Zara Tindall

The former European and world champion tells Catherine Austen about her passion of riding for the British team, why pressure makes her tick and her chance to return to the Olympic fray

- Catherine Austen

NOT many riders have won a medal at every championship at which they’ve completed. Zara Tindall has – from individual silver at the 2002 young rider

Europeans to team silver at the 2014 World Equestrian Games (WEG). Her six chunks of precious metal also include, unforgettably, her individual victories in the 2005 European Championships and the following year’s WEG.

Exceptionally cool under pressure – possibly innate, possibly partly the result of growing up in the media spotlight – means that she is undoubtedly a considerable asset to a team. This is borne out by the fact that she has been a counting score on each of the five teams on which she has ridden.

“I love riding for my country; those have been the best experiences of my career,” she says. “To get your horse to that level is what it’s all about and what we all strive for. I love the big occasion because I love the pressure – sitting on a horse that you know is good enough, you are fully prepared, riding for your country, it’s what your dreams are made of.”

Zara would have been a long-shot for Tokyo 2020, but in Gleadhill House Stud’s Class Affair she does believe she has a team horse for the near future. The chestnut son of OBOS Quality 004, now 11, impressed at Bramham when finishing ninth last year – she berates herself for having two show jumps down – and showed great improvement in his dressage at Burghley, his first five-star. He blotted his copybook, however, with a run-out at the skinny fence after the Leaf Pit drop, which tipped Zara off out of the side door, and then ran out again at Blenheim. She did some rethinking, worked on how to ride him in the early part of the course so that he was properly focused and listening to his rider, and they were seventh at Boekelo with a double clear.