The Queen’s show How Her Majesty’s support for the show has never diminished
At the first Windsor horse show in 1943, The Queen could be found among hordes of spectators in her family’s own back garden and, 75 years on, her support for the show hasn’t diminished, says Lucy Higginson
‘You’re not told The Queen’s coming, but she always does’ showing producer LIZZIE BRIANT
WHEN the first Windsor horse show ran in 1943 — on a Wednesday afternoon — to help raise funds to build Spitfires as part of a wider “Wings for Victory Week”, few could have predicted what it would become. Although it barely extended beyond some private and trade driving, a little showing, a bending and musical chairs race and dog classes, including “dog with the most appealing eyes”, it was attended by hordes of spectators, plus The King, Queen and their two daughters.
The organisers instantly knew that they were on to something. Its “remarkable success” soon led to “requests from all quarters to establish this as an annual form”, wrote honorary secretary Ian Hezlett afterwards. He invited key figures to become founder members of a Royal Windsor Horse Show Club to help develop the show. At the club’s first meeting, someone pointed out that in the new age of the combustion engine, 95% of the population were no longer horse-minded: “Our job […] as founder members, is to try and stimulate an interest, [...] a love of the beauty and intelligence of the horse.”
It’s a theme — coupled with profound commitment to horse welfare — held dear by the Royal Family from that day to this.
By the following year, King George VI was patron of the show, the Duke of Beaufort was the president, and Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret were out winning a private driving class. The Queen succeeded her father as patron after his death in 1952.
HAVING friends in high places soon proved useful for the show’s development. With war-time shortages everywhere, the superintendent of the Royal Mews wrote to the Ministry of Supply asking how the show might procure a special timber licence to make its own fences, since borrowing them from afar “did not prove very satisfactory”. This request, he pointed out politely, had The King’s full support.
A handwritten note made two days later records a telephone message saying “the necessary licence would be issued forthwith”.
With its extraordinary location and royal patronage, the show always had aristocratic connections and powerful pulling power.
How many other shows could have lured
Terry Wogan, at the height of his fame, to judge the Riding for the Disabled Association’s fancy dress?
Having attended the show from an early age, The Queen’s children were often coopted to give out pony prizes, and many of her relatives have spectated and competed too. The Duchess of Norfolk and her daughter contested — and won — early classes, and the Princess Royal finished fourth on Purple Star in the Spillers combined training in 1972, a class she contested regularly thereafter. The same year, the best polo pony class involved The Queen’s friend and occasional riding companion Lord Vestey, Major Ronald Ferguson (the late father of the Duchess of York), Lord Patrick Beresford (leading polo player and later chef d’equipe of the British Eventing team) and The Queen’s dashing cousin, Prince William of Gloucester, who was to lose his life later that summer in a flying accident, aged just 30.
In other years, the Prince of Wales showed a polo pony himself, Zara Tindall has showjumped in the Foxhunter at Royal Windsor and more recently still, keen whip Lady Louise Windsor, daughter of the Earl and Countess of Wessex, has contested a British Driving Society class.
The Duke of Edinburgh also competed, of
course — for years in the International Driving Trials, added to the show’s format in 1971 very much at his suggestion — finally winning the Horse Teams class, just once, in 1982, “although I came second five times”, he pointed out ruefully in a later show programme.
To a large degree, Royal Windsor’s schedule has been shaped by the diverse horse interests of its patron and her family. As The Queen’s consort and president of the FEI for more than 20 years, the Duke has been uniquely positioned to introduce all kinds of new ideas and displays to his “home” show, such as the Canadian Cutting Horse Association, who came in 1964 at his suggestion.
With the show quite literally in The Queen’s back garden since 2004, and the long, strong and personal links the family has with the armed forces, the show is rich in military links. Our two great equestrian regiments, the King’s Troop and the Household Cavalry, perform there almost annually, and The Queen always watches and awards prizes at the culmination of the Best Turned Out Trooper, and the Challenge Cup for Services Team Jumping, which she donated in 1954.
But there have been all kinds of other spectacles, such as a 300th anniversary tribute to six British cavalry regiments in 1985, and a tattoo performed each evening after the show for a number of years from 2008, raising funds for the Royal British Legion and demonstrating “the reality of modern soldiering”.
Great names in equestrianism have flocked here, too, captivated by the setting, atmosphere and always-accommodating organising team.
Show catalogues are strewn with the greatest names of British equestrianism.
“It was nearly always the top people there. It was the first big showing show of the season, the thing to be at,” recalls Jennie Loriston-Clarke, who still visits annually and fondly remembers The Queen coming to watch the Hermès-sponsored dressage classes tucked around the corner from the main show in the late 90s.
IT is the way that The Queen, her family and house guests drop in and mingle at the show in this unofficial capacity that really charms riders and visitors alike. Windsor locals are used to royal comings and goings, and the Countess of Wessex may take her son to drive the remote-controlled Land Rovers like any other parent.
The Queen, too, can go largely unnoticed, in her casual skirt and headscarf, although the occasional show visitor has “almost gone into anaphylactic shock when they realise who they’re standing next to”, as one member show insider puts it.
“You’re not told she’s coming, but she always does,” says Lizzie Briant, who shows
The Queen’s natives for her and this year brings the Highland stallion Balmoral Mandarin, who won at the Royal Highland as a yearling in 2010. “He is a proper Highland with offspring carrying stags off the hill. He’s lived in Scotland most of his life, so he thinks he’s in the Bahamas with me in Wiltshire,” laughs Lizzie.
“The Queen is an amazing horsewoman and knows every pony’s good points and bad points. She is very interested and is kept in the loop all year round.”
“She loves her Highlands passionately, but loves all her horses — and knows all the bloodlines back to goodness knows where,” confirms Katie Jerram-Hunnable.
Perhaps the close royal interest in the native classes is one of the reasons they are so well supported at Windsor.
“Numbers have dwindled at a lot of shows, but so many want to do Windsor,” says Lizzie. “The native classes are well-filled. If you win a class at Windsor, you’ve done exceptionally well.”
After some leaner years in the late 90s, Royal Windsor — “The Queen’s show” as many riders call it — is thriving, with improved sponsorship, classy fields and swelling visitor numbers, helped in no small part by The Queen’s decision to allow the show to relocate to Home Park Private in 2004, and put in two large all-weather surfaces.
“I’d like to think it’s a horse show for everybody,” says the organiser Simon Brooks-Ward.
“Anyone can enter most classes. And while we have four high-standard international disciplines at the show, it has retained its tradition with things like hunters and trade turnout classes. But it’s still a quintessentially English horse show, and I don’t think there are many of them left.”