‘70 years of fabulous reign’: rocking horse replica of Barbers Shop presented to The Queen

The Queen has been presented with a rocking horse replica of Barbers Shop to mark her Platinum Jubilee – with the former racehorse turned showing champion in attendance to mark the occasion.

Stevenson Brothers Rocking Horses presented Her Majesty with the rocking horse in a private ceremony at the Royal Mews. The rocking horse is the sixth to be commissioned for The Queen in 20 years.

“For every jubilee we create a horse to commemorate the occasion,” said Marc Stevenson, who runs the business with his twin brother Tony and business partner Sue Russell.

“The first one was a dappled grey horse on a coach spring, and the next was a black horse for the Diamond Jubilee, which we called Churchill’s Charger. It is tacked up in 4th Hussars tacks and the idea was to remind Her Majesty of her first prime minister. Inside a bottom drawer there are pictures of The Queen and Churchill in black and white printed from the original negatives and in the glass base there is little lead figures of Churchill riding his horse, him in the Boer War and him as prime minister.

“We like to do something a bit special. For the Platinum Jubilee it was suggested that we make a replica of the last racehorse that Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother bred, Barbers Shop. We changed the shape of the rocking horse so it’s as if he’s moving rather than a rocking horse with stationary legs. It’s more like a sculpture and is the first we’ve done like this.”

Barbers Shop had a successful racing career trained by Nicky Henderson before turning his hooves to showing with producer Katie Jerram-Hunnable. His many achievements in the show ring include being crowned supreme ridden champion at Royal Windsor in 2017. He retired in 2018 and remains based with Katie.

“The Queen was extremely happy to see her latest rocking horse. The real joy was having Barbers Shop present at the presentation. Her Majesty commented that it must have been nice to have the real horse to base the rocking horse on,” said Marc.

“We wish Her Majesty many congratulations on her 70 years of fabulous reign. It’s been a joy making rocking horses for her for the past 20 years and a real honour. It was lovely to see her looking so well and joyous.”

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