Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were both keen equestrians and kept several riding horses at the Royal Mews, alongside the carriage horses. They watched their children learn to ride in the Riding School. Sultan was one of Prince Albert’s riding horses. This depiction of Sultan and a groom was painted at the Royal Mews at Windsor Castle in 1843 and shows something of the liveliness of the horse. Seven years later Albert was still riding Sultan, when the Queen recorded in her Journal that:

Just as Albert was mounting "Sultan", a very quiet horse of his, but with a tiresome trick of jumping whenever anyone gets on his back, he reared straight up in the air, & turned, so that Albert came off. It gave me an awful fright, as I thought the horse would fall upon him, & that he would be very much hurt. But there were no ill effects.

 

Sultan died two years later, following a fall in his stable. Prince Albert’s groom, Meyer, wept when speaking about the horse in front of the Queen when she next visited the Riding School.