Photo: Magic Millions and Mike Tindall’s “Mike Drop”
Mike Tindallwill always remember his wedding day — thanks to a recent reminder from his wife,Zara!
Revealing their sweet nicknames for one another — calling each other “my love” at the start of the episode — Mike and Zara chatted about her lifelong love of horses (a passion she shared with her momPrincess Anneand late grandmotherQueen Elizabeth) and career as a professional equestrian before the conversation turned to their personal life.
“In 2012, you married a legend,” Mike began, as Zara interjected, “Who said that? Didn’t we get married in 2011?”
“Sorry, yes, we did,” he apologized, as his wife burst into laughter.
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Laughing off the mistaken date, Mike asked, “How much did being a mum change how you thought about riding, and how much did you then immediately want to get back on a horse and get back into it after having [Mia]?”
“After having Mia, I was like, ‘Right, this is my goal, I need to get back.’ I had a good horse to come back to, which is great for your confidence. I wanted to get back for him as well,” Zara said.
“It was hard getting your body back when you’ve been riding for 25 years, and your body is just completely not doing that. Your muscles, doing nothing and stretching and creating an amazing thing, but it’s completely different,” she added of getting back into the saddle after giving birth. “Trying to get your body back to where it was, I found, was hard work.”
Saying it was “easier” to juggle riding and parenting when they had one child, Zara explained, “I found it hard, getting yourself back to it, but mentally, you feel guilty as a mother, leaving your child to go and do something else.”
“Is that because you didn’t trust Dad?” Mike joked, which made her laugh.
“You do feel guilty. I felt guilty all the time. Even going to go and ride. I just thought, ‘That’s an aspect of my life now,’ " Zara said of juggling it all.
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Looking back on the last decade, during which they welcomed their three children andnavigated pregnancy loss, Mike asked Zara if she felt like she had been able to give her riding everything she wanted to during stops and starts in the saddle.
“There’s probably times I would look back on and shouldn’t have gone to certain places, but I think I was lucky. I’d had Toytown and High Kingdom, and I’d been to an Olympics and got a silver medal,” Zara said, referencing some of her favorite horses and success at the London Olympics in 2012. “Been to World Championships and won, been to European Championships and won. The stuff I missed was down to another great chapter in my life and I’m very lucky that I could run them alongside each other,” she added.
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“I’m lucky that our sport I could do both and still be able to ride at the top. It’s been a massive drive for me, and I’m hoping that it makes me a better mother because they can experience it with us, and with me, and all those characteristics about competitive life, they can hopefully enjoy it as well,” Zara said of Mia, Lena, and Lucas, who are frequent fixtures at her horse shows and competitions.
On her goal as an athlete today, Zara added, “I mean I’d love to win Olympic gold, so that’s probably driving me at the moment. I’d love to go to another Olympics.”
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Queen Elizabeth’s eldest granddaughter won a silver medal with Team Great Britain at the 2012 Olympics in the discipline of three-day eventing. She had the honor of receiving her medal from Princess Anne, who serves as President of the British Olympic Association.
source: people.com
