Zara P & Toytown

ElleJS

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Her other horses are notoriously tricky to ride so does a very good job with them! Yes youngsters like Laura Collett and Oli Townend do well on every single one of their horses but all their horses are a bit incredible and they get rid or sell the horses as soon as they know they are not good enough! Zara only came on to the scene in her final year of YR in which she won a silver medal. Laura Collett has been lucky enough to start her career in ponies, where as you would have never heard of Zara on the eventing curcuit then.
 

kateD

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re-Happyhorse, you seem to know alot about toytowns early history , does anybody know how he is bred and where Meryl Winter brought him from?
 

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yes, i've heard that they are very tricky too - and i've seen them be very tricky aswell - more credit to Zara for sticking with the rather than sell them and get her parents to spend a lot on a ready made superstar (like some of the others seem to)......they will come good i'm sure!!!!!
If its true that Toytown was tricky when she got him (and he does still have his moments) that is prob why she sticks with the others because she knows what might be to come!!

I think another reason that she sticks with the naughties is because of her guts that some of the other riders lack
 

Bossanova

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Yes a few of them are tricky characters, but you can say the same about many many top eventers- ben along time for example isnt an easy horse to have around yet clay gets great results from him continuously.
saying that she kicked on after falling on his neck....well I'm sorry but bless the horse to lock onto the step and keep going straight- at that level riders shoudnt be out of balance ike that- i'd say exactly that about wfp if he'd done that or anyone, it's just fact.
She is a gutsy rider and thats a large part of good xc riding but it certainly isnt all and her riding lets her down in other areas- hence why she hasnt got a string of top class horses and isnt out winning every weekend.

Please dont try to tell me I'm jealous- I'm very happy with what I've acheived with my own quirky character and if thats all I ever acheive in eventing, I really am not that worried!!
 

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[ QUOTE ]
I'm very happy with what I've acheived with my own quirky character and if thats all I ever acheive in eventing, I really am not that worried!!

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You have either misunderstood what i'm saying or i haven't made it clear what i mean because what you said that i have quoted is exactly what i'm saying about Zara - that if she only ever gets Toytown to this level then it does not detract from what a good rider she is. She has earned herself world class status with what she's done and i just don't understand why people think she still hasn't proved herslf
 

kayleigh_and_rocky

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Sorry if i have misquoted any information here btw people, everything i've been told about TT was from what i thought was a credible source, obviously not!
Also would like to back up that fact Zara sticks with the difficult horses, Oli T for example will not. If he has a horse he thinks isnt good enough or is too diffucult he will sell it on, and that IS from a credible source (sorry but dont rate him as a horseman) Agree the likes of andrew hoy and clayton fredericks are also amazing and have achieved loads with sometimes equally as difficult horses, but that most certainly does not take away Zara's success, no one can take her success away from her, shes done well, better than most!
 

ElleJS

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I agree with above statement and i know this by talking to and knowing said people....
Oli T is not the only high profile eventer sells on as soon as the horse becomes difficult etc... so I reckon it just highlight Zara's guts to stick at it when she out of most people could easily be done with a quirky horse, (and i'm talking quirky to ride not on the ground) however talented, she obviously has faith in her horses and isnt that the main thing?
 

kateD

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Oli Townsend has one of the most difficult horses on the circuit in Topping! My friend worked for Toppings previous rider, and said he was a seriously difficult and unpredictable horse. And Oli has got a really good tune out off him and results to back this up.
 

ElleJS

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Oh yes of course, its actually less him more other high profile riders and younger riders that jack it in when the going gets tough.
 

Skhosu

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hmmm....have to say I've never liked zara phillips, and am not sure she'd be someone I'd send a young horse to produce, but was pleasd enough to see her win. I dont think Toytown is the easiest, what about all those SJ faults?
In saying that, she couldn't ride my boy.....she was his original rider and actually moved him up to novice too fast and overfaced him as a youngster...
I believe there is some truth in that she is VERY lucky in her parentage etc. , but she still has to put the work in!
 

Iceni Warrior

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Does she stick with her tricky horses?? If you look at her results on the www.bdwp.co.uk, you notice that they get moved on pretty quick if they seem to be not up to the job!!!
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and yes! Im jealous ... wish my parents had had pots of money for horses/lessons/huge horse lorries/millions of helpers and intructors!!!
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dieseldog

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If any of you lot won world and european championships on the same horse wouldn't you say it was your horse of a lifetime? What more does a horse have to do to prove itself. So Zara is young, it's come early for her, but I doubt she will ever get a horse that she does better on than Toytown.
 

kayleigh_and_rocky

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I just dont understand why people are trying to undermine her success and take this away from her? I mean how many people have actualy won european and world in a row? and come second behind pippa in their first burghley. and kept their cool in the nailbiting finals, or kept their cool riding in reeeeeeally crap conditions!! Shes done fantastically. Yes i agree shes incredibly lucky to be able to make horses her life and not worry too much about money but that doesnt take away whats shes done.
and yeh this may be her horse of a lifetime, so what? As a combination they are outstanding, someone else would not be able to get the same tune out of that horse that she can! and i think its really sad (as in upsetting) that people cant just be happy and proud that one of our royals has raised the profile of this sport by doing what very few have.
 

dieseldog

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What exactley in my previous post undermined Zara's success?

I was responding to the negative comments people have made about Toytown - he would be any ones horse of a lifetime if he did that for them regardless of how old the rider was.
 

Acolyte

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Think you'll find she has sponsorship which provided huge lorry, covers running costs of horses etc - sure, family connections meant lots of money when younger but she doesn't appear to have made a big thing of that - just got on and worked bloody hard.

And as for millions of helpers/instructors - don't the likes of WFP, PF etc have access to the same helpers/instructors (or other ones who they prefer to work with?) There seems to be this big thing in the media and online that ZP has access to some secret formula (trainers/instructors/grooms etc) that others cannot access, but she gets it because of her family - I may well not be 'in' enough with the eventing world to know the true picture, but it seems unlikely to me

Just added - this isn't just directed at Iceni Warrior, its meant as a general comment!
 

KatB

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Yep agree, I've met ZP a couple of times at events, and shes very down to earth and a lovely person. She works very hard, is down at the yard at the same time as her groom every morning, mucks out and generally works very hard!

She is lucky enough to have great sponsers, who supply her lorry, and she has had to work very hard to be put on the british squad, which has given her access to all the training etc that everyone else in the squad gets too. She did not get put on the squad just because of who she is, she got put on the squad because of ability and dedication, same as anyone competing at that level would do.

I know a couple of other "young riders" that have already been mentioned on this post, who yes are very talented, but can also act like spoilt brats, and have more people running around after them than ZP does.

At the end of the day, you cant buy talent, and it annoyes me that people suggest he only got on the team because of who she is. AT the end of the day, she went head to head with the rest of the competitors in WEG, and beat them. It may not have been the most stylish, but it was on a horse shes produced, so how can people say this is because of the money behind her??!
 

little_pink_piggies

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but the same was being said about pippa when she was zaras age with sir barnaby, granted she was never world champion with him but at 25 she was being slated and now look at her. Zara still has a long way to go but surely she is showing that the talent and her nerve is 100% there????
 
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