Zara Phillips...Why put her down?

[bellgave]

I was reading the Daily Mail this evening and was saddened by Des Kelleys report on Zaras win of the BBC sports personality. Of corse we all think it is Fab that a horsey girl has won, so am I wrong to think that he is out of line for once again painting the picture that all us horsey lot are headscarf wearing, silver spooned landed gentry?
I feel so sorry for her, she has achieved a greatthing and yet peeople are always going to put her down!
As a nation we have hardly had any great,recent sporting sucess so why not shout from the roof top that we have a world champion? Ah, I know why because its not football!!! He also isults her speech, well, Id like to see any one of our footballers stand up there and manage to string a sentance together. So she said amazing a lot, so what!!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/ar...in_page_id=1951

 

[Nic]

Just had a rant at my Mum as one of the twits that writes for the Daily Record has been putting her down too. I have to say I am really dissapointed that some of the most hardworking competitiors in sport are being disregarded so easily. Frustrating doesnt come close

 

[Nic]

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/opinion/columnists/showbiz/bobshields/#story2

 

[Forget_Me_Not]

ARHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHGGGG!! What a loser.. sorry but hes so bluntly baised and hasn't a clue nor a care for other sports. (I have to admit i did laugh out loud at this bit.... [ QUOTE ]
As my brother observed, "she looks like the kind of girl who drinks pints".

[/ QUOTE ] only coz sort thing my borther would say)

 

[bellgave]

Any sports person who is really good deserves recognition, I just feel so annoyed for her that people will always say "well, look where she comes from, they will have bought her the best horse etc" not realising how much hard work goes in and how difficult it is, then if she does badly people will say " Oh she must be bad, all that backing and she still cant do it!!" I am sure she is used to this, but still, its just not fair.

 

[georgiegirl2]

it really annoys me when they say 'they must have bought her the best horses' -she brought toytown on from pre novice upwards!

fair enough, she will have got the best help from the word go but you still have to be bloody brave and extremely talented to produce a horse up to that standard.

 

[Irishcobs]

I read that this morning, not detail I'll admit, but I do think she could of at least thanked her horse and the people who helped get her there. She only just stayed on the team.
I do think he was right in saying hardly anyone in a normal office would have seen Zara event, even on tv.

 

[Gwenneh]

The people who are putting her down are people who have, in all likelihood, never been on a horse in their lives.

Therefore, their opinions do not count.

 

[truffles]

I know, it irritates me so much - had an argument with a couple of people over it - they thought Andy Murray should've won, simply because he beat Federer. (They are tennis people, but HONESTLY) Obviously they are not horsey, but they were being incredibly ignorant, and weren't even listening to me saying how bl**dy hard she had worked - I mean, look at TT now compared to what he was!! They have done wonders for eachother IMO - lovely partnership there.

It then got a little heated when they said they beat the horses over the jumps whether they want to or not. Nearly screamed - how IGNORANT is that?

If they were horsey I may have been a bit calmer, (tho if they were, they wouldn't have been arguing that Zara shouldn't have got it!) but at least they wouldn't say ridiculous , untrue, ignorant things. When they started getting quite rude I just had to walk off - was actually quietly fuming.

Rant over.

 

[kayleigh_and_rocky]

i left a comment saying its a very sad time when brits cannot support their own world and european champion

 

[Irishcobs]

She got the European champ last year though, so it shouldn't count towards this years SPOTY.

 

[Mid]

She has obviously worked hard - But immagine the money that goes into it. She is much more privilaged then a lot of eventers. She can work full time with the horses, has all the facilities... Anything money can buy, really!

 

[kayleigh_and_rocky]

She still has a string of sponsors because her parents refuse to pay for it all, she works just as hard as all the other eventers, the only easier bit is probably it is easier for her to get sponsorship being who she is.

 

[Pebble101]

It strikes me that it's written by someone who is totally ignorant of the sport and what it entails. Understandable in the 'public' but surely not from a supposed sports journalist. And does it matter whether or not her victories are shown on the TV or not? Surely it doesn't lessen her achievements. One of his main gripes seems to be her 'English', bet he wouldn't have made any comment had it been Beckham up there (or any other footballer, boxer, rugby player, cricketer) with his wonderful grasp of the English language (not). Lets face it the English football still seems to be basking in its 1966 glory.

 

[Ellaxx]

[ QUOTE ]
It strikes me that it's written by someone who is totally ignorant of the sport and what it entails. Understandable in the 'public' but surely not from a supposed sports journalist. And does it matter whether or not her victories are shown on the TV or not? Surely it doesn't lessen her achievements. One of his main gripes seems to be her 'English', bet he wouldn't have made any comment had it been Beckham up there (or any other footballer, boxer, rugby player, cricketer) with his wonderful grasp of the English language (not). Lets face it the English football still seems to be basking in its 1966 glory.

[/ QUOTE ]

please post this comment on the site!!
very true!!

xx

 

[beh]

give them a link to this website if they want to see what real horsey people are like, not all silver spooned rubbish!

 

[PapaFrita]

That's because they have no understanding of the effort that goes behind producing event horses. It really p:sses me off when people suggest that the horse does all the work; somone on another forum pointed out quite rightly that Jenson Button's car doesn't get all the credit, does it?
So Zara's rich and has advantages other eventers don't such as access to top trainers, BUT it's bollox to suggest that ANYONE achieves what she has on money and influence alone. She's worked bloody hard for what she's achieved and I don't begrudge her any of it.

