Princess Anne‘s injury involving a horse is just the latest example of how she has been hurt indulging her passion.

The Princess Royal, 73, was injured yesterday at her Gatcombe Park estate and is being treated in hospital for concussion and minor injuries to her head.

It comes nearly 60 years on from when she cracked a bone in her finger in December 1964 after getting it caught in the rein while riding a horse at her school in Benenden, Kent, aged 14.

Then, more seriously, she was knocked unconscious and cracked a vertebra when her horse fell on her at the Portman Horse Trials in Dorset in April 1976.

Anne also suffered concussion and bruises but was told by doctors that the hairline crack in her back was not serious enough to stop her from competing at the Montreal Olympics that summer.

On another occasion, broadcaster Clare Balding admitted to having ‘nearly killed’ Anne during a horse race in the 1980s.

Back in April 1976, Anne was knocked unconscious and cracked a vertebra when her horse fell on her at the Portman Horse Trials in Dorset

In 1964, Anne cracked a bone in her finger after getting it caught in a rein while riding at her school in Benenden, Kent. Above: The Princess Royal leaves the King Edward VII hospital with her arm wrapped up

In 1973, Anne had to withdraw from the European Eventing Championships being held in Kyiv, Ukraine, after falling from her horse and landing on her face.

Two years later, in April 1975, she was thrown into the River Avon when her horse, Mardi Gras, failed a jump.

And in October that year, the Princess fell off her horse after colliding with a steed being ridden by her then-husband, Captain Mark Phillips.

In 1982, she ended up submerged in water again after falling from her horse, Stevie B, into the lake at the Badminton Horse Trials.

Anne later admitted that she remembers ‘nothing at all’ about her 1976 fall.

She said in an interview: ‘It was going very well and then I don’t remember anything else. Nothing at all.’

Her former lady-in-waiting, Jane Holderness-Roddam, told ITV: ‘She was that concussed that she couldn’t remember – and still to this day I believe can’t remember – the rest of the course.’

Captain Mark Phillips was watching in anguish on the sidelines.

Princess Anne lies unconscious after falling from her horse – which then rolled on top of her – at the Portman Horse Trials, 1976

Onlookers look helpless as they stand and kneel around Princess Anne after her accident at the Portman Horse Trials, 1976

Princess Anne is carried into the King Edward VII Hospital after her accident at the Portman Horse Trials

In April 1975, Anne was thrown into the River Avon when her horse, Mardi Gras, failed a jump

In 1973, she had to withdraw from the European Eventing Championships being held in Kyiv, Ukraine, after falling from her horse and landing on her face

In 1982, she ended up submerged in water again after falling from her horse, Stevie B, into the lake at the Badminton Horse Trials

Her horse, Candlewick, fell on top of her after she came a cropper.

Captain Phillips helped to carry her into a waiting ambulance.

Anne, who has been riding horses since she was two-and-a-half, said in an interview in the 1970s that she ‘frequently’ had felt sheer terror riding a horse.

‘I do all the time,’ she said. ‘I strongly object to getting run away with – that frightens the life out of me. Luckily it doesn’t happen too often.’

Balding, a former amateur jockey, collided with Anne when they competed in the same event in the 1980s.

She told the Telegraph earlier this year: ‘Well, it was in a race when I’d only been competing a couple of years. I got in her path, we collided and she was nearly unseated. I think she’s forgiven me. She knows I didn’t do it on purpose.

Princess Anne after falling from her horse at Towcester Racecourse in 1983

Princess Anne looks at her horse Stevie B after they took a taumble at the Burghley Horse Trials, 1981

The Daily Mail’s front page after Anne was knocked unconscious at the Portman Horse Trials in 1976

The Mail’s coverage when Anne was knocked unconscious at the 1976 Portman Horse Trials

‘Funnily enough, when she gave me my CBE, having previously presented me with an OBE, she leaned over and said “Mmm, I think we’ve been through this before”.’

In 2008, Anne was kicked by a horse at her home and later needed the help of a walking stick afterwards.

However, her skills on horseback are widely respected.

At the age of 21 she won the individual title at the European Eventing Championship and was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year.

She competed for Britain in the equestrian three-day event at the Montreal games in 1976, riding the Queen’s horse Goodwill – the same animal that she fell from in Kyiv.