The Queen considers beloved horses ‘first’ in the royal pecking order: report

Queen Elizabeth’s love for her beloved horses is no secret, and while many royal fans are aware of her fascination with the mighty beasts, what might be shocking is the extent to which she prioritizes them within her household.

According to royal butler Mr Paul Burrell, the Queen still “puts her horses” above Prince Philip and her children. He made this revelation during an interview with Vicky Pattison on The Secret To podcast.

There Mr. Burrell explained, "We had a saying at Buckingham Palace. Horses, dogs, husbands, and kids, and that was the pecking order. Even the horses came before her husband.”

"If you could say to the Queen, 'instead of being Queen, what would you have rather been? She would say, 'a farmer's wife. I would love to live in the countryside with my horses and my dogs'. But she wasn't cast that role. She had to be Queen and so she dedicated her life.

However, that is not to say her duties as a monarch were ever put beneath her beloved horses, once "We were feeding the dogs one day and she said to me, 'I swore an oath before God, Paul, in Westminster Abbey the day I was crowned Queen to serve my country for as long as there is breath in my body and that's what I intend to do'."