Queen has ‘soft spot’ for Prince Harry says Morton

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Her Majesty has been known for decades to have a dry wit. And she seems still keen on using her humour, as her Master of the Horse opened up on a particularly sarcastic joke he said she has recently made.

Rupert Ponsonby, 7th Baron de Mauley, who was appointed Master of the Horse by the Queen in July 2018, said the monarch recently made a remark about one horse she deemed underperforming.

Speaking to the Times, he said the monarch told him: “I could run faster than it in gumboots”.

This remark came despite the Queen counting five winners at equestrian contests in May alone.

The Queen’s jibe at her horse is even more remarkable as the monarch has been experiencing in recent months episodic mobility issues, which at times have forced her to pull out of scheduled events.

Most recently, she pulled out of the State Opening of Parliament on May 10.

Her Majesty tasked her son and heir Prince Charles to read the Queen’s Speech as one of her Counsellors of State.

Another Counsellor, Prince William, was also in attendance at this key constitutional duty.

The monarch also missed the three garden parties held at Buckingham Palace over the past weeks.

Given there are more than 8000 guests at each party and these events require attendees to stand on their feet for several hours, the monarch was represented by a number of working and non-working members of her family.

Nevertheless, the monarch is far from retiring from royal visits.

Over the past two weeks, she stepped out of her castle four times and paid two visits to London to launch the Elizabeth Line and tour the Chelsea Flower Show.

Speaking about the Queen’s love for horses, Lord De Mauley also recalled how she was able to calm an excitable stallion.

As the pair were touring the royal stables two years ago, he recalled how the monarch simply lifted a forefinger in the direction of a horse after it had reared its hoofs and firmly told it: “No.”

The horse, the lord added, “sprang to attention” in response to the monarch’s gesture.

The Master of the Horse used to be an important official within the sovereign’s household, but the role has become largely ceremonial.

Nevertheless, the Master is the third dignitary of the court, as well as a peer and a privy councillor.

The Master of the Horse normally appears on state occasions, especially if the monarch is mounting a horse.

The Queen is known to be a successful horse breeder and has triumphed at almost every key horse race in Britain.

The only British classic flat race she has yet to win is the Epsom Down.

The closest she got to a victory at the Surrey racecourse was in 1953, when the horse Aureole, bred by her late father King George VI, arrived second.

This year, the race will take place on June 4, in the midst of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations.

However, the monarch doesn’t have horses lined up for this contest.

But she is still widely expected to travel to Surrey to watch the races in person, if her mobility issues will allow it.

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