Zara Phillips, Queen’s Granddaughter, Makes Olympic Debut

Zara Phillips, the Queen’s granddaughter, is making a name for herself in equestrian eventing at the London Olympics, finishing clean and well under the pace time as she rode to the finish line amid thousands of cheering fans, including royals.

ABC Local reports that Phillips said after she finished:

“The crowd was unbelievable! I hope I didn’t take any heads off on the way cutting corners.”

Included in the audience were Princes William and Harry, as well as William’s wife, Kate, and Camilla, who is Prince Charles’ wife. Also seated with them were Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, who are Prince Andrew’s daughters. Zara’s mother, Princess Anne, watched elsewhere along the course grounds.

The Christian Science Monitor notes that Zara Phillips’ time of 9 minutes, 55.11 seconds was especially good, considering her horse, High Kingdom, lost a shoe during the Olympic cross-country ride. Phillips stated of her horse that:.

“He did amazing. He really grew up and stepped up to the plate.”

The cross-country portion of the three-discipline eventing competition began yesterday with dressage, in which Zara scored 46.1 in dressage yesterday. With that score, as well as her under the time limit score today, leaves her tied in 10th place going into show jumping, which will take place tomorrow.

American Karen O’Connor and Mr. Medicott, a horse purchased for her from the gold medal-winning German team four years ago, are in a provisional eighth place halfway through the competition. She earned 5.6 penalties for exceeding the time limit, but stated of her horse that, “He was slipping in the warmup so I changed to longer studs for the course.”

Will you be watching the jumping portion of the three-day-long eventing competition to see if Zara Phillips, the Queen’s granddaughter, can win a medal at the Olympics?

Check out footage below to see Zara Phillips and her horse, High Kingdom, in a cross-country event:

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