Zara Phillips and Mike Tindall

Zara Phillips and Mike Tindall

Britain's Zara Phillips has already got two ponies lined up for her baby daughter.

The Olympic eventing medallist and her husband Mike Tindall's firstborn Mia Grace might only be one month old, but she is expected to follow in her mother's footsteps by riding her cousins' Shetland ponies as soon as she is old enough.

Asked whether Mia was going to be as outdoorsy as Zara, who started riding aged two, the royal told Britain's HELLO! magazine: "She has her first pair of wellies and her first pair of trainers ... We were outside a lot as children and had ponies. And so Mia will be - definitely.

"I bought a Shetland pony for my niece, Savannah, to ride, and then I was offered a second one so I bought him too as Isla was coming along so quickly. Mia will inherit them once her cousins get too big... But I've told my brother Pete that I've now done my bit. It's his job to buy the next size ponies."

Mia - who is Queen Elizabeth's fourth great grandchild and 16th in line to the throne - was born at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital in South West England last month, weighing a healthy 7lb 12oz.

Zara enthused: "The birth itself was definitely an experience, though perhaps not altogether euphoric while it was happening. Afterwards you are pretty amazed at what you've created. I still keep looking at Mia and thinking, 'Oh! We made that.'

Mike added: "The birth was the best day of my life so far."

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