Heartbroken: Princess Anne broke down in Tears as she confessed worrying memory loss after…
Heartbroken: Princess Anne broke down in Tears as she confessed worrying memory loss after…
The fall happened when she was competing in the eventing category in the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal, when she fell off her horse. The Princess Royal got back on her horse and completed the course but admitted afterwards she did not remember any of it. She said in an interview afterwards: “I was going very well and then I don’t remember anything else. Nothing at all.
In the 2020 ITV documentary: ‘Anne: The Princess Royal at 70’, her lady-in-waiting Jane Holderness-Roddam recalled the day it happened.
She said: “I wasn’t at the Olympics, I couldn’t go, so it was all on the television what we saw.
“What I didn’t know at the time was she had this awful fall, but she got back on and competed.
“She was that concussed that she couldn’t remember – and still to this day I believe can’t remember – the rest of the course.
It shows just how nasty Anne’s fall must have been for her to actually be suffering memory loss – and even more astonishing that she actually got back on and finished the course.
Equestrians always wear helmets when they ride, yet concussion – or traumatic brain injury – is the third most common type of injury related to horse-riding.
Other serious injuries people can get from riding include spinal injuries and bone fractures.
Fellow Olympian Sebastian Coe, who worked with Princess Anne on the London Olympics, said he is always impressed by how sturdy eventers are.
He said: “It is probably the most dangerous sport on the planet.
“I’ve watched a lot of three-day eventing and I know that the competitive granite that those men and women are made from.”
Anne’s children Peter Phillips and Zara Tindall did not seem that surprised that their mother got up and carried on with the competition after her injury.
Zara told the documentary: “Her mantra for life is very much, ‘if you fall, get back up and try again.
Peter added: “Get up, carry on and mind your manners.”
Anne’s children grew up around horses, especially as both their mother and father were at the top of their game.
Mark Phillips won a gold in the 1972 Olympics in Munich and a silver at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul.
It was therefore perhaps no surprise that Zara also went into competitive eventing, and won a silver medal in the 2012 Olympics in London.
All the Royal Family came to watch and she was presented her medal by her mother Princess Anne.
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Zara said: “To be given your medal by your mother is pretty special. You can’t really ever explain that feeling.
“She very much knows what it takes to achieve and to win
Having the whole family come and watch was incredible as well.
Peter added: “All the cousins were there weren’t they? It was a really special day, special family day.”
He then joked that he is the only person in his immediate family not to have a gold medal, as Anne and Zara have won gold medals in the European and World Eventing Championships respectively.
