The ‘gentle giant' put out to pasture after 14 years serving the Royal family

Telegraph

2 days ago

What makes a horse fit to carry a monarch? Standing at 18 'hands' (6ft, or just shy of two meters) tall, striking an elegant and almost ghostly figure with his smooth silver coat, there was surely never a more obvious choice than Tyrone.
The 'gentle and dependable giant' – in the official estimation of the Royal family – was trusted to work at almost every royal occasion for more than a decade, from the Diamond Jubilee to King Charles's coronation.
Now, at the ripe old age of 19 (about 58 in human years) the Irish draught horse is being ushered out to pasture.
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After 14 years spent ferrying kings and queens to and from their most important engagements, never spooking under the glare of hundreds of press cameras and throngs of adoring fans, he will spend his retirement years at a sanctuary nestled in the tranquillity of the Chiltern Hills.
It marks a fitting conclusion for the Windsor grey, whose first outing as a state ceremonial carriage horse came in 2012 when he brought Queen Elizabeth II to the state opening of Parliament that autumn.
He was particularly adored by the late monarch, who was known to go out of her way to bring him carrots at the Royal Mews stables on Buckingham Palace Road. Recognition, it seems, for his steadfastness.
After all, Tyrone was trusted to lead the Queen's carriage for so many important moments of her reign: including the Diamond Jubilee a mere four weeks after his service started, at several state openings of Parliament and during her visit to Royal Ascot in 2019.
The late monarch herself was a dedicated equestrian who championed the role of horses in royal ceremony, particularly of the Windsor greys, who with their distinctive silver coats have been alongside the Royal family since the time of Queen Victoria.
Perhaps it was Tyrone's famously tender temperament that endeared him to Elizabeth II. Those who looked after him have spoken in recent days of his 'stoic' and 'kind-natured' character.
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'He's a very popular chap – a big fan favourite,' Colonel Toby Browne, the crown equerry who oversees the Royal Mews, told The Sunday Times. 'Everyone loves Tyrone. He's totally dependable, very hard-working and really deserves his retirement.' Others at the Mews recalled a giant without a single 'bad bone in his body'.
He was reported to have been something of a mentor to younger horses during his time at the stables, helping them through the training process as they readied to carry carriages themselves.
Tyrone's many public outings showed exactly how it was done, holding his nerve alongside the armed police and flashing motorbikes that are a necessary presence at royal outings.
Whether it was Harry and Meghan on their wedding day, the King and Queen at their coronation or during French president Emmanuel Macron's state visit last month, there he was, working in a pair with another grey, or with seven others who had all been bred and reared for the task of carrying the Royals.
That included his sister, Meg, who he was paired with to lead the Gold State Coach as 'wheelers', the calmest horses positioned closest to the carriage, on many occasions. Last June, Tyrone was trusted to help carry the coach as the Princess of Wales made her return to public life after announcing she was battling cancer – dutifully escorting Catherine, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis as they made their way from Buckingham Palace to Horse Guards Parade and back again as part of annual Trooping the Colour celebrations.
The late Queen 'loved the fact there was a family connection', Col Browne said. Tyrone has an especially venerable ancestry. His father Carrickrock Storm (known affectionately to the Royals only as Storm), born in 2002, stood out from the other foals on the paddock in Ardstraw, County Tyrone.
'He had a great temperament,' Harry Wilson, a farmer who helped to rear him, told the BBC in 2015. 'The first time you put the head cover on he was quiet as a lamb.' After moving to London, Storm quickly earned the Queen's trust. In 2012, he modelled for a statue to mark the Diamond Jubilee alongside another grey, called Daniel, that now stands on a roundabout near Windsor Castle.
Both Tyrone and Meg clearly inherited something of their father's spirit. The latter, now 20, was first to leave the family paddock in Ireland (where many royal carriage horses are bred) for the Royal Mews in 2008. Tyrone left two years later, aged four.
At 11am on Monday, the siblings and their father, now 26, were reunited at the Horse Trust in Buckinghamshire, a sanctuary for retired working horses. Some 75 per cent of the creatures there have served in the Army, with the police, or with the Household Cavalry.
According to those who witnessed his arrival, Tyrone immediately bounded over to Meg and Storm. The trio touched noses as they greeted one another.
Given that Irish draught horses regularly live to see 30, it is hoped that Tyrone has many happy and healthy years ahead. 'After all his years of public service, bringing joy and pride to the country, it's time for us to serve him and give him the best possible life here, where our horses are treated like royalty,' said Jeanette Allen, chief executive of The Horse Trust, the charity which counts Princess Anne as its patron and to which the late Queen was a donor.
Tyrone left London in a covered red horse box, a typically understated exit for a mount who never tried to steal the limelight. But he will always be special, as the gentle, handsome and above all loyal creature who calmed the nerves of the Royals in their most strained hours.