Footage exhibits Princess Anne coaching for the 1972 Olympics

Just a few months on from being crowned BBC Sports Personality of the Year, Princess Anne had her sights set on her next feat: competing at the 1972 Olympics.

Unearthed news footage from March 1972 shows the Princess Royal training on her horse Doublet for the Badminton Horse Trials the following month and ultimately the Munich Games that summer. 

Sadly, her hopes of competing at Badminton and that year’s Olympics – which are now remembered for the horrifying terrorist attack that left 11 Israeli athletes dead – were dashed when Doublet got injured. 

Instead, she had to wait until the 1976 Games in Montreal to take part, but ultimately did not win a medal in the equestrian three-day event. 

Anne is currently recovering in hospital with concussion after it was thought she was hit on the head by a horse at her Gatcombe Park estate in Gloucestershire on Sunday.

Because of the injuries she sustained, she is unable to recall exactly what happened.

Unearthed news footage from March 1972 shows Princess Anne training on her horse Doublet for the Badminton Horse Trials the following month and ultimately the Munich Games that summer

Princess Anne has been recovering in hospital with concussion after it was thought she was struck on the head by a horse

Anne received treatment at the scene after an air ambulance was called, before she was taken by road to hospital. 

The 1972 news footage shows Anne training at the Windsor farm owned by her then coach Alison Oliver.

As the then 21-year-old royal is seen cantering around the field and going over fences on Doublet, the unnamed presenter says: ‘The Princess is a specialist in the tough three-day event, that takes in a dressage with its 30 carefully prepared movements, 18 miles of cross-country riding, and on the last day arena showjumping.

‘After a lay off through the royal tour of Thailand and Malaysia, the Princess is working back to fitness and accepting no more official engagements other than those already agreed to.’

Doublet, a present from the Queen, was the same horse on which Anne won the European Three-day Championships in September 1971.

She was then named BBC Sports Personality of the Year three months later.

The presenter in the ITN clip adds: ‘In the business Princess Anne has a reputation of being a good competitor, with a lot of endurance and dislike of not winning.’

The then 21-year-old royal is seen cantering around the field and going over fences on Doublet

 Princess Anne riding a different horse during her training in her coach’s field in Windsor

Anne rides Doublet, just weeks before his injury put paid to her hopes of competing at the Munich Olympics

Anne’s coach Alison Oliver speaks to ITN about her esteemed student

Although Anne was not an automatic choice for the Olympics squad, before Doublet got injured she was widely expected to be part of the team.

Doublet strained a tendon during a training run. A Buckingham Palace official told the Mail at the time that Anne was ‘very upset’.

Princess Anne’s current injury is far from the first time she has been hurt indulging her passion.

In 1964, when she was 14, she ended up with her arm in a sling after cracking a bone in her finger while riding a horse at her school in Benenden, Kent. 

Then, more seriously, she was knocked unconscious and cracked a vertebra when her horse fell on her at the Portman Horse Trials in Dorset in April 1976.  

Anne also suffered concussion and bruises but was told by doctors that the hairline crack in her back was not serious enough to stop her from competing at the Montreal Olympics that summer. 

The Daily Mail’s report on the injury to Anne’s horse Doublet, April 8, 1972

Princess Anne with her horse Doublet, after winning the three-day event at Burghley, Lincolnshire, September 1971

Back in April 1976, Anne was knocked unconscious and cracked a vertebra when her horse fell on her at the Portman Horse Trials in Dorset

In 1964, Anne cracked a bone in her finger after getting it caught in a rein while riding at her school in Benenden, Kent. Above: The Princess Royal leaves the King Edward VII hospital with her arm wrapped up

On another occasion, broadcaster Clare Balding admitted to having ‘nearly killed’ Anne during a horse race in the 1980s. 

Anne is expected to make a ‘full and swift recovery’ from her recent ordeal, the Palace said. 

She is understood to have minor head wounds and will be kept in hospital for observation for several days, meaning all her upcoming engagements have been cancelled.

The ditched events include tonight’s state banquet for the visit of Japan’s Emperor Naruhito and a working visit to Canada on Thursday.