Finally, Marta Ortega: we discover what the most mysterious woman in Spain is like

Marta, who has spent most of her life trying not to attract attention, has not achieved her goal. Her passion for horse riding and her marriage to Sergio Álvarez Moya, one of the best horsemen on the national scene, catapulted her into the gossip press. “I felt a little guilty for having instilled that hobby in him. It was something that came up many years ago, by chance, when another friend and I convinced her to go riding”, confesses an intimate, who points out: “Marta appears on the pages of magazines despite herself”. In them all her movements are dissected. The last big rumor that she faces is the crisis of her marriage, which she has denied with the facts.

At Madrid Horse Week there are slicked-up parents with children who wear Barbour, stands with sportswear from specialized firms and an enveloping stable smell. Horse riding is not exactly a mass sport. Here there are no fans chanting hymns or muffled moans from the athlete at the limit of his strength. Silence reigns in this sport. In the lists of participants, surnames of ancestry follow one another: Queipo de Llano, Entrecanales, López de la Vara... In the boxes, reserved for the brands that sponsor the event, cava is drunk and sophisticated tapas are tasted.

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In this discreet but exclusive environment, Marta Ortega has been creating her circle of friends. Jesús Garmendia, José Bono Jr, Athina Onassis, Carolina Aresu… “There is a lot of money in this sport. But we are all the same. We eat together at the buffet and we are above all companions”, says Garmendia. ** “Here you don't want to eat with Athina [Onassis] or Carlota [Casiraghi] but with Marco Kutcher or Ludger Beerbaum, two great riders”, adds José Bono Jr.**

Every December and July these riders meet at Casas Novas, the spectacular equestrian venue that Amancio Ortega built in Arteixo for his daughter. There, everything is under the control of the tycoon: from the facilities, managed by Inditex, to the Amazon's clothing, designed by Massimo Dutti. “It is a five-star tournament. The organization is magnificent, the facilities are amazing, the lawn is perfectly cut, everything is spotless”, describes José Bono Jr. The Casas Novas contest is the occasion that all the media take advantage of to photograph one of the most deprived families in the world . But today, at Madrid Horse Week, no one notices that thin woman who wanders around the venue holding on to her mobile phone, without looking at anyone.