Coronavirus: Queen rides back into public view

The 94-year-old has made her first public appearance since the start of the lockdown in the grounds of Windsor Castle.

Britain's Queen Elizabeth II rides Balmoral Fern, a 14-year-old Fell Pony, in Windsor Home Park over the weekend. Picture: AP

The Queen made her first public appearance since the start of the lockdown on a horse in the grounds of Windsor Castle.

The release of the authorised photographs of the 94-year-old will be seen as a morale-boosting signal that life is beginning to return to normal as restrictions are eased.

Her Majesty has been staying in her private apartments at the castle with a few key household staff who have been isolating with her and the Duke of Edinburgh since she arrived from Buckingham Palace on March 19.

The Queen has been a passionate horse lover and breeder of thoroughbred racehorses throughout her reign. Picture: Getty

The Queen, wearing a colourful headscarf and dressed in a tweed jacket, jodhpurs, white gloves and boots, was riding on a 14-year-old fell pony called Balmoral Fern. She is said to have left the castle most mornings by a side gate to drive to Home Park where she rides.

The Queen has been a passionate horse lover and breeder of thoroughbred racehorses throughout her reign. She went riding with Prince Andrew in a show of support after he stepped back from royal duties following a disastrous BBC interview about his association with Jeffrey Epstein, a sex offender.

Terry Pendry, her head groom, has been following social distancing requirements since the lockdown began and disinfects the saddles and bridles to avoid the risk of transmitting the virus. He has altered the stable’s exercise route so it now runs alongside the Queen’s living quarters, enabling her to inspect all her horses each day.

To mark her 94th birthday staff at the royal stable paraded all the horses in front of the Queen and Prince Philip, who will be 99 next week, The Mail on Sunday reported.

No one outside a group of 22 staff who are isolating alone or see only their immediate family is allowed access to Upper Ward, which houses the private apartments occupied by the Queen and Prince Philip.

The staff in what is known as HMS Bubble include Paul Whybrew, the page of the backstairs, as well as chefs and cleaners. The team includes Tony Johnstone-Burt, the master of the household, and Sir Edward Young, the Queen’s private secretary.

Staff who live in Home Park, including Angela Kelly, her senior dresser, are taken to the queen’s quarters from their homes in a car that is regularly disinfected.

Mr Johnstone-Burt, a former vice admiral, said in an email to staff in the “bubble” that the challenges of self-isolating “have parallels with being at sea away from home for many months, and having to deal with a sense of dislocation, anxiety and uncertainty”.

The Queen has not been pictured in public since being driven away from Buckingham Palace. She has made two televised addresses to the nation during the lockdown: the first a speech to reassure the country that coronavirus would be overcome and those in isolation “will meet again”, and another on a similar theme to mark the 75th anniversary of VE Day. She has held her weekly audience with the prime minister on the telephone.

The Queen and Prince Philip have separate living and sleeping quarters at Windsor but are reported to have lunch together every day. The Queen has mastered Facetime to communicate with her children and grandchildren.

Prince Charles, 71, who had coronavirus in March, and the Duchess of Cornwall, 72, are at Birkhall, their home on the Balmoral estate.

The Queen is an avid racegoer and could be watching on television as racing resumes today (Monday) with a meeting at Newcastle after the government granted permission on Saturday.

Emmanuel Macron, the French president, is reported to be seeking a video meeting with the Queen to mark the 80th anniversary this month Charles de Gaulle’s appeal to his countrymen to resist the Nazi occupation, which was broadcast by the BBC.

The Times