As far as family pets go, Jimmy is unusual in every sense of the word.

He is more than a 100 years old for a start and is believed to have once belonged to Queen Victoria.

And now he is gracing the dining room of a family home in Heaton, Bradford - not the usual place to find a stuffed pony.

Thelma Mirza, pictured, who inherited the animal from her father when he died, said he was part of the family.

"Legend has it that my grandmother was a friend of one of Queen Victoria's ladies-in-waiting and she gave it to her.

"My father did write to the British Museum in the early 1970s asking if they would be interested in Jimmy and they said they just wanted the head. We didn't want him carving up so we kept him."

Mrs Mirza, of Alton Grove, said her father, a doctor, was well-known in Hereford for his love of horses.

She said: "We were a very horsey family. My father, Dr Cyril Francis, was the only doctor who used to do his rounds in a horse-drawn carriage.

"He used to breed Hackney horses as a hobby and we had six ponies. I was a keen rider too."

Mrs Mirza grew up with the stuffed pony.

"I remember as a little girl the maids would pick me up and put me on him."

Mrs Mirza became a keen rider and horse photographs and paintings adorn the family home.

She also rode when they lived in Pakistan with her husband Moin and their two children.

"I rode every day and I was thrilled when I was allowed to keep a horse that was going to be destroyed. I used to ride around independently and that was unusual."

The pony is a part of the family and when the grandchildren come to visit they also play with him.

The couple moved to Bradford from Crystal Palace, London, in October last year.

A spokesman for the Natural History Museum, London, said: "Stuffing animals was certainly very popular with the Victorians.

"It is quite plausible that the horse belonged to Queen Victoria and we do have a lot of memorabilia which has been donated by people who were given things by monarchs."