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Queen Elizabeth II Got A $72 Grocery Voucher After A Win At The Royal Windsor Horse Show

By Anne Sewell
Published on: 23:35 PST, May 15, 2016

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was highly amused when she received a £50 ($72) voucher to spend at the U.K. grocery giant Tesco.

While it might be hard to imagine the Queen carrying her own shopping bags back to Buckingham Palace, she won the grocery voucher after her horse, Barber’s Shop, won the RoR Tattersalls Thoroughbred Ridden Show Horse Championship on Thursday.

As reported by CNN, the win was part of a four-day event held on the grounds of Windsor Castle, where other celebrations are planned for Queen Elizabeth’s 90th birthday. Reportedly, more than 10,000 people are expected to attend what is the 66th edition of the annual show, and 900 horses and 1,500 riders will be performing.

Her Majesty certainly looks happy to receive her magnificent prize.

According to a report by Deutsche Welle, this isn’t the first time Queen Elizabeth has received an unusual gift. Whether on birthdays, jubilees, or official visits, her Majesty has received many thousands of presents in the past, and some are unusual indeed. The big problem is deciding what to buy a lady who has everything.

Some examples include a 2013 event when the London Underground celebrated its 150th anniversary. The Queen attended the celebration and received a gift consisting of a commemorative Oyster Card. Reportedly, this is an electronic ticket used on the public transport in London, but while her Majesty was grateful, she hasn’t been seen riding the tube yet.

When Prince William’s wife, Kate Middleton, spent her first Christmas with the Windsors, she apparently had difficulty coming up with the perfect gift and ended up presenting the Queen with a jar of her grandmother’s homemade chutney.

That might sound like a rather homely gift to give to a reigning monarch, but reportedly the condiment was served with a meal the very next day.

Talking food gifts, back in 1947 Elizabeth and her husband, Philip, received 500 crates of canned pineapples as a wedding gift from the Queensland authorities in Australia. While a strange gift for a Queen, they did come in handy, as the food situation was still pretty dire following World War II, and the canned fruit was donated to schools and hospitals.

There have been live animals involved, too. Way back in 1968, the Brazilian government gave Queen Elizabeth her very own pair of sloths. The rather cute creatures ended up in the London Zoo, where several other live gifts presented to her Majesty have ended up, including an elephant, two beavers from Canada, and a jaguar.

Queen Elizabeth has been fond of horses since she was a young girl and is a gifted rider. However, she has never been seen to ride wearing a gift from a Texas governor in 1991 of a beautifully hand-tooled set of cowboy boots. Apparently, the whole family got a pair each.

A more recent example happened in 2015 in Berlin, Germany, when the Queen was presented with an awful painting by German President Joachim Gauck, titled “Horse in Royal Blue.” Reportedly, the painting portrays her Majesty as a young girl on a pony, with her father King George VI standing alongside.

The painting was by the German artist Nicole Leidenfrost and was an interpretation of an old photograph.

When the Queen received the gift, she reportedly said, “That’s a funny color for a horse,” adding, “Is that supposed to be my father?”

Gauck was reportedly embarrassed and immediately diverted her attention to a second, more appropriate gift — a box of Lübeck Marzipan candies.

It seems one should be rather more thoughtful when purchasing future gifts for her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

[Photo by Ben A. Pruchnie/Getty Images]

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