WHEN King Hussein of Jordan met with the Taoiseach, John Bruton, the Tanaiste, Dick Spring and the President, Mrs Robinson this week, he was accompanied not by his wife Queen Noor at these official appointments - her plane was delayed by high winds and bad weather - but by his daughter, Princess Haya.
As a member of the Jordanian royal family, the 22-year-old princess is well used to the media spotlight and has regularly featured in glossy magazines and national daily newspapers since moving to Ireland in 1995.
Her Royal Highness Princess Haya Bint Al-Hussein - also known as the Hashemite Knightess - is the sixth of King Hussein's II children, only two of whom are her full blood relations. She is the daughter of the late Queen Alia, who was killed in a helicopter crash in 1977 three years after the birth of the princess. And she wants to ride in the Olympic Games in Sydney in 2000.
Her father presented her with her first horse on her sixth birthday. Training in Germany failed to realise her full potential however - Haya's diminutive stature meant she was unable to cope with the Germanic methods, which require physical dominance of the horse.
The turning point came when, at the age of 19, Haya was sent to the world military championships in Rome as the sole Jordanian representative. Former Belgian show jumper Alain Storme had met the princess through his racing connections and recommended that Con Power, then retired from the international circuit, should travel to Italy not just as lorry driver but also as coach.
"I went to Rome with no belief that I could do anything and, inside a week, Con Power transformed me from a timid, shy person in the ring to a rider who could do something." She came home with the individual bronze medal and a determination that show jumping at top level was her ultimate goal.
After graduating from Oxford in 1995 with an honours degree in Politics, philosophy and economics, the Princess was granted a three-year reprieve from royal duties so she could concentrate on show jumping. "My father told me to go and get it out of my system, but to do it properly and with a professional attitude. He's given me every chance and every support. Now I want to break down the idea of me being a five-minute wonder who's going to get bored with it."
With the completion of her studies, she moved her horses to Alain Storme and Paul Darragh's Waterside Stud in Co Meath. A restructuring process was begun, a new string of horses bought and Team Harmony has now become the key to the Olympic participation Haya craves.
Darragh's training methods work well with the princess, who is actually fractionally taller than her mentor - though she only measures 1.63 metres in her stocking feet. Darragh is aware the princess is unwilling and indeed unable to dominate her horses by force and they now have a string of nine hand-picked animals, two of which arrived at Waterside only a fortnight ago.
"I think these are the best young horses in the world," Princess Haya says. "There are seven I can ride at the moment, but Cera and Scandal are a bit too sophisticated for me at present, so Paul is riding them. My father is very proud to see them flying the Irish flag." And they are certainly flying it well, as Darragh won no fewer than 27 Grand Prix classes with the two mares during 1996.
The princess travelled to 42 international shows last year and has no illusions about the glamour of her chosen path. "It can be very lonely and very tiring. I don't still want to be on the circuit when I'm 50 but if I don't go well in Sydney I'll keep going until the next Olympics. My father says I'm determined, but I'm just downright stubborn. I'm not going to Sydney just to get a tee-shirt."
In the build-up to 2000, the princess rode in her first World Cup class at the back end of last season. The Volvo qualifier was in Zagreb where she finished 16th - and, importantly, one place higher than her trainer.
"The first six months of last year were just about surviving, but now I'm getting more competitive and I'm going to be focusing on winning," she says.
"The team isn't just looking to be the best in the equestrian world, we want to aim towards the level of professionalism there is in pro-tennis and pro-golf. We're trying to, very humbly, revolutionise the sport."
Whatever hand the fates deal her at the 2000 Olympics, Princess Haya will not turn her back on show jumping. Once her competitive career is over, she intends to breed from the top-class mares in Team Harmony.
But although her life currently revolves around horses, there are other items on the agenda. She is in the throes of writing a book about her father and this attractive, articulate young woman who speaks seven languages has no intention of disappearing from the public eye when she quits her chosen sport. "I'm not a feminist, but I don't want to be just somebody's wife and warm a couch!"