Published in Windlesora 29 (2013)
© WLHG
“What are the Windsor Greys?” is a question rather surprisingly heard on occasion during 2012, even in Windsor itself. They are, of course, fine grey horses which have been chosen to draw the Monarch’s carriages since Queen Victoria’s day. Our Queen knows them very well indeed. Greys drew the Gold State Coach at her Coronation in 1953; since then, they have been seen on Horse Guards Parade each June, when Her Majesty inspects her Guards on her Birthday Parade, and every day during the following week in Windsor, on their way to lead the procession at Royal Ascot. They transport the Sovereign on each State occasion, and have also transported Royal Brides on their wedding days.
There has been a Royal Mews at Buckingham Palace since 1761, but the history of these wonderful horses goes back to the 19th Century, when Queen Victoria started keeping Greys at Windsor for the Royal Family’s private carriages. After the Second World War, in gratitude for his support in offering her refuge when Holland was invaded, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands gave five Greys to King George VI. All five were part of the team drawing the Gold State Coach in 1953.
The horses are of no particular breed, but chosen for their looks and temperament, mostly Irish draught or crosses, though some future generations are being bred at Hampton Court. The horses start working at the age of four, and normally continue for about fifteen years. They are broken in to the saddle first, then trained to harness and being driven, thus they are ready to be both driven in-hand or ridden.
The daily exercise of all the carriage horses consists of road work, ridden and driven, and schooling in the indoor riding school. The younger horses are worked in the school and learn to expect the unexpected by being exposed to all manner of sudden movements, pops, bangs and shouts to prepare them for the streets of London. Although their normal day starts early enough at 6 am, they are sometimes up and harnessed by 2.30 am, in order to rehearse for an event when the roads are clear.
Although the main home of the ten current working Greys is in London, they are a familiar sight in Windsor. They occupy comfortable quarters at Windsor Castle during Royal Ascot week, under the eagle eye of Terry Pendry, Stud Groom and Manager of the Mews. In August and September they have a well-earned rest, out to grass at Hampton Court.
Daniel and Storm, the two regular leaders during Her Majesty’s Diamond Jubilee, are the models for a statue of a pair of Windsor Greys to be installed on the roundabout at the King’s Road/Osborne Road junction, beside the Long Walk. It is being funded by an appeal launched in 2012, whose Patron is HRH The Duke of Cambridge and created by Robert Rattray, a very talented young sculptor and artist living in Wales. He took up the challenge after Althea Wynne, the original sculptor who had taken on the project, tragically died in a road accident just as planning consent was received.
With a new vision, but in the same spirit as the original conception, is there a more appropriate way to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Coronation, than a life-size bronze of the horses so loved by the Queen, in the town whose name they bear?
Rosemary Ussher
Photographs courtesy of Rosemary Ussher
Windsor Local History Group 