Legends of the Sport

LEGENDS OF THE SPORT Princess Anne and Goodwill, who represented Britain at the World Championships, two European Eventing Championships and the Olympics Pictures by x xxxxxxxxxxx 56 Horse & Hound 13 August 2020 Princess Anne As the Princess Royal turns 70 this weekend, Madeleine Silver charts an equestrian career that threw eventing into the spotlight as she became the first member of the royal family to compete at an Olympic Games T was a fairy story ending,” read the 1971 Horse “ & Hound report of the Princess Royal’sI victory at the European Championships at Burghley. “Of course, everyone knows now that Princess Anne won the individual championship, but only those who were there can appreciate the extent of the popularity of her victory, or the tension that gripped the thronged arena during her jumping round on Sunday.” The reporter WW Thomson’s gushing account of the 21-year- old’s performance aboard Doublet perhaps reflected a nation gripped by this sporting tale; a rapid rise to the top, a home-bred destined to be a polo pony and a mother who happened to be The Queen. “This really was a fabulous event. The Queen and Prince Princess Anne wins at Philip were there, the weather Royal Windsor Horse Show was right, the winners were right, aboard her European and Princess Anne not only beat champion, Doublet the best in Europe, but trounced them,” it read. In the following decade, the and early equestrian thrills came Princess was on the podium at from riding in her grandmother’s another European Championships Zara Tindall on her carriage to watch Trooping with a different horse, at an the Colour on Horse Guards Olympic Games and in the top mother’s life lessons Parade. But there was also an 10 of the world’s biggest four- unremarkable Shetland (Fum), stars, silencing any sceptics who’d When the Princess started a hefty Welsh pony who stood on wondered if Burghley had been a race-riding in the 1980s, her toe (Kirby Cane Greensleeves) chance feat. Zara used to accompany her and humiliating bending races on “It was very new really, having riding out for trainer David the 13.2hh Bandit. a woman royal doing such a Nicholson. By the time she was riding tough sport,” reflects her fellow “She always wished she’d the 14.2hh Watersmeet High competitor and former team-mate done that before eventing, Jinks, who was stabled at the Lucinda Green. “Not long before, because she thought she Moat House riding school in Kent eventing was considered a man’s saw a stride better after during her last year of boarding sport. She was more than up to going race-riding,” adds Zara, school, there was no escaping her the task of eventing, but she just who says she has benefited gilded status. had to deal with the press, which from the insight into fitness, On one occasion, workmen is never easy. In retrospect she did GROWING up at Gatcombe galloping and jumping that spotted the Princess’s policeman our sport a huge service.” Park surrounded by horses, the racing has provided. leaning against the end of emphasis was on learning to And when it came to following the school, before calling out OR someone barely out ride properly, and not just being in her mother’s footsteps at “‘Oi! You!... Are you royalty or of teenage-hood when a “passenger,” says Zara Tindall championships, Princess Anne something? Why’s that man F she reached the sport’s (pictured above, as a child at “was very laid-back,” says Zara. watching you?” she recalls in highest echelons, the Princess’ Windsor). “Ponies were never “She’d say: ‘You know your her 1991 autobiography Riding start in the saddle was machines, they were animals. horse, so do what you know and Through My Life. refreshingly low-key, with ponies You had to learn your trade, and don’t change anything.’” “At the age of 16 or 17 you’re turned out rugless and ridden learn the personality of your “My mother loves every part not terribly ready with an instant straight from muddy fields. pony. My mother was very much of the equine sport. She has repartee to queries like that, so I The setting was, of course, someone who, if you fell off, been able to do a lot of different replied, ‘Well, yes, I am.’” grander than most – Windsor, would be right there telling you things in her life, but with the Competition discipline and Sandringham and Balmoral to get back on.” utmost professionalism.” manners were instilled by the Pictures by Press Photos, Kit Houghton and PA/Ron Bel served as sprawling riding schools, riding school’s owner Cherry 13 August 2020 Horse & Hound 57 LEGENDS OF THE SPORT THE TRAINER: Alison Oliver on the Princess Royal PRINCESS ANNE was still at school when she began visiting