POPULAR conjecture has it that the date of The King’s coronation may have come as a bit of an inconvenience to some members of his family. Certainly, the announcement caused a momentary ‘argh’ in the equestrian world. However, Badminton’s calm director, Jane Tuckwell, has decades of experience behind her and came up with an admirable solution: everything would be moved forward one day, so that Saturday, May 6, would be a dressage day and it would start early to accommodate a break in proceedings for a convivial watching of the ceremony together on the big screens. The subsequent announcement of an extra bank holiday (on Monday, May 8, now the showjumping finale) played into the event’s hands.
The Royal Family has been synonymous with Badminton since 1952, when the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh, together with Princess Margaret and their children, were members of the 10th Duke of Beaufort’s house party. The Queen Mother was a regular, too. They hacked out on the estate, sat on a picnic rug or watched from a hay wagon among the crowds on cross-country day, went to church on Sunday and presented prizes. Queen Camilla will be similarly at home.
Spectators, of course, loved seeing the Royal Family at close quarters, but, equally, soon forgot about them as they became absorbed in the competition. Prince Philip has often been quoted as saying that the horse was ‘a great leveller’; save for the inevitable clicking cameras, members of the Royal Family have long blended naturally into the worlds of eventing, racing and polo. When a rider once landed with a splosh in the Badminton Lake, it was barely noticed that the person who stepped forward to hand the soggy horseman his whip was the Queen.
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