Lady Louise Windsor to Inherit Prince Philip’s Beloved Ponies and Carriage

The late Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip, has left behind a unique legacy that his granddaughter, Lady Louise Windsor, 17, will inherit.

The legacy is none other than his beloved ponies and carriage.

The Duke’s polished dark green four-wheeled carriage and two black ponies, Balmoral Nevis and Notlaw Storm, were stood outside Windsor Castle during the funeral procession.

It was one of the most moving parts of the Duke’s funeral.

On the seat of the carriage were the Duke’s cap, whip, brown gloves, and a nearby red pot containing sugar lumps he would give to his ponies.

The vehicle was the Duke’s most recent carriage, which he began using at the age of 91 for riding around the grounds of the Windsor Castle Estate and other royal estates.

Made of aluminium and steel, it was built to the royal specifications eight years ago and can seat four people and harness up to eight horses.

After his passing, the carriage and ponies will be passed on to the Earl and Countess of Wessex’s elder child, Lady Louise, who shares his love of the sport of carriage driving.

Sources close to the royal family told Mail Online that she will regularly exercise the two black ponies at Windsor.

The Duke took up carriage driving in his 50s in 1971, switching from polo due to an arthritic wrist.

He was credited for bringing carriage driving to the UK.

After the drafting of the first international rules for the sport in the late 1960s, he represented Britain in three European Championships and six World Championships in total.

He was a member of the British team that won the World Championships at Windsor in 1980 and was part of the bronze medal winning team in the European Championships in Switzerland the following year.

Philip continued to drive competitively with teams of ponies until 2003, when he retired from the sport in his early 80s.

However, he continued to drive a team of fail ponies around the royal estates and judging carriage driving competitions.

In a book about the sport, he wrote, “I am getting old, my reactions are getting slower and my memory is unreliable, but I have never lost the sheer pleasure of driving a team through the British countryside.”

He taught the sport to his granddaughter, Lady Louise, as well as to her mother, the Countess of Wessex.

In 2019, Philip was pictured proudly watching his granddaughter take part in a carriage driving competition at the Royal Windsor Horse Show, in which she came third.

In an interview last May, Louise’s mother said of her daughter’s carriage driving talents, “she is naturally so good at it, she really is, it’s something that she has taken to very well.”

On the morning he died, Lady Louise was seen in Windsor Great Park in his carriage, paying tribute by putting the ponies through their paces.

Meanwhile, the Earl and Countess of Wessex recalled some of the scrapes Philip got into while carriage driving around the Windsor estate.

Speaking to mourners outside the chapel at a Sunday service at the Royal Chapel of All Saints at Royal Lodge in Windsor, two days after Philip passed away, Sophie said, “the Duke had been pulled out of a few ditches here, I seem to remember.”

Laughing, Edward said, “in the early days, yes, he used to have a few problems.”

Sophie replied jokingly, “more recently too.”

Lady Louise and her brother, James, Viscount 7, 13, were the youngest of the 30 guests at Prince Philip’s emotional funeral on Saturday, which took place at St George’s Chapel in Windsor.

The 17-year-old paid tribute to the late Duke with her outfit.