Toytown

What this horse of a lifetime lacked in looks as a “toad” of a youngster, says Catherine Austen, he made up for in talent and presence, partnering Zara Tindall to World and European Championship glory

- Catherine Austen

HAS there ever been a more compelling, pressurised two minutes in British horse sport than Zara Tindall’s showjumping round at Aachen in 2006? Here was a 25-year-old member of the royal family with the World Championship title within touching distance.

Her horse, Toytown, was exceptional, but it was no secret that this phase could be his Achilles heel. They were in the most intense atmosphere imaginable, the stadium packed with 40,000 German spectators who had just watched Bettina Hoy secure them team gold. And Zara couldn’t hear the bell.

Zara says: “The judges were using this tiny, tinkly bell. Everyone was going way too far down the arena and missing their start. I thought, ‘I’m not going to do that.’ I made sure I stayed up at the end of the arena where I couldn’t get caught out – but I couldn’t hear the bell anyway, because Bettina had just jumped clear and the crowd was going mad. I was cantering around thinking, ‘Why hasn’t the bell gone…?’ And then I looked at the clock, which had started, and thought ‘No!’

“I was literally flat out – which was probably, in hindsight, a good thing, because I couldn’t get backwards at all; I just had to get on with it.

“In that moment of half-panic, half-pressure, Toytown jumped really well; he just had the middle part of the treble. There were still two to jump, but I just knew he was going to jump them.”