The Queen & her horses
THE PICTURE RELEASED recently by Royal Windsor Horse Show to mark the 96th birthday of Queen Elizabeth II shows her standing in the grounds of Windsor Castle — her own back garden basically — flanked by two eye-catching grey Fell ponies whose colour matches the buds of the magnolia tree in the background. Bybeck Katie and Bybeck Nightingale, said to be two of the monarch’s favourite equines, have already been expertly coiffured in the royal stables, and, just like their owner, they are now standing calmly, looking towards the photographer Henry Dallal.
As the saying goes, a picture is worth 1,000 words, and that one speaks volumes about the monarch’s deep affection for horses, for which she had had a lifelong passion. She rarely looks happier or more animated than when stroking an equine’s muzzle in a prize-winning line-up, watching one of her Thoroughbreds on the racetrack, or when leading or riding a horse herself.
Up until recently, when she began to suffer
