A Norfolk-based animal charity that named a rescued horse and foal in honour of the Queen has praised her lifelong passion for horses.
Redwings Horse Sanctuary said the late monarch’s love of horses, riding, often at Sandringham, and passion for their welfare had inspired others to get involved.
Chief executive Lynn Cutress said: “We know that the Queen was a horse lover her entire life. She had her first riding lesson at three years old and we have been hearing about her love for horses for many years.
“She had a Shetland pony called Peggy who was given to her by her grandfather and over the course of her life she continued to enjoy horses - and would still be riding at 90-years-old.”
She said her passion had encouraged others to love horses.
“By talking about horses being pictured riding her lovely Fell ponies and this tiny lady standing between those two big greys it started conversations,” she added.
“She was wonderful and passed on to her daughter not only a love of horses but an interest in their welfare and I think that makes a real difference to society because we are a nation of animal lovers.”
Earlier this year the sanctuary in Hapton, near Norwich, named a horse involved in a road accident while pregnant Majesty and its miracle new foal Monarch in the Queen’s honour to mark her Platinum Jubilee.
A letter from Buckingham Palace later said the Queen had been “touched” by the naming.
Ms Cutress said both the mother and new foal were doing well.
“He is a bit of an imp. He is with his mother at the moment as he goes through his weaning process but he clearly likes getting out,” she said.
“He tries to take the fence down or to climb through it. He is not very popular with our maintenance team!”
The Queen’s love of horses extended to racing. She owned many race horses and inherited the Royal Stud breeding centre.
She “lit up” with a “genuine smile” at the sight of horses Matt Hancock MP, whose West Suffolk constituency includes Newmarket racecourse.
He told the House of Commons: “The one thing we do know is that the reason that Her Majesty loved to come to Newmarket was not because of us two-legged beings, but because of the four-legged beings.
“Her love of horse-racing was perhaps her greatest love outside her duty to her family and her country.”
On the Queen’s connection with horses, Mr Hancock said: “The twinkle that we have heard so much of, and the genuine smile that came on her face was probably broadest when at a racecourse, as she demonstrated in what was probably her last social public occasion at Ascot.
“I remember it particularly a visit when she came to open the National Horse Racing Museum, which is in Newmarket.
“She went down the line of dignitaries, she went down and met the public, she gave them her customary focus, but she was clearly doing her duty because the museum is full of retired racehorses, and it was only when she got to the horses that she really lit up.”
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