The Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations will dazzle and the eyes of the world will be on the capital. But let's not forget Her Majesty's great love of the countryside. Let's celebrate the rural reign and The Queen's exceptional affinity with animals.
For a woman who has lived her life in the public eye, we know extraordinarily little about The Queen's tastes and private habits. While she now spends most of her time at Windsor, she appears to be at her most relaxed out of the public eye at Balmoral and Sandringham, her two privately-owned estates.
Much of what we hear about Her Majesty's hobbies is through word of mouth and is unconfirmed. What we do know is that she chooses to spend the most special times of the year – Christmas, Easter and her holidays – in two of the most rural parts of the United Kingdom, indulging her love of animals and nature. It is no coincidence that Balmoral and Sandringham are great sporting estates, with some of the best shooting and fishing in the country.
An animal lover since childhood, horses have played a huge part in The Queen's life. Having received her first riding lesson aged three years old she takes a keen and highly knowledgeable interest in the equestrian world. One of the focuses of the Jubilee festivities was the Platinum Jubilee Celebration at this year's Royal Windsor Horse Show which was a gallop through history that saw over 500 horses entertain The Queen and was a nod to Her Majesty's lifelong love of horses. The show, held in the grounds of Windsor Castle, also saw her homebred Highland, Balmoral Leia, claim the overall Horse & Hound mountain and mountain supreme in-hand title this year.
Riding has always been a favourite activity and it is believed that she continued to indulge this love by riding out in Windsor Great Park until relatively recently – still wearing a headscarf. Indeed, when The Queen gave up riding side-saddle at Trooping the Colour in 1987, people assumed this was due to her age. The real reason was in fact that Burmese, the beloved horse she had ridden in the ceremony for the past 18 years, was getting on and The Queen did not feel she could trust another mount in the same way.
A true expert in breeding and racing, The Queen has also inherited the keen and critical eye of that other great horsewoman, the late Queen Mother. She has a passion for racing and breeding, and horses bred at the Royal Studs have won almost every major race in Britain. Every year she attends the Derby at Epsom, one of the classic Flat races, while the summer race meeting at Ascot, which has been a Royal occasion since 1911, is still a highlight in The Queen's calendar.
As an owner and breeder of thoroughbreds, she often visits other race meetings to watch her horses run and also frequently attends equestrian events. The Queen has an extraordinary success story in racing with over 530 winners and £7.5m in prize money, holding the accolade of being one of the most successful owners and breeders of all time. Charles Anson, her former press secretary, says: "I share the view with a number of others that if The Queen had not been born to her role as a monarch she would have been one of our leading thoroughbred breeders, somewhere on the Newbury Downs or in Gloucestershire."