I'm sorry if I shouldn't have opened a new thread for this. If it is not the place the moderators are 100% free to move my post.
I just wanted to contribute to a discussion I've been reading but since it was over some time ago I did not want to be off topic in the original thread.
There was some discussion about wether Charlotte was or wasn't a good rider, and wether she was just an amateur or could be af great rider.
Well, I think that it is pretty clear that she was just an amateur and not that good at it.
Of course she was better than most people who don't compete in official events but they are a couple of thinks to remember:
1. Charlotte compited in the 1.10 m. Of course she was just a junior, but 1.10 is just an amateur heigh. In no way was she near the level of greater riders.
2. It is a fact that nearly everyone who's been riding for a couple of years and has a great horse can jump a 1.10 m. I'm not saying that Charlotte wasn't a skilled rider, since I've never seen her riding live and you can't judge by the pictures, but if you got a good horse, every average rider and even people who aren't very good at riding, can compete in a 1.10 m. The horse does nearly everything.
3. Charlotte has the money to buy a great horse. More money that most jumpers (even olimpic jumpers), and one time in Monaco excepted she never ranked among the first riders. She was often 8th or 9th. This does not say very much of her.
4. Whe you do "real" jumping (1.50 or 1.60) the horse is not enough. Even if you have the better horse you need to be real good yourself to compete in a 1.50. That makes the difference between amateurs and real riders. Charlotte never got even near to compete with them-
So, my opinion is that she was a fine rider for an amateur, more than most people bu she never was even close to compete at international level.
I forgot to say that now that Charlotte doesn't ride it anymore, her horse FOLKA is jumping at top level international events and she's getting rather good results.
This obviously means that Charlotte had a top horse who jumps 1.40 and 1.50