King Charles was forced to give up one of his major passions when he was 75, despite his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth, enjoying it until the age of 96.
The King was the first monarch in more than 30 years to ride on horseback during Trooping the Colour in 2023, but last year, he revealed that he had acquired « too many injuries » to be able to enjoy riding horses.
In June 2024, following his cancer diagnosis earlier in the year, Charles did not ride for the Trooping of Colour parade but inspected the troops from a carriage instead.
A few months later, in October, the King revealed while on tour in Australia that he is not as active anymore.
He told a young fan who asked him his favourite sport: « I can’t do much now, too many injuries. »
The King added regarding his earlier years playing polo: « I used to sit on a horse. »
Charles’s younger son, the Duke of Sussex, also talked about his father’s injuries that he acquired while playing polo.
Prince Harry wrote in his memoir, Spare: « Open the wrong door and you might burst in on Pa while his valet was helping him dress.
« Worse, you might blunder in as he was doing his headstands.
« Prescribed by his physio, these exercises were the only effective remedy for the constant pain in Pa’s neck and back. Old polo injuries, mostly. »
Meanwhile, the late Queen may have stopped riding horseback in the Trooping the Colour ceremony in 1986, however, she carried on riding her ponies until much later.
According to her groom, Terry Pendry, the late monarch managed to go for one last ride on her favourite pony, Emma, just eight weeks before her death on September 8 2022.
He told the Rosebud with Gyles Brandreth podcast: « The very last time with her wasn’t a ride, I walked. She was quite frail. She actually ended up being smaller than Queen Elizabeth [the Queen Mother], her last four years that she was quite poorly. »
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