Watching the pure unabashed joy of other people unfold in real life makes it almost ok that everything didn’t come up roses for the USA in Olympic Eventing this week.

Have you ever heard the whispering sound of 20 thousand or so camera shutters clicking in unison? I heard it every time a British horse and rider left the ground during stadium jumping–a synchronized hush that swept around the Olympic stadium like a wave. Even with some other guy named Michael winning gold medals near a swimming pool yesterday, equestrian enjoyed amazing attendance numbers in the Greenwich Park Olympic Stadium.

The roars were deafening, the bleachers were shaking, and I was at an equestrian event, not a football game! I might not remember the US medaling at these Olympics, but I will sure remember that.

It was impossible not to get caught up in it, and the best man definitely won. John has already analyzed Michael Jung’s ride eight ways to Sunday so I’m not going to rehash the details, but I can tell you that in my travels around the park over the past week, every time I looked up, it seemed that I spotted Michael. And every time I saw him, he had the same exact look on his face. Whether he was walking the cross-country course (in his tracksuit, always,) sitting in a press conference, or just passing by, he wore an easy half smile on his face and had a calm look in his eyes. Ladies and gentlemen, I think this is how the Germans define perfect focus. And Michael’s look did not waver one iota until he passed through the stadium jumping finish timers yesterday.

Yeah, I got this.

Which brings me to the fist pump. You eventers were one step away from an end zone dance with all the fist pumping that was going on after riders’ completed their courses. I mean, I get it, you’ve just completed an equine triathlon and come out the other side in one piece. It was actually pretty awesome, and I think that somehow, we need to get the fist pump memo out to the show jumpers and dressage riders. They’ll get happy after a good round of jumping or a particularly fab dressage test from time to time, but there is a definite lack of grandstanding exuberant, ring lapping, fist pumping after a memorable round in the other equestrian disciplines. The Colbert Report has already done wonders for the profile of dressage; just think what a boost it would get if those riders unleashed a fist pump victory gallop after their Freestyle test. Jan Ebeling, I’m looking at you.

I was slightly transfixed watching the British people be transfixed by the Royal family, who showed up en masse to cheer on Zara Phillips (who was not shy with the fist pumping herself.) They sat in the stands below and to the left of me, which more than giving me a view of them, gave me a view of everyone else watching them.

Even though the most high profile eventing competition in four years was unfolding in the stadium, the Royals were still the target of many high powered cameras that were trained on them every single second.

Um, guys, the arena’s the other way.

However, when in Rome…..

I know, that picture is barely passable. But I took it myself with a camera and it’s proof that I saw William, Kate and Harry – or at least the tops of their heads! You can see the good photos of them in the stands (the products of the gentlemen in the previous photo, no doubt) on Prince Harry’s facebook page. And yes, of course he has one. I like that he wasn’t worried about his 131,000 facebook friends, or nationwide population of Royal-obsessed followers as he sat in the bleachers during both rounds of stadium jumping, just like a regular person. Unfortunately I was not in his line of sight – this time. Here’s hoping he comes to watch the show jumping. . . . OK, I’ll stop.

Harry is cute and all, but there was another guy in his early 20s who caught my eye over the weekend. Am I late to the party or has no one realized that a 19 year old horse just completed the Olympics, and medaled for New Zealand?? Caroline Powell’s Lenamore was incredible all weekend. Early yesterday morning, when many of the horses at the jog were standing around looking bushwacked from their cross country run the day before, Lenamore was so fresh he dragged Caroline away from the end of the jog, with his groom joining the chase to rescue them both. Whatever Lenamore is eating, my horse wants some.

Lenamore rocks.

There’s more that happened of course, but this is only one article. In the end, it’s all about our horses, treating them like the superstars they are, and appreciating them for a job well done. Yesterday I posted a photo of Jessica Phoenix hugging her horse after she completed her individual round of stadium. She hugged Tucker, she hugged David, she basically stood there just looking grateful. That photo, which instantly went everywhere on Facebook, proves that at the end of the day we’re all in agreement – the bond between horse and rider is what it’s all about.

Well Eventing Nation, it’s hard to know where to begin after spending the last four days in your holy land. Let’s start with the cross country phase, which marked my second real-life international eventing experience, the first being WEG 2010 (it’s ok, you can hate me a little). And while I initially declared the course at Greenwich one of the biggest and scariest EVER after my self-guided coursewalk on Friday, I suppose that I’m now in agreement with the experts – Monday’s course wasn’t the hugest ever. WEG’s was bigger. And it’s probably true that other three day events beginning with the letter “B” that are usually held in England are set to heights that would give this show jumper heart palpations.

But as you’re well aware, fence height was on a long list of the challenges presented to riders during one grueling day of cross country. You couldn’t have paid me enough to jump over that crescent moon and gallop headlong down the steep slope that followed. Not to mention careen off the down bank, steer toward the skinnies…. But I digress. Let’s take a look back:

Karen O’Connor eats crescent moons for breakfast.

