TSUNAMI II Zara Phillips, originally uploaded by rallycarter.

At the four-star three-day event at Pau in the south of France on Saturday, British rider and reigning world champion eventer Zara Phillips took a bad fall with her horse Tsunami II.

According to our friends at Horse and Hound, the horse did not die on course but was transported to a veterinary clinic and later euthanized because a vertebrae inher neck was fractured.

Phillips broke her collarbone in the fall.

Tsunami II was Phillips’ up and coming horse; Pau was their first four-star effort. The mare, owned and bred by Irish rider Melanie Duff, was being groomed as Phillips’ hope for the 2012 Olympics, to be held in London, just down the road from her grandmother’s home at Buckingham Palace.

Phillips is the daughter of Princess Anne, who also competed at high level in eventing…and also rode racehorses! A last-minute injury to Phillips’ horse Toytown meant that she missed her chance to represent Great Britain at the 2008 Olympics.