Zara...good or not so good?

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HorseS0S

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Does anyone really love Zara's way she ride rides and competes. I have thought for a very long time that she nevers looks like she is enjoying it. Her ride round Badminton confirmed it to me. She looks uncomfortable and unhappy on a horse at competitions. Also I read in an interview that she says she wishes she had never got into it now as it is very difficult to to move away from it!!!!

Imagine all of us who would love that life! Love those horses and those opportunities to rid eat that level!

What do you guys think?
 
I think that this post comes across rather spiteful and quite nasty, even if it wasn't meant that way. ZP has had some tricky horses since Toytown, and even so is still eventing at 4* which is more than one can say about a lot of others. I couldn't jump a single fence at Badminton, she's been round how many times? :rolleyes::rolleyes:
 
There can be no doubt that Zara is a good rider and trainer of her horses. Her competition record proves that. Just because she doesn't jump around smiling doeasn't mean she isn't happy.

But to stay at the top you need good horses. Pippa Funnell who is brilliant, is not in the press a lot at the moment, I assume she has not got any top class horses at the moment.
 
tracey01 said:
There can be no doubt that Zara is a good rider and trainer of her horses. Her competition record proves that. Just because she doesn't jump around smiling doeasn't mean she isn't happy.

But to stay at the top you need good horses. Pippa Funnell who is brilliant, is not in the press a lot at the moment, I assume she has not got any top class horses at the moment.
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Pippa Funnell is racing up the BS league tables so she's busy. Producing a lot of youngsters.
 
From reading the OP's post when you say "she doesn't seem to be enjoying it" does the fact that she's concentrating so hard on her horses as she often has "quirky" horses have anything to do with it?. If I was followed by the press all day long and then had to concentrate riding around some of the biggest, techincal xc tracks in the world I wouldn't be smiling at every minute!
For what its worth I think ZP is great, not only as a rider (who can pick up when her horses aren't 100% in an instant as we've seen many times at Badminton etc before) but also for being so chilled out when the press are following her about.
Good on Zara I say :)
 
I agree that she doesn't look like she's enjoying it too much......but then again I totally respect her as a rider and sportswoman.

There was an interesting comment by Lucy W in H&H. I seem to remember it was about young riders. The problem with the sport from Zara's point of view is that you have all the oldies (Toddy, MK) still going strong so it is hard to get rides on top horses. For Zara to have done so well with Toytown and then to struggle to get another top horse must be very frustrating.

I think she is a nice rider and there is alot more to come from her. It seems she doesn't take chances with her top horses too, remember when she pulled up Magic Star and with Glenbuck this year at badders - he gave her a tough ride but she got him round.
 
I think she is under much more pressure than most of the other riders.

Both of her parents had significant eventing success in their day, her father is a respected trainer and course builder still. The pressure to live up to her parents is huge.

Add to that the fact that she had success fairly early with Toytown which will be tough to better and then the royal connection which makes her more recogniseable and more news worthy than any other rider and the pressure is enormous.

Not many eventers have the national press interested in what they are up to, and certainly they don't have the same interest in what they get up to when they aren't actually riding.

And then if she does do well, it is never because she is a super rider who has worked hard it is all because of her name, who her parents are and her grandmother's position.

No one really knows what this feels like, even her mother didn't face the same pressures, it was never a living for her, she had her royal duties that came first, eventing was secondary and she was never expected to do as well as she did. Zara is expected to acheive and has to make her own living at eventing as she isn't an HRH.
 
I think anyone who rides those tracks must be a pretty terrific rider and very brave, certainly a lot better and extremely much braver than I could ever be :-)

Also, if you are doing something professionally it is a job. Everyone can have a bad day at work :-)
 
I think the only person who smiles all the way round is Mary King. I think it takes guts to jump somthing as big as those courses. For me if I cant step over it I cant jump it !
 
Zara is up against it because of who she is, not fair i know but a fact of life. i have seen programmes about her and i think she is a delightful hard working person.trouble is, she is in the spotlight more so than others so if she has an off moment or some form of glitch the media is on her straight away.
 
a LOT of riders look very serious when concentrating, very few go around with a smile on their face. I didn't see that article but I doubt she's alone in that sentiment, a top rider told me the same thing years ago, wished he'd got a City job and kept riding for fun!
i think she's a very underrated rider tbh, i've lost count of the number of times i've heard "oh, it's cos she's a Princess, tons of money, she's been given really good horses to ride and it's all down to that" etc... yeah, right. As if. Toytown was exceptional but also very tricky (esp on the flat, he's a right monkey at times, she did a wonderful job of getting winning tests out of him), they had an amazing understanding xc and I think that's very hard to find/develop again. She's under a lot more pressure than most riders because everything she does it over-scrutinised, and Toytown is a very very hard act to follow too. She's had bad luck with some of the other horses coming on behind him, must be very demoralising (don't we all know that feeling?)
 
