It’s been two years since Queen Elizabeth II’s passing on September 8, 2022. Thousands and thousands around the globe watched her funeral procession, with many horse lovers noting the Queen’s beloved pony Emma standing stoically by because the hearse carrying her coffin handed by.
The Fell pony made worldwide headlines and was given the Horse of a Lifetime honour, decided by public vote, on the Horse & Hound awards.
Queen Elizabeth II with Emma. (Terry Pendry picture)
Now Her Majesty’s groom Terry Pendry has spoken to Folks journal concerning the final experience the Queen had on Emma the summer time earlier than she handed. Pendry, who labored on the stables at Windsor Fort, had been the Queen’s using companion and groom for over 25 years.
“The final time together with her wasn’t a experience, I walked,” Pendry defined to Gyles Brandreth in the course of the Sept. 6 episode of his podcast Rosebud. “The final day that she rode was the 18th of July, she rode on the sixteenth within the using college. She was very, fairly frail. She might go onto the mounting block and step on to Emma, however I at all times used to should raise her off.”
The horseman additionally informed Brandreth that reasonably than be a part of the Queen on horseback as had been the norm for years, given her frailty he selected to stroll alongside beside her and Emma. And the Queen commented on the change, telling him, “‘This hasn’t occurred to me since I used to be a princess…Somebody strolling alongside me like this.’”
He provided to depart her alone or go get a horse, however she declined and requested him to proceed strolling. He then made a joke, “’Your pony is 26, you’re 96, that must be a document!’ ” To which the Queen responded, “‘I suppose you’re proper.’”
Pendry mentioned he subsequent noticed Her Majesty on July 19 when she popped by the stables for a remaining go to with Emma earlier than heading to her summer time residence, Balmoral. “She simply checked out me and mentioned, ‘You have been very impolite to me yesterday…You mentioned my age,’ after which she bursts into matches of laughter. That was simply her. Final time I ever noticed her.”
As for Emma, Buckingham Palace confirmed the plans for the horse a month after the funeral in an announcement posted to X that learn, “Emma paid tribute to Her Majesty in the course of the Ceremonial Procession in Windsor on Monday nineteenth September. She is going to proceed to be much-loved and cared for on the Royal Mews, Windsor, and recurrently exercised by its small, devoted workforce.”