Ann Moore

The enigmatic young showjumper who stole the hearts of a nation by winning silver at the 1972 Munich Olympics turns 70 this week.Ann Moore discusses her brilliant but brief career with Lucy Higginson

- Lucy Higginson

ANN MOORE’S showjumping career is in some ways an enigma. Marked in history as the petite young woman who won Olympic silver over huge fences at the 1972 Munich Olympics on her diminutive horse Psalm, her name and fame blossomed in a golden era for the sport. It led to invitations to movie premiers, meetings with royalty, TV appearances and even an Ann Moore doll. Yet in contrast to the extended careers enjoyed by top riders today, Ann retired from competition aged just 23.

Bizarrely, she held the record as Britain’s most recent individual Olympic showjumping medallist for 44 years, until finally Nick Skelton “got her off the hook”, as he put it, with his unforgettable Rio triumph on Big Star.

So who is the enigmatic and eloquent Ann, who captured the heart of a nation, became a household name, and eventually disappeared from the sport so completely?

THE eldest of six children born to Norman and Dorothy Moore, originally of Birmingham, Ann is the only one to follow a career in horses.

“All my siblings learnt to ride, but they saw the work involved – and the accidents at home – and it probably put them off,” she says.

Her love of horses was inherited from her father, who built a successful engineering business after the war and was later able to fulfill his dream of buying a farm in Warwickshire and stocking it with horses.

“Right from the start I wanted to ride. It was all I wanted to do,” says Ann. “I was very shy then, and much happier in my own company with the horses.”