Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, previously revealed she was allergic to horses back in 2009, but the royal could overcome her allergy and finally be able to ride alongside her children with Prince William: Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis in the future.
Duchess Kate opened up about her issue to Australian author Kathy Lette during a polo match. When Kathy asked the royal why she didn’t play herself, Kate said: “I’m allergic to horses.”
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Two years later in 2011, Clarisa Ru, wife of Santa Barbara Polo Club president Wesley Ru told PEOPLE that Kate was attempting to overcome her allergy through exposure – also known as immunotherapy.
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Kate Middleton was seen sitting afar from the horses with Prince George in 2015
“I got a chance to have a conversation with Kate,” she said. “I asked if she was into polo before she met William. She said no. But she’s been riding horses for a while and she hopes to play polo one day. She said, ‘I’m actually allergic to them, but the more time one spends with them the less allergic you become’.”
Kate Middleton was pictured stroking a horse in 2017
She’s not wrong. Exposing yourself to the allergens from horses works in the same way as immunotherapy, which the NHS describes as “being given occasional small doses of the allergen” with the aim “to help your body get used to the allergen so it does not react to it so severely”.
Kate Middleton and Prince Louis at a polo match in 2019
Exposure and immunotherapy doesn’t, however, mean that Kate will overcome her allergy entirely.
“This will not necessarily cure your allergy,” the NHS states. “But it’ll make it milder and mean you can take less medicine.”
You’ll also need to regularly expose yourself “over the course of several years”, which explains why it’s been ten years since Kate revealed she was using exposure as a form of treatment and we’re still yet to have seen her riding a horse.
Here’s hoping she’s making progress.
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