Royal Roundup Follows Barn Fire

Polo ponies spooked by a barn fire stampeded through Windsor, drawing Queen Elizabeth and her family out of their castle to investigate and help round them up.

The ponies ran loose Saturday night after a groom opened the stable gates at the Guards Polo Club to allow them to flee a nearby barn fire.

“It was like the Grand National,” Police Sgt. Andrew Morrow said. “There were more than 30 horses charging up the road in complete darkness, running towards oncoming vehicles.”

The queen, Prince Philip, and Prince Charles came out of Windsor Castle to investigate the stampede and the fire. Prince Andrew and his estranged wife, Sarah Ferguson, came out of nearby Sunninghill Park after hearing a car smash into a pony.

Andrew and his wife, the Duchess of York, tended to an injured woman until an ambulance arrived, and then mounted their own horses to help round up the ponies.

The pony hit by the car was the only one to die in the stampede.