My Trip To Greenwich, Olympic XC

Here are some of the photographs my Dad took from our day at the Olympic Cross Country yesterday. I have a few more photos still to come but I need to sort though them! We had a great day and Greenwich looked amazing. The sun even came out for our day there which we were very lucky for considering the summer we are currently having!

Below is me and my Mum outside the arena.

They had all the countries flags flying around the top of the arena.

I really liked how the arena didn't have seats at one end. It made it look amazing. They also placed a big screen at this end so you could watch what was going on in other places in the course. The commentator also kept everyone up to date with information and big cheers were always heard when our riders were mentioned.

The crowds were quite large and there was definitely not a shortage of spectators. To get a better view of each jump you usually had to wait for a horse to go over it then some people would move onto the next jump  and we could get closer to the front. There were people from all different countries and people wearing flags, wigs, face paint and many other flag themed items of clothing!

There was also a shop to by official merchandise. We didn't buy anything but may have another look when we go back for the dressage as it will be quieter.

We watched Mary King jump the water jump. We had to wait for a while there as there were around 4 or 5 horses to go before Mary and 2 of them fell off! The cheers were so loud when a rider came from GB. We could hear the cheers going all around the course every time they had completed a jump. It was a very different atmosphere than normal three day events. The horses coped really well with the great atmosphere.

At each jump was a poster board telling you the name of the jump and the inspiration behind making it along with any other bits of information. This was the playground jump as there was a playground on the other side of the fence!

The course was quite hilly. This was at the top of the steep hill with the view of London behind.

Below was one of my favourite jump combinations. Not only did it have a working water fountain in the background, each jump had tiny water fountains on them over the flowers! Another jump I will show in my next blog post had two huge horse statues made out of horse shoes.

There were plenty of ambulances and horse ambulances all round the course. This was by the warm up arena while we were watching Zara Phillips warm up.

The only problem we had with the day was with the travelling, I may talk a bit more about that in another post! As we were getting the train back to our coach a reporter came over and asked for a little interview on what we thought about Zara Phillips. Here is the link to the article they wrote which I am mentioned in! Click here! 

We all had a really good day and I am very excited to be going back on the 9th for the dressage. I feel very lucky to have tickets!

Love Laura
xxxx

Lazy Days

The summer weather has finally arrived in the UK and all of the horses are feeling very lazy. I am back from university for the weekend to go to a wedding on Saturday then for the Olympic XC on Monday. I went to the farm this morning and rode Trooper. He was good but he was stiff on the right rein for around 30 seconds when I first went into trot. He then loosened up and was much better.

This afternoon I went to the farm to turn Troops out and he was very sleepy (see below!). The children are now on their summer holidays and two little boys were playing football in the garden of the house. Just I was walking Trooper past they kicked the ball over the fence and it rolled right under Trooper's legs. He didn't even bother and just kept walking.

When I turned him out he went for a drink. He loves the water trough in the field because he can gulp lots of water down. I have attached a video of him below. Does anyone else's horse's ears move backwards and forwards when they drink and water come out their nose? I think I have a strange horse!

Love Laura
xxxx

Olympic Updates

Just a quick post to say I am going to watch the Cross Country on Monday the 30th of July and then I will be watching the Dressage Grand Prix on Thursday the 9th of August. I will be writing blog posts after my visit but during the day I will be putting updates on Twitter along with photos. If you would like to follow me on Twitter my address is  @Laura_C_H!

We are getting a coach down on the day of the Cross Country. As a lot of people are attending this event coaches have been put in from all around the country. We are still waiting for our tickets to arrive but hopefully this will be sorted out soon!

The 19th of July issue of Horse & Hound is an Olympic special with lots of info in so I recommend you get it if you're in the UK.

Love Laura

xxxx

An Olympic Blog For You To Take A Look At

I found this blog earlier and thought it was great. Lots of information and photos from someone living in the Olypic Village and involved with the equestrian events. I am writing this blog post from my phone so cannot go back and check but I think Will who writes the blog is a director of some of the equestrian team or events... Don't quote me on that... He is showing the grooms and riders around the village and there is lots of information about the Olypic Village. It is an interesting read!


http://equestrianteamgbr.blogspot.co.uk/

 Enjoy!
 Love Laura
xxxx

A Beginner's Guide To The Equestrian Olympic Disciplines And Riders

I thought for the Sundays GB Rider Profile post I would just do a quick summary of the discipline for any people reading this that are new to the sport and the names of the riders in the teams for each of the equestrian events. If I have written a profile for that rider then I will link to it! The riders will be competing in a team and individually. 

Dressage
This is similar to gymnastics but for horses. They will be scored out of 10 for every movement by a number of judges placed at different places around the arena. There are a number of dressage competitions. In some there will be a set routine in which all the riders carry out. In others it is "freestyle" during this the riders have moves they have to include in the routine but can do it in their own order. The Kur is when the riders do the routine to music. 

The team;

• Charlotte Dujardin  riding Valegro
• Carl Hester  riding Uthopia
• Laura Bechtolsheimer  riding Mistral Hojris
• Richard Davison  riding Hiscox Artemis

Show Jumping
This consists of two rounds. In the first round the horse and rider have to jump a number of jumps in the correct order without knocking jumps down or having refusals. There may also be a time limit in which they will gain penalties if they go over. After this round all the horses that have no penalties will go on to the "jump off". In the jump off the fastest horse to go clear wins. They have to get the correct balance between going as fast as they can and going too fast which will cause them to knock the jumps down. The jump off course is often different to the first course and the jumps may go higher.

The team;

• Scott Brash  riding Hello Sanctos
• Tina Fletcher riding Hello Sailor
• Nick Skelton riding Big Star
• Ben Maher riding Tripple X III
• Peter Charles riding Murka's Vindicat W

Eventing
This discipline traditionally runs over three days and tests the best all round horse and riders. The first day is the dressage, the second is the cross country and the third is the show jumping. The dressage and show jumping phases are similar to those described above, with only one round for each. The cross country is a long distance jumping course that may last around 10-12 minutes. The jumps in this are often more natural such as logs and hedges.  There are also usually water jumps which gather large crowds as people often fall off into the water! There is a set time in which they have to complete the course in before they start to receive penalty points for every second they go over. This will test the horses endurance and bravery along with that of the riders. The over-all score for eventing is counted on penalties. Therefore in the dressage if they got a 9/10 for one move this would give them one penalty point. Penalties will then be added on for being too slow in the cross country or refusals of jumps. On the last day in the show jumping there may be a difference of a few penalties between riders and one jump knocked down can be the difference between winning and losing. 


The team;

• Mary King  riding Imperial Cavalier
• Nicola Wilson riding Opposition Buzz
• Tina Cook  riding Miners Frolic
• William Fox-Pitt riding Lionheart
• Zara Phillips riding High Kingdom

As I am sure you all know I have been lucky enough to get tickets for the cross country on the 30th of July and the Dressage Grand Prix on the 9th of August. I will try and get some photos and write some posts on my Olympics experience. I will also be trying to watch as much of the rest as I can in between doing lab work which I hope will be finished as soon as possible. 

If anyone has any questions about the disciplines then  don't hesitate to ask! I will probably try and write the rider profile for the remaining few riders over the next two weeks as they are nice posts for me to write while I am not at home my own horse.

Love Laura
xxxx