UK: SHOWJUMPING - World champion Zara Phillips competes with home advantage -- literally.

When it comes to international horse riding competitions, having one in your back garden should literally give you a home advantage. But Zara Phillips, the eldest granddaughter of Britain's Queen Elizabeth and the current world champion in Three Day Eventing on Sunday (September 17) said hosting an event at her family's Gloucestershire residence, Gatcombe Park, was everything but easy. "No, it's more difficult. The horses think it's their back garden and they find it really spooky," Phillips told Reuters. The 25-year-old stunned the world of horse riding by winning the Eventing World Championships in Aachen, Germany in September. Her victory was made even more surprising because Phillips had contemplated giving up competing. "It was just that I wasn't really enjoying it (riding) and the horses weren't going very well and I just needed a different sort of a route to take and just needed to find a different route, which I managed to do. It was just, I don't know, I mean, I always enjoy riding horses and I wasn't enjoying going to competitions, so it was what it was," Phillips said. Growing up in the public eye, Phillips has had to work hard to prove critics she is more than just a 'Royal Rebel' as suggested by some sections of the media. She said she felt her victory in Germany had silenced some critics, but added that she had learnt to accept that she cannot please everyone. "I don't know, I mean, all my friends know how hard we all work and you know, if I still have to prove to all these people, I mean, in the end of the day we do work hard but I think you are always going to get people who are going to say that because they don't know me and they don't know the sport," she said. She is often compared to her successful, but now divorced, parents. Her mother is the Queen's daughter, the Princess Royal, Princess Anne, who won eventing gold at the European Championships in 1971; her father, Mark Phillipes, won Olympic team gold in 1972 and silver in 1988. Phillips said she had given up trying to step out of their shadow. "There's nothing (I can do), the same questions are always going to be asked and I don't think it's ever going to change so I just have to get on with it," she said. The future for the young world champion looks bright, but Phillips knows to expect the unexpected. She was forced to give up hopes of a place in the British Olympics team in Athens in 2004 when her horse, Toytown, was injured before the qualifications. On Sunday she acknowledged that getting into the 2008 Beijing Olympics is a goal, but she refuses to get too enthusiastic. "Yes, but there is still next year to get through first and we just take one year at a time, we've got to keep the horse sound. It's a long way away at the moment," she said. Leaving nothing to chance, Phillips is making sure she has got a back-up plan. Giving her world champion horse Toytown a day off on Sunday, she participated in the Gatcombe Park event with two others: Red Baron and Ardfield Magic Star. Red Baron proved her potential, but Phillips could only finish fifth. First prize went to 24-year-old Kitty Boggis on Kings Cross.

ITN Source | September 18, 2006

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