Besides being a dog lover, Queen Elizabeth II was also fascinated by other animals, especially horses. From a young age, she was surrounded by horses and relatives who owned them.
She began taking riding lessons at the age of three, and a year later her father, King George VI, gave her a Shetland pony named Peggy. When she was 12, Elizabeth took riding lessons twice a week with her sister Margareth.
“If I wasn’t who I am, I’d like to be a lady living in the country with lots of horses and dogs,” she once said.
The royal stables, which previously bred horses for transport, were transformed into elite breeding of purebreds. Over the years, the Queen’s horses have won some of the biggest races in the sport.
The exact number of horses the Queen owns is difficult to calculate, but it is believed that there are more than a hundred of them and that she has earned around £7m (€8m) from them over the years from the prizes they have won.
After her father’s death in 1952, when she ascended the throne, Elizabeth inherited the breeding and racing herd.
However, according to royal author Claudia Joseph, Princess Anne and her daughter Zara Tindall are expected to make the decision about what happens to the Queen’s horses.
“It is likely that the Queen’s daughter Princess Anne and her daughter Zara, who are Olympic riders and well-known horse lovers, will be involved in what happens to the Queen’s animals,” Joseph said.