HRH Princess Sirivannavari Nariratana has a chance to secure a victory at this month's SEA Games in Myanmar which would inspire a new crop of young riders.
If she is successful at the Dec 11-22 Games, she would achieve a rare feat of winning gold medals in two different sports, having won the women's badminton team title at the 2005 Games.
The Princess, who is also well-known for her role in the fashion industry, will compete in dressage in Myanmar.
"If she wins, Thai people will surely be proud of that," Thailand Equestrian Federation secretary-general Fuangvich Aniruth-Deva said. "But the better thing out of that is she will set an example for the younger generations to play sports. It will also benefit our national equestrian federation in that more people will want to play, and the quality will get better because of that."
A former SEA Games winner himself, Fuangvich was asked to help train Princess Sirivannavari in dressage while she was studying in France.
Dressage, a French term for 'training', is one of the three equestrian disciplines at the Myanmar tournament.
It requires both the rider and horse to conduct a series of predetermined movements from memory similar to a dance.
The International Equestrian Federation calls dressage the 'highest expression of horse training'.
The Princess will be one of the four riders to compete for Thailand in dressage while the other eight will take part in show jumping and endurance.
Although Princess Sirivannavari will bring the bright lights with her, Fuangvich insists she wasn't given any free handouts during the selection process.
"We wouldn't have her here if she was not good. At the beginning she was not good like other beginners but she is good now," said Fuangvich, who trained her in France for one year before she returned home in July.
"She had to work at it. She had to earn it. We would not have put her in there if she was not at the top level. She is at that level now and has a chance to do something special for her country."
However, a victory in Myanmar will be more difficult than most equestrian competitions due to regulations set by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) that prevent riders from bringing their own horses to the country.
Myanmar is not up to the health and sanitation standards required by the OIE to allow animals to be safely transported in and out of the country for the SEA Games.
"This means that if we did decide to bring our own horses to Myanmar, we might not be allowed to bring them back to Thailand after the Games," Fuangvich said.
The rules are in place to protect animals from contracting foreign diseases while abroad, and to prevent those diseases from spreading around the world once they leave.
The 2008 Beijing Olympics had the same issue. Before the Games started, China's authorities had to halt plans to build a new equestrian stadium after it realised it could not create an adequate disease-free zone without severely disrupting its own population's way of life. In order to keep the Olympics in China, the event was moved to Hong Kong.
At the 2013 SEA Games, Myanmar will prepare a stable of homegrown horses for use in the events. Before each contest, a draw will take place to determine which horse will be paired with which athlete. The riders will then have 30 minutes to test the horses before taking the field for competition.
"At the end of the day, it is better than nothing," Fuangvich said. "But is it a 'real' equestrian competition? Not really."
Although the draw-horse formula does keep the sport in the SEA Games, it also adds a level of insecurity to a discipline that thrives on preparation and communication between horse and rider, and the results could largely be decided by which nation draws the most capable horses.
Thailand's national team is preparing for this. Twelve riders will represent the country at the SEA Games.
During the selection process, where around 50 national hopefuls were whittled down to the final 12, riders were not allowed to bring their own horses to training. Instead, the TEF set up a similar system to what it expects to see in Myanmar.
"We prepared good horses and bad horses," Fuangvich said. "They did a draw and competed amongst each other with whichever horse they got."
The final 12 are now in place, and Fuangvich believes Thailand will still have a strong showing despite the unpredictable nature of the event.
"It will depend on the draw to some extent," he said. "If we get lucky, we are talking about four gold medals. If we don't get lucky, we might end up around two."