Queen Elizabeth poses with her ponies ahead of 96th birthday
The Queen turns 96 on Thursday
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Queen Elizabeth II s getting a head start on her birthday festivities.
The royal family’s official Instagram account shared a picture of the Queen on Wednesday standing between two of her fell ponies, Bybeck Katie and Bybeck Nightingale.
"Ahead of The Queen’s 96th Birthday tomorrow, Royal Windsor Horse Show, have released a new photograph of Her Majesty with two of her fell ponies, Bybeck Katie and Bybeck Nightingale," the caption began.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Queen Elizabeth kicked off her birthday celebration early on Wednesday. (AP/Scott Heppell, File)
"Taken last month in the grounds of Windsor Castle, the photo is the fourth in a series of photos released by the Royal Windsor Horse Show, following images that celebrated the Golden Jubilee, the Platinum Jubilee and Her Majesty’s 90th Birthday."
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"First staged in 1943, The Queen has attended every single Royal Windsor Horse Show," the caption concluded.
Queen Elizabeth has always shared a fondness for horses and was gifted a Shetland pony when she was just four years old. She apparently passed her love down to her daughter, Princess Anne, who became the first British royal to compete in the Olympics in the 1976 games in Montreal.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Princess Anne rode in the three-day equestrian event and her daughter, Zara Tindell, competed in the 2012 Olympics and received a silver medal while competing as a member of the Great Britain Eventing Team.
Queen Elizabeth II rode Balmoral Fern, a 14-year-old Fell Pony, in Windsor Home Park over the weekend at the end of May 2020.
Earlier Wednesday morning, the Queen’s grandson, Prince Harry, shared that he’s "trying" to have his children visit Queen Elizabeth amid "security issues."
The Duke of Sussex, who is in the Netherlands for the Invictus Games, sat down with Hoda Kotb for the "Today" show on Wednesday. The 37-year-old told the TV host that he’s unsure whether he will travel to the U.K. for the queen’s Platinum Jubilee in June, in part due to security concerns.
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"I don’t know yet," Harry admitted. "There’s lots of things: security issues and everything else. So this is what I’m trying to do, trying to make it possible that, you know, I can get my kids to meet her."
Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, visited his homeland for a visit with the monarch, 95, at Windsor Castle last week before they kicked off the Invictus Games in the Netherlands.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"It was great. It was really nice to see her," said the prince. "To see her in an element of privacy was nice."
Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, attends the indoor rowing event during the Invictus Games on April 20, 2022, in The Hague, Netherlands. (Chris Jackson/Getty Images for the Invictus Games Foundation)
"We have a really special relationship," he continued when talking about his bond with the queen. "We talk about things she can’t talk about with anyone else."
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}When Kotb, 57, asked Harry if he missed his family back home in the U.K., he replied, "Yes, I think especially over the last two years. How do you not miss your family?"
Queen Elizabeth II, as well as William, 39, and Charles, 73, have not met Harry’s daughter Lilibet, who was born last June.
Fox News’ Stephanie Nolasco contributed to this report.