WORLD eventing champion Zara Phillips’ horse had to be destroyed after a cross-country fall at the final event of the year in Pau, France, yesterday.

Phillips, inset, suffered a broken collarbone, but she did not go to hospital. Having been treated on site by the event’s medical team, she was later walking around, in some discomfort, with her arm in a sling.

The 27-year-old is expected to be back in the saddle within weeks, preparing horses for next season. Her only consolation is that she will not miss any important competitions.

Pau, the final four-star (highest level) event of the season, has never been a lucky venue for Phillips: this is her third consecutive fall here. The accident happened halfway around the course at fence 15, a hedge and one of the most innocuous-looking fences, where no other rider had problems.

Phillips’ horse, Tsunami II, stumbled on landing and somersaulted, throwing the rider clear. A veterinary examination showed that the 11-year-old chestnut mare, owned by Melanie Duff, a former Ireland team rider and a friend of Phillips, had broken a neck vertebra.

“She was a very special horse and I had high hopes for her,” said Phillips. “Losing a horse like this is awful. I feel so sorry for Mel because she bred him.”

This was the third time Phillips had fallen with Tsunami II in international competition. The pair had a dramatic crash at Bramham Horse Trials in England last year and they fell during a World Cup qualifier at Tattersalls, Ireland, in June. In 2004 Phillips was knocked unconscious in a fall at a national competition at Lulworth, Dorset.

The Princess Royal’s daughter is a talented, hardworking rider who does not seek any special favours. She has had her fair share of the hazards that are part and parcel of the sport — six other riders fell during this competition — but she has endured hers, with grace, in the glare of publicity.

Phillips has known the heights of success. She won the European championships at her first attempt in 2005 and the world title and the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award a year later, going on to win a European team gold medal in 2007.

However, she has had a miserable time of it this year. She was outwardly stoic about missing her Olympic debut when her top horse, Toytown, suffered a freak injury just weeks before departure for Beijing, and their talent and star quality were palpably absent from the Great Britain squad that won bronze.

Phillips has a string of promising horses and will surely be a candidate for London 2012, but, frustratingly, her best chance of Olympic gold may have gone.

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