I once read that, superb a horsewoman as Zara is, she is not the equal of her mother!
Is this truly the case?
Who is considered better, Anne or Zara?
Hard to say, Mirabel. The four factors are 1. Horse Power and 2. Effort 3. Talent 4. Context.
Horsepower first: Both Anne and Zara have had good horses: this is not just due to the expense, but also the effort [see below]. Zara's best horse, IMHO, has surely been Toytown; her current best two horses [she has about a dozen horses at the moment] are High Kingdom and Lord Lauries. Both horses still need a little more experience [particularly Lord Lauries, because I think that High Kingdom is Zara's 'number one' horse] but again in my very humble opinion, I still think that none of Zara's mounts has yet reached the standard of Anne's Doublet, not even Toytown. This does not reflect any lack of effort on the part of Zara; it's just that Doublet was a horse in a million and I just don't think that Zara's are in the same league as Doublet.
Effort: Both Anne and Zara have worked very hard on '
making' their horses [as the expression is]. What makes a good horse is not just the 'physical' conformation of the horse but the hours of schooling, training -both with and without coaches, practising, competing etc. Both Anne and Zara have physically worked hard at this themselves: I can remember how, 40 years ago, people were astonished at how the
Queen's daughter was doing things such as stable management and driving her own horsebox. People were fascinating when Anne was seen lining up with some very 'ordinary' people to sit her HGV licence [heavy goods vehicle licence to enable her to drive a horse box]. This was not such a surprise with Zara, who has not had a 'royal' upbringing... And look how Zara has not had a honeymoon either, because of the demands of her competitive sport...
Talent: I honestly think that there is actually little between Anne and Zara in terms of ability. I was watching Zara very closely all weekend and particularly in the cross-country phase, and I honestly think that there is litlte to choose between mother and daughter.
Context. In the 40something years that have passed since Anne began competing, in my very humble opinon, Eventing has become more professional. It is a full time
job and more nowadays in a way that it did not seem to be when Anne started. It was still a time-intensive sport, but nowadays it seems even more so. All the horses and the background staff employed by the top eventers seem so much more.....hard to define it, actually, but when I was little, eventing did seem to be open to the more amateur competitor in a way that it does not nowadays. For a start, horses are proportionally far more expensive and you need so many of them nowadays etc etc. Zara and her fellow competitors nowadays seem to be so business-like in their approach. The huge costs of the sport mean that many riders need sponsorship. And there seem to be so many people of almost equal ability competing at Zara's level. IMHO, you now have to be better than ever and at such a level that perhaps did not exist 40plus years ago. Zara, in competing for an place in the GB Olympic team seems to be up against a more formidable opposition than perhaps Princess Anne did.
So there you have it; if you can split mother-and-daughter, it is only by the breadth of a hair IMHO.
Hope this helps
Alex
