‘Lights went out’: Princess Anne got back on horse after suffering concussion at ’76 Olympics

HRH Princess Anne, The Princess Royal aboard Goodwill during the Mixed Three-Day Event Team Cross-Country at the XXI Olympic Summer Games on 24 July 1976 at the Olympic Equestrian Centre, Bromont, Québec, Canada. (Photo by Getty Images)

Princess Anne is no stranger to dealing with injuries related to her life-long love of horses and riding.

The 73-year-old Princess Royal, regarded as one of the most experienced riders in Britain, remained hospitalized Monday after suffering minor injuries and a concussion at her Gatcombe Park estate in southwest England over the weekend.

The head injuries are consistent with an impact from a horse’s legs or head, a source told the Daily Beast. But it’s unclear whether Anne was riding or walking near horses when she was injured, according to the Daily Beast.

Nearly 50 years ago, Anne suffered a concussion while competing in the 1976 Olympics in Montreal. As a member of the British team, she was riding a horse named Goodwill, which belonged to her mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, and suffered a bad fall when the horse became stuck in boggy mud, The Telegraph reported.

“As far as I’m concerned, the lights went out,” Anne said about the fall in her autobiography, “Riding Through My Life,” The Telegraph reported. If the horse had not fought to remain upright, she said, “I wouldn’t be here now.”

Anne, who began riding at age 3, nonetheless managed to get herself back up, remount the horse and finish the event, though she admitted in her book that her memory of that day is “almost non-existent,” The Telegraph reported. She also said her brothers teased her about how her performance seemed to improve after the fall. “We ought to bang you on the head before you start next time!” she said they joked.

In the 21st century, concussions are no longer regarded as laughing matters, and Anne’s doctors seem to be taking her latest injury pretty seriously, enough to keep her in the hospital.

The Telegraph reported that Anne remained in the Southmead Hospital in Bristol Monday “as a precautionary measure for observation” but is expected to make a full and swift recovery.  She was said to be “awake and conscious.”

There’s no word yet on whether Anne was alone at the time of her injury, or who summoned emergency services, The Telegraph said. However, Anne’s husband, Sir Tim Laurence, and her children, Zara Tindall and Peter Phillips, were present at the estate.