two passions: corgis and especially horses. Jockey, fan of horse racing, bettor, breeder… All her life, the queen – who died on Thursday at her Balmoral castle – was passionate about the equestrian world. She even won exceptional equestrian prizes and continued to ride for more than 94 years.
• The passion of a lifetime
At the age of 3½, Elizabeth began learning to ride in the royal stables at Buckingham Palace. She was only 4 years old when her grandfather, King George V, gave her her first pony: Peggy, a Shetland. This is the beginning of her life’s passion. At the age of 6 she began to ride on her own and at 12 she already knew how to ride sideways.
Until 2020, the queen continued to ride horses. She has done it all her life, whether in a private setting or during official ceremonies. As is Trooping the Colour, a military rally celebrating Elizabeth II’s coronation as Queen of the Commonwealth. She usually rode there on horseback and once even escaped a shooting attempt in 1981. But the sovereign had easily overpowered her horse and completed the parade, undeterred.
It is “the passion of his life”, Camilla said last June in an interview with ITV Racing. “She can tell you about all the horses that she has bred and that she has had, from the beginning she does not forget anything,” added the wife of Carlos III, who became queen consort. The latter assured that the queen’s knowledge on the matter was “encyclopedic”, that she was “the greatest expert of all time” and that she had “all the answers”.
In 2014, the International Equestrian Federation also presented the sovereign with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Equestrian Federation to reward her involvement, throughout her life, in favor of horses and horsemanship.
• A royal stable
On the death of her father, Isabel inherited “about thirty racehorses”, writes Marc Roche in Isabel II, a life, a reign. Passionate about horse racing, she is an avid reader of horse racing journals. Sports life. She herself chooses the colors of her stable: scarlet coat, purple puffed sleeves and black cap.
When his horse wins a race, he sometimes bursts with joy, rare times when he seems to lose his temper. In 1954, his thoroughbred Aureole won the King George VI award at Ascot Racecourse, one of the UK’s premier racecourses. “Terribly exciting. Wasn’t that a fantastic performance?” Elizabeth II rejoices. Her joy is such that she has a case of champagne delivered to the journalists gathered in the press room.
His stable brought him many wins, 1,600 in all, including the prestigious Prix de Diane in 1974 with his filly Highclere. And her racing bets will also bring her a lot of money: in thirty years, the queen has won almost 8 million euros betting on horse races.
Elizabeth II also owned horses, stallions, and steeplechase ponies bred at Balmoral, her Scottish residence. “If she hadn’t been who I am, I would have liked to be a lady who lives in the countryside, surrounded by horses and dogs,” says Marc Roche about him.
• Private trips to visit ranches
Twice, in 1967 and 1987, Queen Elizabeth II took private trips to Normandy to indulge her passion for horses. The first time, she remembers western France, he had allowed himself three days to visit the national stud farm at Le Pin on the Orne, the oldest of the French national stud farms.
“The queen has a questioning look, a clear appreciation,” the newspaper wrote at the time. “She smiles at the introduction of veteran Furio, born in England twenty-eight years ago, and then asks to see Franc-Luron again, a rearing English thoroughbred.” The newspaper also says that the queen wanted to “escape protocol and let herself be carried away, bluntly, by her taste, by her fervor for the successful specimens of the Lower Normandy breeding”. During her second stay, in Orne and Calvados, she visited three other stud farms.
• Horses as a gift
Throughout her life, the Queen received horses as gifts. At her wedding, the Aga Khan notably gifted her her first thoroughbred. This is the beginning of a great love for this breed. On the occasion of her platinum wedding, last June, Emmanuel Macron offered her one of the 470 horses of the cavalry regiment of the French Republican Guard. Fabuleu de Maucour, a gray Selle Français, the Queen’s favorite horse dress, aged 7.
• A family of riders
Elizabeth II passed on her passion to her daughter Anne, European champion in 1971, and to her granddaughter, Zara Phillips, individual world champion at the World Equestrian Games in Aachen, Chapelle in 2006 and vice Olympic team champion in London in 2012. Equidia remembers. Another granddaughter of the queen, Lady Louise Windsor, has developed a passion for driving. Evidenced by these photos published by paris party at the Windsor Horse Show.
Last spring, to celebrate her 96th birthday, the royal family released a photo of the queen surrounded by two of her ponies, Bybeck Katie and Bybeck Nightingale, in the gardens of Windsor Castle, looking radiant.
Source: BFM TV
