On Thursday evening, August 14th, I went to my second night of the Olympic equestrian games. This time my friend Beth went with me. Unlike Casey on Tuesday night, Beth didn’t know anything about what we were seeing, so it was interesting to watch her reaction to the event. As before, the venue was simply beautiful and very well run. This time I knew the ropes. We found it was no problem to leave about a ½ an hour later than I did on Tuesday. We immediately got in line for our beers, sodas, popcorn and this time a hotdog (for me anyway), grab our score sheets and head for our seats. My seats were a little to the left of where I sat on Tuesday, so they were more centered, and slightly higher (row 10). Unfortunately our view of the arena was partially blocked by the judge’s booths. The judge’s booths were shaped like little Chinese temples. They were adorable, but their roofs were a bit obtrusive. I was surprised that more horses didn’t look at them and go YIKES, but only two horses spooked the entire evening and only one horse went off course.
This was the Grand Prix Qualifier. I didn’t really know what I was seeing at the time, but I googled it later. This was a set test of about 6 minutes that included certain specific dressage moves. It determined the team winners and which 25 riders would go on to tonight’s event, the Grand Prix Special.
As I watched the Grand Prix, all these dressage moves came back to me; laterals, serpentines, flying changes, extended trot, sitting trot, walk on the buckle. Of course I never did anything even close to this level, and I never tried a passage, or a piaffe, or anything like the 9 flying changes they did one diagonal and the 15 flying changes they had to do the other direction. I mean, one flying change (on purpose anyway) is very hard, I can’t imagine doing 9, let alone 15. I’m just remembering asking for a lead change when we would change directions…we usually would “sit and ask” to quote Colby, and it was hard enough to do that properly.
It wasn’t boring at all, and most of the crowd seemed fascinated. Everyone was very, very quiet, they were all watching so intently. As the night went on we all started to learn the tests, counting the flying changes under our breaths, anticipating the next move. They posted the moves on the video board (which we could see this time) also, which was great.
One thing that was kind of cool. While standing in line to enter the arena, we were introduced to Courtney King’s parents, one of the American riders. At one point the brothers of one of the British rides sat in front of us. One of them had on a jacket made out of the British flag. I asked him if I could take his picture so that’s how we ended up talking to them. And, Casey knew one of the Canadian riders, so I made a video of her test for Casey. Because this venue isn’t really big (18,000 seats) it makes it seem small and intimate, and really gives it a personal feel.
Once again we left around 10 pm, at the start of the second break. This seems like a perfect time to leave. I’m planning on do that again tonight and on Monday, but on Thursday (the show-jumping finals) I’m staying for the WHOLE THING!
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