Toytown (horse)

Toytown [ [http://news.equestrianconnection.com/images/2006_WEG/366-06PhillipsZ_WEGCC03-300.jpgPhoto of horse and rider/owner] ] , a chestnut gelding born in 1992, standing at 17hh and with particularly distinctive markings including a white blaze and white spots, is a British event horse currently owned and ridden by Zara Phillips. The pair compete together at the highest level of the sport.

Toytown's exact breeding is unknown. He was spotted as a 7-year-old novice eventer in 1999 by Zara's father, Mark Phillips, when rider and former owner Meryl Winter went to him for a lesson. Zara bought the horse a few months later [ [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/more_sport/article621302.ece Times Online Article, 28th August 2006] ] after watching him jump with her stepmother and dressage coach Sandy Pflueger. Zara has since commented that he "looked a bit like a hat-rack when we first saw him but I got on really well with him [ [http://sport.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1859875,00.html Guardian Article 28th August 2006] ] ".

Despite Winter's description of him as a 'cross country machine', Toytown was far from a natural Eventer, with a particular lack of respect for Show Jumps - at the Windsor CCI** in 2001, Zara and Toytown entered the ring in the lead only to finish out of the running with six fences down and 25 penalty points.

However, Zara and Toytown's hard work with Mark Phillips in the Show Jumping ring and Pflueger in the Dressage arena put paid to these teething problems, and the pair's first real success came with the Young Rider title at Bramham Horse Trials in 2002, followed by individual silver at the 2002 Young Riders European Championships in Austria.

This success was cemented in their CCI**** debut at Burghley Horse Trials in 2003. Competing at this level for the first time, over a particularly challenging course, Zara and Toytown found themselves in the lead after the cross country and missed overall victory by just one fence, losing to then-world number one Pippa Funnell on her way to the Rolex Grand Slam.

Far from being an easy horse to ride, Zara comments that he "doesn’t like performing these days unless it really matters [ [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/more_sport/article2456659.ece Times article 15th September 2007] ] " (something he demonstrated at the 2007 Festival of British Eventing when, according to the BBC's equestrian correspondent Clare Balding, he "went complete bonkers and started rearing [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/equestrian/6989044.stm BBC News Article by Clare Balding] ] " during the Dressage), and that "Toytown, almost always, has to do something to show he is in control [Zara Phillips, quoted in the Daily Telegraph (Issue 47,328:Saturday 4th August 2007 page S23)] ".

Olympic contender

A leg injury following Burghley forced Toytown out of contention for the 2004 Athens Olympics and the entire 2004 season, and an injury during final preparations [ [http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/jun/12/olympicgames2008.equestrianism Guardian article] ] for the 2008 Beijing Olympics forced the pair to concede their place in the British team. Given his age, it is unlikely Toytown will be in contention for the 2012 London Olympics.

Major Accomplishments

2007
* Team gold at the European Eventing Championships at Pratoni del Vivaro, Rome, Italy.

2006
* Individual gold and team silver at the World Equestrian Games [ [http://www.aachen2006.de/ Games Web-Site] ] in Aachen, Germany.

2005
* Individual and team gold at the European Eventing Championships at Blenheim
* 2nd Luhmuhlen Horse Trials (CCI****)

2003
* 2nd Burghley Horse Trials CCI****

2002
* Individual Silver at the European Young Riders Championship

References