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.