One of the differences (among many) between eventing and other equestrian disciplines, is how close an average person can get to the most exciting, most dangerous moments. Yes, you can sit close to one jump at the rail during a grand prix, but there’s nothing like running around to all the different cross country fences, and standing RIGHT THERE as riders gallop over them. With 74 riders running cross country, I had many chances to get within arms reach of those galloping hooves and focused faces.

I watched Tiana warm up and discuss strategy with Boyd and the Americans. I looked into Ginny’s eye as she cantered past me after Hawley fell (very bummed for Hawley by the way–she is one of my favorites and I wish her well).

Boyd gives Tiana some last minute advice

I’m so glad that Gin N’Juice was caught safely and is ok.

For a second, I was fairly sure that Mark Todd was actually going to run me over (and if he had, I would have gleefully shown you pictures of the bruises.)

We had a moment.

Of course he didn’t, and I played the part of a well behaved card-carrying journalist so as not to raise the ire of the many, many many many, friendly volunteers who dotted the course every few feet. They did a stellar job of keeping myself and 50,000 of my closest friends in line, even as excitement reached a fever pitch among the masses as Brit after Brit came home clean.

When Zara finished her course I was standing under the main stadium, which in itself was filled with an unbelievable amount of people considering they could only see one fence live, and the roar that went up was deafening, complete with a full minute of simultaneous thunder feet.

Zara, the focus of national attention by all of Great Britain

Eventing was the most watched sport on NBC’s livestream on cross country day, and everywhere I looked on the course, there was another ready-to-pee-their-pants beyond excited child reciting rider stats. If that doesn’t make you feel good about the future of your sport, I don’t know what can.

Not so patiently waiting

There’s a horse and rider in that crowd somewhere.

I really want to complain right now about how exhausted I was, how my feet were super sore from hiking up and down hills all day and how badly I wanted to sleep in in the morning. But the day I spent weaving in and out of polite British people, frantically rushing up and down the hills of Greenwich Park, kneeling on hillsides for that perfect shot and waiting patiently for my favorite riders to gallop by in a blur pales in comparison to the effort that the horses and riders put out. It was truly amazing, and while I will in no way ever be brave enough to participate in this madness other than from the sidelines, you can chalk me up as a forever eventing fan.

You can throw everything I said yesterday about the calm and emptiness of Greenwich Park out the window, because today the place was absolutely buzzing.

I could be wrong, but I’m just going to throw it out there that generally, the dressage phase of eventing isn’t the most action-packed thing to spend an entire day watching (not to mention two.)  Yes, this is the Olympics, and we are in a country where equestrianism is actually regarded as real sport, but when some 26,000 (unofficial number) enthusiastic spectators of all ages poured into the venue this morning, I was still quite surprised. They’re a polite bunch, patiently waiting in long lines to fill their water bottles, get a program, or buy an extremely expensive piece of official London 2012 merchandise. Even the children sat rapt as 37 riders performed the same test to varying degrees of success. Most of these spectators were wearing, holding, or had the flag of their home country painted on their bodies, and it’s only the first day! Impressive. Naturally, most of those flags were the Union Jack, although some riders had their own personal cheering section:

Jamaican rider Samantha Albert had a great cheering section. Samantha is the only Jamaican equestrian athlete to ever compete at Olympic level.

The stands were almost full for the first half of riders in the morning, and had thinned a bit by afternoon. This really is the perfect weather for riding; a light cloud cover kept things cool, and although the sun broke out from time to time it never got any warmer than about 78 degrees. Please join me in praying for NO rain tomorrow.

Watching riders at this level is always an education, and it was the ones that made it look easy whom I tried to watch the closest. Ingrid Klimke seemed satisfied but not overly excited after she owned her dressage test with Butts Abraxxas, but when the crowd roared as her scores were shown, she twisted around in the saddle to see what all the fuss was about.

It’s true, you ruled!

Hawley Bennett was grinning from ear to ear and patting Ginny as she left the ring after scoring a 48.70, but that might have been because she caught David O’Connor’s shimmying victory dance when he saw her score.

 Slow with the shutter finger, I missed the dance but caught David still smiling post shimmy.

 “If I can finish on a 48, I’ll be the happiest kid in town,” said Hawley. “I’m so happy.”

And as for the USA, well, John is in charge of the official analysis and commentary, but unofficially, I think our riders are looking strong, and have a great shot at ending up on a podium on Tuesday. Team USA sits in third at the moment, with a score of 150.90. That’s just behind Germany (137.60) and Australia (133.20). On to more action-packed eventing dressage tomorrow!

Tiana had a challenging ride with Finn, but optimistically braved the press line just after.

Karen had many Team USA eyes on her as she warmed up before her test this morning.