This Woman Is 94 - Updated

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🐴 The Queen is pictured riding Fern - a 14 year-old Fell Pony - in Windsor Home Park this weekend. . Her Majesty has enjoyed riding since childhood and is closely involved with the welfare of the horses she owns for breeding, riding and racing. . Photos: Press Association

A post shared by The Royal Family (@theroyalfamily) on May 31, 2020 at 2:30pm PDT

For more "Queen-on-a-horse" pictures, click here.

Update on June 2:  Today is the 67th anniversary of The Queen's coronation. I don't usually repeat This Day In History posts, but in this case I can't help myself. A 67-year reign is truly remarkable, and actually, it's a 68-year reign, because then-Princess Elizabeth became Queen when her father died in February, 1952. Traditionally, coronations are held a year or more after the death of the previous monarch.

So when will the next coronation take place? Obviously no one knows. The Queen really can't live forever, although she certainly appears to be in good health at age 94. Whenever it happens, the period of time between the death of the current queen and the coronation of the new King, as well as the coronation itself, will be fascinating on many levels, because most of us who are alive today have never even seen a British coronation. Unlike our presidential inaugurations, which happen every four years like clockwork, there have only been eight British coronations in the past 259 years (George III in 1761, 15 years before the U.S. came into existence, George IV in 1821, William IV in 1831, Victoria in 1838, Edward VII in 1902, George V in 1911, George VI in 1937 and Elizabeth II in 1953.) 

This Day In History, 1953: The Queen's Coronation

Today marks the 64th Anniversary of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Abbey. pic.twitter.com/50za6jwdTq

— The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) June 2, 2017

Queen Elizabeth's father died on February 6, 1952 but her coronation didn't take place until June, 1953. Why the long wait? Partly tradition, partly to allow for an official period of court mourning, partly for planning and partly because they like to have big events like this in the summertime. (The previous coronation, of Elizabeth's father George VI, took place on May 12, 1937, sixteen months after the death of his father George V on January 20, 1936. During the interim his older brother Edward VIII abdicated in December, 1936; George VI inherited the already-scheduled coronation date.)

As the current queen ages royal staffers and government officials are discreetly planning for what will happen when she dies and Charles becomes king. Many of the processes and events are steeped in hundreds of years of tradition, but there's talk that one tradition may be modernized, the long wait between the death of the old sovereign and the coronation of the new one. I've read that the Coronation of King Charles the 3rd may happen as soon as three months after the death of his mother and may be significantly shorter and possibly less elaborate than the one in 1953.

Regardless, it will still be a very big deal. Unlike here in America, where we have inaugurations every four years like clockwork, Britain had exactly four coronations in the entire 20th century, Edward VII's in 1902, George V's in 1911, George VI's in 1937 and Elizabeth II's in 1953. And there's another difference. Our president is elected in November but doesn't actually become president until the inauguration in January. By contrast, in the tradition of "The King is dead, long live the King," Charles will become King the moment the Queen takes her last breath. The coronation is strictly ceremonial.

On the 60th anniversary of the Queen's coronation, British newspaper The Telegraph looked ahead; you can read it here.

One more thing, and this time it's personal: Three years after the Queen's coronation, my parents got married on June 2, 1956. A great day in history!