The Queen's favourite pony is to be rehomed following two decades of service to Her Majesty. Emma the fell pony was shown on television on Monday (September 19) as she watched the monarch's coffin travel to Windsor.
The 24-year-old black pony stood by the Long Walk, accompanied by head stud, Terry Pendry, 72, .as the coffin holding the Queen made its final journey to Windsor Castle yesterday. Mr Pendry had placed the Queen's Hermes scarf - which she often wore round her head while riding - across the saddle, reports MirrorOnline.
Emma stamped her foot once as the coffin approached. And Mr Pendry, 72, who worked for the Queen for 28 years, said that Emma is aware on some level that she will never ride with the Queen again.
"The Queen adored Emma and rode her for more than 20 years so it was only right she should have been there, and she behaved impeccably," he told the Daily Mail.
'I think she probably had some sort of sixth sense that Her Majesty wouldn't be riding her anymore and she did her proud by standing there so respectfully."
On their last ride, Mr Pendry revealed, the Queen was physically frail but her mind was was 'crystal clear' and she was 'still sharp as anything'. It was an honour, he said, to have served her and to have been able to bring Emma to say goodbye.
Sharing his heartbreak, he added: "I'm sad to say that I don't think we shall ever seen anyone like the Queen again and there are no words to express how much I shall miss her. I'm just so glad that Emma and I were able to say our goodbye at Windsor where Her Majesty enjoyed riding her horses so much."
Emma - full name Carltonlima Emma - was bred at the Murthwaite Stud farm in Cumbria by Thomas Capstick, who passed away in 2015. She was just four when the Queen first started riding her, and Mr Capstick's aunt, Mary Airey, said he would have been 'so proud'.
"It was lovely yesterday to see Emma with Terry," she told the BBC.
"And - I don't know if people noticed - but when the coffin went past Emma lifted her foot and it was priceless."
The Queen's surviving corgis, Muick and Sandy, are set to go to live with Prince Andrew at his nearby home in Windsor. Meanwhile royal biographer Claudia Joseph believes that Emma and the rest of the Queen's horses will also go to a new home, but one within the family, especially given Princess Anne and her daughter Zara's shared passion for riding.
"It is likely that the queen's daughter, Princess Anne, and daughter, Zara, who were both Olympic equestrians and well-known horse lovers, are likely to be involved in what happens next to the queen's animals," she told The Post.
