Queen names favourite horses, with touching tributes to father and daughter

Some, it emerged, had a deep, personal connection to her family.

The list she produced for Horse and Hound included a stallion she inherited from her father, George VI, and the chestnut gelding on which her daughter, the Princess Royal, famously won the eventing European Championships at Burghley in 1971.

The Queen’s selection of eight “special horses” she and her family had loved riding and watching, plus five of the most memorable racehorses she had bred and owned, also included Estimate which triumphed in the 2013 Ascot Gold Cup – the first time in the event’s 207-year history that it had been won by a reigning monarch.

“Her Majesty has a fountain of knowledge in all things equine, you might say a living encyclopaedia,” said Terry Pendry, her stud groom and manager at Windsor Castle.

“Her knowledge and expertise is well known. She names all of her horses and ponies herself and can remember the parentage of every single one.”

The Queen, who is 94 and was recently pictured on one of her fell ponies at Windsor while in lockdown, still considers horses to be an important part of her life, he added.

Her list allows a rare glimpse into her private life, particularly in her selection of Sanction, a bay horse with whom Mr Pendry said she had “an almost telepathic bond”.

“She doted on him. She only had to think of going somewhere and he’d go,” he said when the horse was put down in old age, in 2002.

The Queen’s tribute to her father is in her choice of Aureole, which she names at the top of her list of favourite racehorses.

John Warren, her bloodstock and racing adviser, said that although the animal was “feisty and highly strung”, the Queen knew how to get the best out of him. The whole nation appeared to behind his bid to win the Derby for her in her Coronation year of 1953. In the event, he finished second, but went on to become a leading stallion.

Mr Warren said the Queen, who had her first riding lesson at three, had continued to work on her understanding of equestrian matters over the decades, having “developed a deep, profound knowledge” of the subject.

“It takes the same sort of precise expertise as a watchmaker to produce a somewhat fragile racehorse to perform on the big occasions and indeed any occasion at all – especially when they are expected to race at speeds of up to 40mph,” he said.

“These incredibly highly charged creatures, full of blood and muscle, are developed from birth with kid gloves and the sophisticated jigsaw of trying to put all the pieces together is a constant challenge that continues to intrigue the Queen.

“To deal with the constant challenges and disappointments, as all horse people will know, the greatest asset you need to have with horses is patience – which luckily the Queen has in spades.”

Her other most personal choice, which she lists as her third favourite horse, is Doublet, the polo pony on which her 21-year-old daughter triumphed at Burghley in 1971. Anne went on to be named Sports Personality of the Year that winter.

“The Queen bred both the horse and the rider,” Mr Pendry observed.

The Sovereign names her second favourite horse as Burmese, the mare she rode during Trooping the Colour for 18 years and who was shot at with blanks by a young man in 1981. The horse was briefly alarmed but was soon calmed by her rider.

Her favourite of all is Betsy, a black-brown mare bought from a farmer in the 1950s and which the Queen rode for several years.

“Betsy was full of character and spirit,” Mr Pendry said.