The Queen is understood to be taking a close interest in her great-grandchildren’s progress in the saddle
(Picture: Pa.)The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s children have become keen riders inheriting the Queen’s love of horses, according to reports.
The Queen, 94, who has continued riding her fell ponies during lockdown, is understood to be taking a close interest in her great-grandchildren’s progress in the saddle.
George, seven, Charlotte, five, and Louis, two, are expected to join “Gan Gan”, as they call her, for rides at Windsor and Balmoral in the summer, the Sunday Times reports.
The Cambridge children are understood to have been keen on having their own ponies for some time.
George has taken riding lessons on a Shetland pony belonging to Prince William’s cousin, Zara Tindall.
William, 38, and Kate, 39, are keen for their children to learn to ride but reportedly want them to take an active role in looking after the horses.
William still plays polo for charity events, is said to be “thrilled” his children are enjoying a hobby that he and the Duke of Sussex shared as children.
The Prince of Wales and the late Princess Diana took William and Harry riding at Highgrove, Charles’s Gloucestershire home.
The Queen has been a devoted equestrian since 1930, when her grandfather, George V, gave her a Shetland pony called Peggy for her fourth birthday.
Her love of horses has been inherited by several family members, notably Princess Anne, who won an individual gold medal at the 1971 European eventing championships, and her daughter, Zara Tindall, the 2006 eventing world champion and a 2012 Olympic silver medallist.
The Queen’s head groom and riding companion, Terry Pendry, has described her as “a fountain of knowledge in all things equine, you might say a living encyclopedia”.
