The Queen's unbridled love of animals

Her introduction to horses came at the age of two when, in the autumn of 1928, she accompanied her parents to Naseby Hall in Northamptonshire for the hunting season. Such was her fascination, she used to run off to the stables at the slightest excuse at any time of day.

From early childhood, she was surrounded by horses and relatives who owned, rode and talked about them and, like many aristocratic young girls, she became a keen rider.

Her first reported riding lesson took place in the private riding school at Buckingham Palace Mews in January 1930, when she was still only three years old.

When she was five, her mother led her on Peggy, a Shetland pony given to her when she was four by King George V, to a meet of the Pytchley Hounds at Boughton Cover.

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In 1938, royal riding instructor Horace Smith began giving Elizabeth and her sister Margaret twice-weekly lessons at the Palace. Elizabeth not only enjoyed riding but she also liked looking after horses and her passion became almost an obsession.

On one occasion she told Smith that “had she not been who she was, she would like to be a lady living in the country with lots of horses and dogs”.

Riding lessons continued throughout the 1939-45 war and, with future troop-reviewing in mind, Smith taught Elizabeth to ride side-saddle.

In 1943, she won first prize at the Royal Windsor Horse Show for driving a utility vehicle harnessed to her black Fell pony - a trophy she won again the following year.

Watching horse was a developing interest, as well as riding and driving, and in the spring of 1942 she was taken by her parents to the Beckhampton stables on the Wiltshire Downs where horses bred at the royal studs were trained. In particular, they went to see two royal horses, Big Game and Sun Chariot, which were strongly fancied for the Derby and the Oaks. Visits to see the mares and foals at the royal stud at Hampton Court, and to see the royal horses in training at Newmarket followed.

After 1945, the horse world became Elizabeth’s chief relaxation and escape, and she was to expand her interest in horse management and breeding. Horse breeding was a family pursuit. The royal studs had been founded at Hampton Court in the 16th century, later moving to Windsor. In the late-19th century, the then Prince of Wales, later Edward VII, had established the Sandringham stud.

For her part, in 1962, Elizabeth - now Queen - leased, and later bought, Polhampton Lodge Stud, near Overton, in Hampshire, for breeding race horses. In the late-1940s she had received the filly Astrakhan as a wedding present from the Aga Khan.

She acquired her own racing colours in 1949 of scarlet, purple hooped sleeves and black cap, when she and her mother jointly bought the steeple-chaser Monaveen. Monaveen was the first winner in the Princess’s colours in the Chichester Handicap Chase at Fontwell Park, October 10, 1949.

When she acceded to throne in 1952, the Queen inherited the royal colours: purple, gold braid, scarlet sleeves, black velvet cap with gold fringe. The Queen’s first winner as monarch was Choir Boy in the Wilburton Handicap at Newmarket, May 13, 1952.

In 1954, the Queen’s horses, including Aureole, were so successful that she was the leading winner-owner. She repeated the triumph in 1957.

The high performance of the 1950s, however, could not be maintained and the 60s was a decade of decline. In May 1967, the Queen made the first of two private trips to France to see French studs. Later there were similar private royal missions to the United States.

In 1969, Lord Carnarvon, the Queen’s close friend with whom she shared a passion for horses, became her racing manager, and royal racing and breeding fortunes greatly improved.

The 1980s and 90s saw a mixed performance, and royal investment in the turf was regarded as secondary compared with the vast sums spent by Arab owners.

The fortunes of the Queen’s horses were said to been hampered by her inability to use Irish-based stallions because of the then political climate.

Even in her later years, the Queen loved to ride and did so whenever she could at Windsor, Sandringham and Balmoral.

In 2003, at the state opening of parliament, the Queen showed she had racing on her mind when she announced details of a bill about the “National Hunt Service” rather than “Health Service”. She quickly corrected the slip of the tongue.

Her other great passion was dogs, in particular her beloved corgis.

Her first, Susan, was given to her as an 18th birthday present by her parents in 1944. The Queen had fallen in love with her father’s dog Dookie, a Pembrokeshire corgi, and wanted one of her own.