trainer and former eventer Alison Oliver’s Berkshire yard. “In the school holidays she’d come over and have lessons on Purple Star, who had been sent to me to train by The Queen’s crown equerry Lt Col Sir John Miller. Gradually more horses came, including young horses of The Queen’s,” recalls Alison. “Princess Anne was so keen, dedicated and down to earth. She had a sense of humour and mucked in. And she had a natural ability, balance and feel for working with different horses. In any competition, one photos, there’s one of my is alert and concentrating, but son Philip who was six years Princess Anne could control old, following Mark Phillips’ [her nerves] which you have to footsteps as we were walking do as a competitor. the course. And there are these “I had a young family when I wonderful pictures of Princess was training her and although Anne pointing out to Philip that Above: as an 18-year-old competitor, with her mother, The Queen. I had a nanny because I was he’d got one trouser leg out of Below: Princess Anne lands another winner on the track, Ten No working, the children were his boot and the other in. Trumps, in 1987 included and it was all very “We just got on so well and natural. Looking through old she became a very good friend.” Hatton-Hall, one of many who didn’t seem viable on leaving helped shape the Princess’s school, she was determined to eventual prowess. Before the channel her energy into doing Princess and her older brother something well – and the answer were competent enough to ride was equestrian sport. with The Queen, Her Majesty As Mary Gordon-Watson, who would impart knowledge from was part of the British team at her bicycle as she rode alongside the 1971 Europeans, says: “She them. And then there was the was obviously very determined groom Frank Hatcher at Windsor, and hard-working, like she is in who was a stickler for ensuring everything that she does. She feet were picked out and tack was wanted to succeed, and she did, at on correctly. the highest level.” But it was perhaps Alison At first, the Princess was lured Oliver (see box, above) who by the prospect of polo; riding was the vital piece in the puzzle her father’s ponies had given her that enabled Princess Anne to a taste of the competitive spirit of transition from a horse-mad horses. But it was the combination schoolgirl to a sportswoman riding of being lent the crown equerry Lt for Britain in just three years. Col Sir John Miller’s horse Purple “I was very fortunate to be Star, who sparked her interest in the right place at the right in horse trials, and being sent to time,” says Alison about her royal Alison Oliver’s stables at Warfield The big moments student. “We just clicked.” in Berkshire, that meant that an eventing career was set. 1971: fifth at Badminton and the World Championships with HEN the Princess By the time she won gold at individual gold at the European Goodwill at Burghley. realised that a Burghley in 1971, she’d ridden at Championships at Burghley 1975: individual and team silver W conventional career just two other-three-day events, on Doublet. Voted Sports at the European Championships Personality of the Year. at Luhmühlen with Goodwill. 1973: eighth at Badminton on 1976: team member at Montreal “From Doublet, Princess Anne Goodwill. Goes to the European Olympic Games with Goodwill. Championships at Kiev with 1978: seventh at Luhmühlen Goodwill but retires after a fall. with Goodwill. went to a veritable hurricane 1974: fourth at Badminton and 1979: sixth at Badminton with competed as an individual at Goodwill. in Goodwill” LUCINDA GREEN ON THE PRINCESS’ CHAMPIONSHIP RIDES 58 Horse & Hound 13 August 2020 Princess Anne in the dressage phase at Badminton with Stevie B, another top-level ride but it was soon obvious that this the difference in the Princess’ was no flash in the pan. two championship rides; the first “You couldn’t fail to be who was bred as a polo pony was impressed when she achieved polite and willing, and the latter success all over again [at was a famously strong former subsequent championships] showjumper. with Goodwill, who was a totally “If Doublet had turned up later different type of horse,” adds Mary. in my career, we would all have “From Doublet, Princess Anne looked at him and said: ‘What’s went to a veritable hurricane in that?’,” the Princess told Eventing Goodwill,” says Lucinda about magazine about the gelding who THE TEAM-MATE: Lucinda Green on the Princess Royal “I ADMIRED her braveness enormously,” says Lucinda Green, who first rode on the silver medal-winning British team with Princess Anne at the 1975 Europeans.

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