Princess Märtha Louise competed for the first time on Saturday on the race track. Together with the horse, Kick Off Classic, she was second in the class in the race this weekend at Bjerke.
“I was sick with nerves,” said Princess Märtha Louise about the hours before her debut as a buggy driver at Bjerke on Saturday.
But the debut went well, although the professional riders became too tough at the end.
The audience favourite, Märtha, rode offensively, sniffed the ball, but dropped to number seven out of eight. However, she kept to her word and “gave the iron” as promised.
“The horse, Kick Off Classic was not good enough,” said the experts.
Then the princess countered, “I did what I had been told, and I really thought I was doing well.But I’ve learned never to blame the horse.’’
License for one day
Princess Märtha Louise has undergone both theoretical and practical training under the auspices of ‘Det Norske Travselskap’ before Saturday’s debut.She had also been in Vestre Ådal on a day trip with two of Norway’s best coaches, Trond Anderssen and Kristian Malmin.
The latter, who won the race on Saturday, has 897 victories in the series.
It was definitely a tough field Märtha Louise found herself in, the seven other riders had a total of 12800 first places in their careers.
The princess competed against some of Norway’s foremost riders, including Øyvind Grøstad,Hans Christian Holm and Eirik Høitomt.
“We are talking about horsepower’’
Whether she’s going to ride again was the question being asked by many,but the protagonist left the answer hanging in the air.
‘’I have to think about that.Then I have to get a permanent license,’’ answered the 46 year old who became an active rider in the year 2000.
Last year, she made a small comeback in the hall, before the year’s transition to a sulky and tough racehorse.
“Here it’s a lot faster.I understand that we are talking about horsepower,’’ the princess concluded, saying it could be compared to jumping in parachute, which the ‘’action princess’’ has also done.
© NTB scanpix / #Norway Today
