A book to be published to mark the birth of Prince George will feature unpublished childhood photos that show Queen' Elizabeth's early love of horses.
Queen Elizabeth riding her horse Burmese with President Reagan
A book to be published to mark the birth of Prince George will feature unpublished childhood photos that show Queen' Elizabeth's early love of horses.
© 2013 by Reagan Library
As most people know, the Queen has had a lifelong passion for horses and now unpublished pictures of the Queen as a little girl will give insight into the Queens love of horses from early childhood
According to reports, a series of unseen family photographs show the Queen around age four, perched astride her first Shetland pony named Peggy and given as a gift by her grandfather.
Dressed in warm winter clothes, the then Princess Elizabeth is seen sitting upright in concentration as her father, the then Duke of York, watches carefully.
A second photograph, taken by her father in 1928, shows her pretending to ride a small toy horse in the garden of Naseby Hall, encouraged by her mother.
A third, in which she peeps out from a wicker pram, sees her clutching the reins of a small horse and cart to pull alongside her on the ground.
The Queen is widely known for her love of horses, and this year became the first monarch to win the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot with her horse Estimate.
In May, she took part in a BBC program The Queen: A Passion for Horses, which included footage of her naming newborn foals and inspecting her animals.
She is now known to have begun learning to ride in the Royal Mews at Buckingham Palace aged just three and a half, being given Shetland pony Peggy for her fourth birthday, and being able to ride unaided by the time she was six.
A spokesman for the Royal Collection Trust, which produced the book, said the Queen’s first ponies “became close childhood companions”.
The family photographs, taken by the then Duke and Duchess of York, will now be published for the first time in Royal Baby Book: A Souvenir Album, which tells the story of royal babies from Queen Victoria to Prince George of Cambridge.
The Duke of Cambridge, then Prince William, is also photographed as a child riding his pony Smokey and dressing up in the uniform of the Parachute Regiment.