Just because she has had a lucky start in life doesn't mean she doesn't still work hard or concentrate. Badminton and similar courses are dangerous and not to be "enjoyed" like a pleasure ride. Yes some riders smile - but not many. She is usually beaming at the end and I admire the way she never seems to push her horses when they may be tired or not quite right.
She has never been seen to have a hissy fit to my knowledge and unlike many of the "dynsaty" riders in SJ she seems modest and professional to me.
I suspect the "hard to move away from it" remarks were just throwaway remarks, which, unfortunately for her, are then repeated and taken up to mean more than originally intended.
I think she knows how fortunate she is in some ways - but I wouldn't want to be her.
 
kerilli said:
i think she's a very underrated rider tbh, i've lost count of the number of times i've heard "oh, it's cos she's a Princess, tons of money, she's been given really good horses to ride and it's all down to that" etc... yeah, right. As if.
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Many years ago someone bought me Princess Anne's official biography "Riding Through My Life" - purely because it was about horses and I liked horses and reading. I was really quite young, and have never been into biographies. But it is a great book, full of lovely pictures (and some dramatic ones of her fall at Montreal or was it Munich?), but it really showed that she didn't get any special treatment and that her status was as much a hinderence as an advantage.

In fact she grew up riding a succession of loan ponies, and her first successful eventer Doublet was a homebred polo pony that had grown too big for polo! She had less time to train than the pros as she had a "day job" of sorts too, more pressure from the press and was constantly treated as different. For example she wasn't allowed to stay in competitors accomodation at Burghley but had to stay as a house guest - I can't imagine a formal dinner with the duke is what you want at the end of a long day competing.

Even something that is small and taken for granted by most of us, having our parents watch us ride was a massive deal for her. It piled on the pressure, everyone knew who they were, engagements had to be cancelled and special security arranged. The fact that at the time they were president of the FEI and BHS between them and would be presenting the trophey just added to it!

I'm sure Zara hasn't had anywhere near as much of an advantage as many would like to think and has worked incredibly hard to get where she is. I doubt either of her parents are the type to give their offspring an unfair advantage or to mollycoddle. They both appear to be pretty tough types who would expect her to do what she does on her own merit, and I expect that she actually has had to work harder and be better than "normal" in order to get where she is just to overcome the prejudice.
 
I totally rate her.

You won't see me with a stupid big grin on my face all day long at work either and to her, as nice as we can think it must be to ride and compete at her level, it is after all her job and requires huge concentration.

Also who doesn't grimace/gurn when riding? O.k Mary King :D Me :eek:
 
I think she's great, a talented rider & always comes across really well. I can't understand those that bitch about her just because of who she is.

I for one, usually look like I've been punched in my competition pics.

As for the comment about how hard it is to get out of eventing (and horses in general) I think most of us can relate to that. How many of us have had a stressfull/upsetting/soul destroying day & wished we could just walk away? But we all know it's not that easy.
 
I think it is testament to her ability and commitment as a rider that she hasn’t just gone out and bought readymade horses – and I would imagine with her family and sponsors she could easily.

I also think she is doing well and OP is your stereotypical “backseat rider”

Top riders are there for a reason, you know. ..and what is she supposed to do – jump a 4* course with a massive grin on her face?
 
If I were jumping those ma-hoooo-sive jumps I would definitely have my most serious concentration face on too!
 
watching her chatting on camera at Badminton I really took to her - she was asked if she had any preference over who won the general election, and her reaction was so natural and funny. Nice lady. sm x
 
I've been known to grim stupidly when I'm really concerned, it is no doubt one of my coping mechanisms but has got me into trouble over the years... cue tough interviewer with me grinning back at him!
 
I really rate her - I think she has a lovely quiet riding style, shows great empathy and also can cope with some very tricky horses. I also have a massive amount of respect for her managing to compete at all levels with the amount of press and general attention. I couldn't bear it and I couldn't do it. I wish her every success as I know it has been hard-earned.

On the subject of looking miserable going round Badminton - if she's anything like me then I think I see where that allegation comes from. When I'm concentrating people seem to think I'm angry/furious. It's unfortunate but hey ho, I'd rather not be sitting there with a silly grin. Then people might think I'm an air-head! (if they don't already :D)
 
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