13 dramatic horse injuries: King Charles, Sophie Wessex and more royal broken bones

From King Charles III and his mother Queen Elizabeth II to Sophie Wessex and her daughter Lady Louise Windsor, the royal family members are big fans of horse riding.

READ: Lady Louise Windsor's upsetting accident at Windsor Castle

Despite being accomplished in the sport, with Zara Tindall even winning Olympic medals atop her horse, many of the royals have sustained injuries while riding…

WATCH: The Queen makes surprise outing at the Royal Windsor Horse Show

King Charles III's shoulder injury

READ: Sophie Wessex's nasty accident almost made her miss crucial royal event

SEE: Accident-prone Sophie Wessex's painful injury on action-packed holiday

The new King fractured a bone in his shoulder when he fell off a horse during a fox hunt in 2001.

He was 52 at the time and was thrown to the ground when his horse took an unexpected jump during a ride in Derbyshire, according to a St James's Palace spokeswoman.

Prince Charles injured him arm playing polo

Charles reportedly fell awkwardly and initially thought he had dislocated his shoulder. An X-ray showed he had broken a small bone on the edge of his shoulder blade, and she wore a sling for a few days.

LOOK: King Charles III's wholesome hobby left him injured – all the details

King Charles III's broken arm

2001 was the King's first tumble. 11 years before, back in 1990 when he was 42, he broke his right arm in a fall during a polo match.

Queen Mother's broken collarbone

At the grand age of 90, Queen Elizabeth II's mother, the Queen Mother, broke her collar bone in a fall at the beginning of November that year.

The Queen Mother broke her collarbone

She was known to love horse racing, a passion which she passed on to her daughter.

Queen Elizabeth II's broken wrist

Queen Elizabeth II broke her left wrist when her horse tripped, causing them both to fall in 1994.

A palace spokesman said the then 67-year-old monarch was injured during a ride at her Sandringham estate.

Queen Elizabeth II fell from her horse at Sandringham

"She was out riding on Saturday as usual when her horse tripped and fell and the Queen fell onto her left wrist," the spokesman said at the time.

"It is not a serious break, it is just an inconvenient thing. It was thought just to be a bruise to start with and the break was not diagnosed until nearly 24 hours afterward," he continued.

Prince Philip's horse riding injuries

Queen Elizabeth II's husband Prince Philip was injured in a dramatic carriage riding accident in 2010, which left him with an injured back.

He took up carriage riding after retiring from polo, thinking it to be a more sedate sport, but didn't escape unscathed from the hobby.

At the time of his injury, Buckingham Palace said: "The Duke was involved in an accident on the Windsor estate when his carriage hit a tree stump as a result of the ponies running away.

"He has a minor injury and didn't need hospital treatment."

Princess Anne's horse riding injury

Princess Anne rode horses at an Olympic level, but the Princess Royal's Olympic debut in 1976 didn't go to plan after the horse she was riding, Goodwill, failed to make one of the jumps on the course, bringing the royal down with the fall.

READ: Princess Anne's Olympic accident that left her 'unable to remember'

Anne quickly remounted her horse, but reports reveal that the Princess Royal remembered little of the rest of the course, having suffered from a concussion during the accident.

Onlookers included the Queen, Prince Philip, Prince Edward, Prince Andrew and King Charles, who flew to Montreal, Canada, to support Anne in the prestigious sporting event.

Princess Anne fell during the 1976 Olympics

Despite her seemingly swift recovery, the Princess later admitted in an interview: "It was going very well and then I don’t remember anything else. Nothing at all."

Luckily the royal equestrian was wearing a helmet, otherwise, her injuries could have been far worse.

Princess Anne's 1976 accident isn't the only time the royal sustained equestrian-related injuries.

Just three years prior, the Queen's daughter was forced to withdraw from the European Equestrian Championships in Kiez after a heavy fall. She and her horse Goodwill fell at a difficult double fence in the cross-Country section.

In her childhood, Princess Anne was taken to a hospital with a hand injury at age 14, after a horse‐riding accident near her school in Kent.

Princess Anne injured her hand in 2014

The young princess cracked a bone in the little finger of her right hand after she had caught it in the rein of her pony.

A Buckingham Palace spokesman said: "The Princess's condition is perfectly satisfactory."

In 2008, Princess Anne fell foul of horses again. She was seen hobbling around with the help of a walking stick after she was kicked by a horse at her home.

Zara Tindall's broken collarbone

As a professional horse rider, you'd expect Zara Tindall to have suffered a fair few injuries when riding.

Zara Phillips broke her collarbone in a riding accident in which her horse was killed during a cross-country event at Pau near the French Pyrenees

Zara came off the same horse in June 2007 when it nosedived over a 7ft fence at the Bramham International Horse Trials near Wetherby, North Yorkshire. Though she struck the ground with a sickening thud to her neck, Zara was only dazed and Tsunami cantered away.

Lady Louise Windsor's broken arm

Queen Elizabeth II's granddaughter fell from her pony in 2012 at age eight, resulting in a broken arm, which caused much distress to her mother, the Countess of Wessex, who immediately cancelled her engagements for the day to be by her daughter's side.

Lady Louise and Sophie Wessex carriage riding

A Buckingham Palace spokesman said at the time: "Lady Louise broke her left arm after falling from her pony while riding at Windsor this morning. She has been treated by doctors and is now resting at home."

Sophie Wessex's broken ribs

Days before her nephew Prince William's wedding to Princess Kate, the Countess of Wessex was involved in a serious riding accident while hacking on her horse in Windsor Great Park. The royal, who was 46 at the time, was taken to hospital following the accident.

Prince Edward's wife had an X-ray at the Princess Margaret Hospital in Windsor, which revealed she had broken a rib and badly bruised several others.

Sophie was sent home with painkillers to ease the discomfort – broken ribs tend to be left to heal on their own, as there's not much that can be done to splint or support them.

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