Exclusive: Lady Louise Windsor doing ‘extremely well’ in carriage driving, says insider

Like her grandfather before her, Lady Louise Windsor has taken up the reins in the world of carriage driving. At 22, she continues to follow, or rather drive, in the late Duke of Edinburgh’s footsteps, with one trainer telling HELLO! that Louise is “doing extremely well”. 

Sara Howe, who owns and runs the Bradbourne Riding & Training Centre in Sevenoaks, sees Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth’s youngest granddaughter out at competitions. “I think she’s doing extremely well with the time and the commitment of everything else she has to do,” Sara exclusively told HELLO!. “She’s a pleasure to work with.”

“She certainly tries. She gets frustrated when it goes wrong, like the rest of us do. So she still goes home and practises and comes back and there’s an improvement,” the trainer added of Louise. “She looks more than good.”

Although Louise might not be winning the class she’s in, she’s certainly not at the bottom, as Sara pointed out. “If you look at the results, and if you’ve got ten in a class or 15 in a class, she’s not winning the class. She’s in the top four or five, or whatever it is. She’s not down at the bottom. So there’s a lot of people that have been doing it a lot longer than she has, and still haven’t made it yet,” Sara said.

And Louise is where she is thanks to the work she’s put in, not because of her family. “She’s earned it,” Sara remarked. “She generally has that touch and that feeling and take away all the [titles]. I think she’s earned her spot, and she’d be mortified if anybody turned around and said she’s got it because she’s been given it.”

She’s ‘just Louise’

While she is 17th in line to the throne, King Charles’ niece is just another competitor at her events, competing under the name Louise Mountbatten-Windsor. “You would never know who she is. She is just Louise,” Sara said.

“She’s on the same keel as everyone else. No one else cares who she is. You’re out there, you’re competing and that’s a little bit like the Duke [Prince Philip]. He’s got a lot of rank, but out on that playing field, we’re all on level keel, aren’t we? So let the best man win,” Sara said, adding: “Doesn’t matter who you are.”

Prince Philip’s influence

Louise’s paternal grandfather took up carriage driving after he gave up polo when he was 50. Sara, who used to compete in the same class as the Duke, described the late Prince as a “very good ambassador” who “had that charm and talent with the horses”. Though he retired from competing in 2003, Philip continued to drive a carriage into his 90s.

© Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images

With him now gone, his granddaughter Louise is carrying on his legacy. “I think we’re very lucky to have another royal in our sport,” Sara admitted, “because our sport is very, very small, and we need to make it bigger”.

After Prince Philip’s death in 2021, it was reported that Louise would likely inherit her grandfather’s carriage and ponies. Months after his passing, she was seen driving his carriage around the grounds of Windsor Castle. 

Louise made her debut as a carriage driver back in 2017 at the Royal Windsor Horse Show. The Duchess of Edinburgh, a carriage driver herself, has praised her daughter’s skills, saying in 2020 that she “is naturally so good at it”. 

“She really is,” Sophie said. “It’s something that she has taken to very well.”