21/04/2022
Happy 96th birthday to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II—a model sovereign and dedicated public servant, beloved around the world. After she was born ar 2:40 a.m. on April 21, 1926, the diarist Chips Channon presciently wrote, “I have a feeling the child will be Queen of England.” But no one could have foreseen that she would reign for more than seventy years and celebrate an unprecedented Platinum Jubilee.
Reflecting the Queen’s lifelong love of horses, Buckingham Palace released this enchanting photo of her with two of her fell ponies, once described to me by Michael Oswald, the longtime manager of the Queen’s stud at Sandringham, as “safe conveyances.”
These two beautiful ponies are called Bybeck Katie and Bybeck Nightingale, and the photo was taken on the grounds of Windsor Castle last month.
In her typically modest fashion, the Queen is marking her birthday quietly at Wood Farm on the Sandringham estate, where she and the late Duke of Edinburgh used to escape for relaxing weekends. When he retired in 2017, Wood Farm became his residence for several years. It is a secluded and contemplative place with a sweeping view of the marshland leading to the North Sea, a reminder of many happy times.