'I'm furious': Late Queen Elizabeth rages in never-before-seen letters

The late Queen declared that she was “allergic to vets” in a furious letter about the care of her horses, it has emerged.

In July 1960, a “fuming” Elizabeth II wrote to her equerry, Brigadier Walter Morley Sale, after arguing with a vet over his diagnosis of her horse, Dove.

“I’m furious!” the keen equestrian wrote.

“There is absolutely nothing the matter with her foal ... I’m allergic to vets and I can’t help it.”

In another letter to Brigadier Sale, she asked if she could “sue” a carriage driver who had caused an accident.

The collection of nearly 50 letters and notes, sent from Elizabeth to her equerry between 1954 and 1961, has been in the Sale family for the past 65 years.

It is now being sold by auctioneers Bonhams, of Knightsbridge in London, and is expected to fetch between £8,000 and £12,000.

Brigadier Sale was responsible for the Royal Mews, the royal family’s collection of stables.

In one letter, Elizabeth told him how she loved riding “challenging horses”, but feared letting Prince Charles ride one.

“Please make sure that the ponies are well-exercised... even [Princess] Anne apparently finds them hard to hold, and Charles will be put off for a certainty,” she said.

In another letter, she downplayed her riding ability, saying: “Sea Breeze is too strong and too good for my sort of once a week riding.

“He might even be Olympic one day... he and I are not in the same equine category.”

In a further letter, sent following an undisclosed carriage accident, she asked Brigadier Sale: “Can we sue the woman for damage or dangerous driving?”

A memo that she wrote a year after her coronation in 1953 showed that she was still getting used to signing her name E.R (Elizabeth Regina).

Referencing a recent formal occasion in London in June 1954, she asked Brigadier Sale to make sure the carriages were open before they drew up in front of her and Prince Philip in the future.

She said: “When we returned to Westminster the other day the carriage was shut and it looked bad, I thought.”

She then hurriedly added on another piece of paper “Sorry! I forgot! ER.”

In total, there are seven letters signed 'Elizabeth R' and 37 memoranda.

Brigadier Sale, the son of a diplomat, served in the Second World War before his appointment as Crown Equerry in 1955.

He held the position until 1960 and was appointed Extra Equerry to the Queen in April 1961.

Brigadier Sale and the royal family remained in touch until his death, aged 73, in 1976, and the archive also contains 12 Christmas cards from the monarch.

The auctioneers said that the archive captured both the late Queen's love of horses and her impressive knowledge of them.

Bonhams manuscripts specialist Matthew Haley said that they offer an “unusual insight” into both her personality and the daily workings of the monarchy.

“The letters have remained in the family until now so they are probably unseen and it is pretty amazing to have such a substantial amount of material amounting to 80 to 100 pages of her writing,” he said.

“They have come down through a few generations and the family now feel it is appropriate to let people see their contents.

“We knew that the Queen loved horses but possibly no one realised she loved them quite this much.”