 

[PapaFrita]

[ QUOTE ]
It strikes me that it's written by someone who is totally ignorant of the sport and what it entails. Understandable in the 'public' but surely not from a supposed sports journalist. And does it matter whether or not her victories are shown on the TV or not? Surely it doesn't lessen her achievements. One of his main gripes seems to be her 'English', bet he wouldn't have made any comment had it been Beckham up there (or any other footballer, boxer, rugby player, cricketer) with his wonderful grasp of the English language (not). Lets face it the English football still seems to be basking in its 1966 glory.

[/ QUOTE ]

Bloody well said!

 

[RachelMcTimoney]

exactly! it is because thay have no idea how much time dedication an hard work is put into producing a horse to that level

 

[MagicMelon]

God, that Daily Mail article is pathetic. Made my blood boil. What a twat.

 

[pootler]

Grr, I wrote a snotty reply which probably won't be posted. One blindingly obvious point being that Lord Coe's albeit ex-wife has ridden around Badminton......

 

[debbielinder]

zara must have worked really hard to get where she is and achieve what shes achieved but ive had this conversation 100 times in the last 2 days. ok she did come from a privalged background and probebly did have access to quality animals (but even if any of us got on toytown tomorrow chances are we couldnt get him to walk in a staight line) but it doesnt mean she hasnt had to work for it. its true of many sports if someones parents are successful athletes then if their children want to follow them into their chosen sport they have a slight upper hand, all the whitakers for example, or in football jamie rednap or however you spell it mohammed ali's daughter is a pro boxer she didnt get slatterd when she won the other week. but i think the added pressure coming from a successful family surely must outway the help and guidence they get from their parents and as zara said herself during archen her father wasnt their as he was coaching the americans! shes seems like a really down to earth person whos put a lot of time and effort into what she does. and personally i think this backlash of comments would have happened to whoever won it as you cant please every one.

 

[RachelMcTimoney]

i have submitted a comment on the website, hopefully they may publish it???

 

[WeeBrown]

Totally agree with you.

What really annoys me though about the article is not whether Zara deserved to win or not but the fact that one of his reasons for her not winning is that horse events are rarely shown on tv. Surely that she had so little recognition and still triumphed shows something! I would like to see much more horse sports shown on tv - and much less football. In fact at the moment with rugby and football it seem like the only sport the media are interested in are the ones we fail at best!
Anyway at the end the guy obviously lost the plot with his whole conspiracy argument. I know he's a journalist and suppose to stir things up a bit but I'd be embarrassed to write such utter garbage!

 

[xspiralx]

[ QUOTE ]
(but even if any of us got on toytown tomorrow chances are we couldnt get him to walk in a staight line)

[/ QUOTE ]

Not saying she's not a talented rider, but I think thats a bit of a stretch. I've ridden and looked after intermediate eventers, and done fine. No I couldn't go round Badminton on them lol, but I get the impression Toytown is a nice, honest horse who a lot of riders would do very well with - he's not a magical animal that only Zara could get a tune out of.

 

[0]

the European title does count because she still holds the title (it has not gone to someone else) and part of the achievement is that she is only the third person to hold both the European and World title's at the same time (which she does right now whether she won one of them last year or not).

Kind of agree with you on the speech - I was shocked that TT didn't get a mention BUT i truely feel that she was just so shocked and I think the neves of being in front of thousands of people set in. She is an eventer - not a public speaker, it would be daunting for anyone to have to get up and make a speech to the whole of the NEC. Remmber that this is the first year it has had such a huge audience (public have never attended before).

 

[0]

Yes, I do not think that anyone could get on TT and ride a 4* course on him just because he is such a good horse, therefore credit to Zara that she gets him round especially having trained him from Novice (an acievement in itself!) But I think that it is taking it a bit far to suggest that no-one else could ride him. Of course he may go slightly better for Zara (most horses do go better for their owner) but to say other riders wouldn't be able to get anything out of him is silly .......does this include the likes of Andrew Hoy?

 

[Onyxia]

[ QUOTE ]
it really annoys me when they say 'they must have bought her the best horses' -she brought toytown on from pre novice upwards!

fair enough, she will have got the best help from the word go but you still have to be bloody brave and extremely talented to produce a horse up to that standard.

[/ QUOTE ]
Exactly!
YES she will have had backing most of us could only dream about, but if she wasnt good enough she wouldnt have acomplished have of what she has.
Maybe a working class girl with her record would have been better from perspective of myth busting, but TBH I;m so glad that someone in the sport is getting so much media coverage- it all promotes the sport.

 

[Twiglet]

What really annoys me when fellow horsepeople - who should know the talent, effort and determination that goes into Zara's achievements - put her down and say she didn't deserve to win! Fair enough a horse-ignorant football fan thinks she only won because she's royal, but surely any rider should know the lengths an eventer must go to to win the European and World Championships?!

 

[LEC]

Money cannot buy success with horses sure it can help but ultimately its the skill and partnership you have.
I know several young riders who have coughed up or been given some pretty wonderful horses and have totally failed to get a tune out of them. There are loads of horses who have been sold for mega bucks and have just never gone on. The same goes for people who buy grand prix school masters and then never really get anywhere on them.
Just because someone buys a ferrari does not mean they can drive it!