Susan became the founder of the Queen’s royal doggy dynasty, but she was not always well behaved. She bit a royal clockwinder on the ankle and also was rather partial to going for servants’ legs.

Her grandson, Whisky, apparently tore the seat out of a Guards officer’s trousers.

During her reign, the Queen owned more than 30 corgis, with many of them direct descendants from Susan, who was so loved she accompanied Princess Elizabeth on her honeymoon.

She introduced the new breed of dog known as the “dorgi” when her corgi Tiny was mated with a dachshund “sausage dog” called Pipkin which belonged to Princess Margaret.

Her Majesty’s preferred breed of dog was not everybody’s favourite.

The Prince of Wales, for one, likes Jack Russells more than Welsh corgis, as they are officially known. Corgis are liable to bite people’s legs because their forebears rounded up sheep by snapping at their feet.

One footman at the Palace found a novel way of getting his own back.

He spiked the dogs’ food and water with whisky and gin, then watched in amusement as the tipsy animals staggered around. But his act of treason was discovered and he was demoted.

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At one stage, the Queen was forced to call in a dog psychiatrist when her corgis kept setting upon each other. The worst incident was when Ranger, who belonged to the Queen Mother, killed the Queen’s dorgi Chipper in 1989.

Two years later the Queen was bitten on the left hand while trying to break up a fight between six of her corgis and two of the Queen Mother’s at Windsor. She needed three stitches and her chauffeur needed a tetanus jab.

Dr Roger Mugford, the canine psychiatrist, prescribed an ear-piercing rape alarm which the Queen used to break up the dog fights. He also sent the leader of the pack, Apollo, to live with the Princess Royal.

But sometimes it was the corgis who found themselves under attack.

In 2003, as the royals were gathering for Christmas at Sandringham in Norfolk, one befell a tragic fate. Pharos - one of the Queen’s oldest corgis - was savaged by another dog and had to be put down. The Queen was devastated at the death of one of her favourites pets.

Dottie, the English bull terrier, owned by the Princess Royal, was blamed. The year before, Anne had been fined £500 when the same dog attacked two children in Windsor Great Park.

Some days later, an announcement from the Palace was met with surprise when it was revealed it was a case of mistaken identity.

The real killer of Pharos was Florence, another of Anne’s dogs.

Pharos was buried in the Sandringham grounds, joining Susan and some of the other corgis who had gravestones there.

The original royal corgi Dookie was bought by the Queen’s father, George VI, when Duke of York, in 1933. He had admired a friend’s corgi and decided to own one himself.

Dookie was a Pembrokeshire corgi dog from the Rozavel Kennels in Surrey. Corgis were then a little-known breed and had only been admitted to the Kennel Club as one worthy of championship status in 1928.

In 1936, the King acquired a second corgi, called Jane, who had puppies on Christmas Eve. Two were kept and were named Carol and Crackers.

The monarch looked after her own dogs as much as possible. At weekends spent at Windsor, the corgis came too and lived in her private apartments. She fed them herself, whenever her busy schedule permitted. She mixed their feed with a spoon and a fork from ingredients brought on a tray by a footman.

She also enjoyed walking the dogs who knew when it was time for their exercise. If the Queen came in wearing a tiara, they laid glumly on the carpet. If she was in a headscarf, they knew it was time for walkies.

The Duke of York said his mother’s love of her corgis helped keep her fit. “She is just amazing at her age and she walks a long way, the dogs keep her active,” Andrew said.

Perhaps less associated with the Queen were her Labradors and Cocker Spaniels, which were bred and kept at Sandringham and were also firm favourites. There is a special Sandringham strain of black Labrador founded in 1911. They are working gundogs more than pets, but the Queen had a close bond with them, particularly during the shooting season.

In 2015, the Queen decided to stop breeding Pembroke Welsh corgis over fears she might trip over and hurt herself. It was also reported that she did not want to leave any behind when she dies. Her last corgi Whisper died in 2018.