Following Canada's Equestrian Team

Dressage Jog Done – all systems go!

The dressage jog took place this afternoon – always a nail-biter and after so many days of being here, it now finally feels like a competition.  The Canadian horses passed with flying colours and looked pretty darned sharp doing so! The team dressed in a Chinese theme complete with chopsticks in the hair. They really looked fantastic and were the best dressed team there (I know I’m biased!) I’ve posted a few pics below so you can see how nice they all looked.

I have to hit the hay as the cross-country is tomorrow morning. The Canadian team currently sits in 9th position following dressage. Selena O’Hanlon put in a terrific performance last night to be the top ranked Canadian after dressage – and she had a huge grin on her face the whole time during her test. It was great to see! I walked the course yesterday with Mike G. and it is quite spectacular. It should look stunning on tv although it is very twisty and turny….not a lot of galloping spots and 8 jumping efforts within the first minute. Most people are saying that this definitely won’t be a dressage competition and that no one will make the time. There are some options built into some of the fences, but they look pretty huge and technical as well. Sure reminded me why I quit Eventing once I reached the Prelim level! Waaaaaaaay too scary for me. I’ll stick to a nice little white-fenced arena where the scariest thing to deal with is a judge’s booth or a camera 🙂  I’ll post some pics of the cross-country tomorrow.

it's show time! (leaving the barn for the jog)

Jacquie and Gran Gesto

Leslie and Orion

Ashley and Pop Art

Dr. Jenn, Ali and Leslie

smiles all round following the jog (l-r: me, Dr. Jenn, Leslie, Jacquie, Ashley and Ali)

Ashley sports her chopsticks

My Hero!

This pic deserved a post all on it’s own. I felt like the ultimate groupie tonight but as Ali pointed out to me….when am I going to get another chance to hang out with Mark Todd!?!?! Yes, I did feel embarrassed to tap Mr. Eventing Legend himself on the shoulder and introduce myself as a huge fan who would be thrilled to bits if I could have my picture taken. But it was well worth it. Check it out! That’s me and Mark Todd!

my smile doesn't even come close to demonstrating how excited I was to be standing next to Mark Todd with his arm around my shoulder 🙂

Jog is done – all systems go for Canadian Eventers

A quick post before I hit the hay tonight. The jog was held this afternoon for the Eventers at 4pm. Luckily it didn’t rain on the parade in spite of it being a very rainy morning.

All of the Canadian horse/riders were turned out smartly and breezed through the jog. In fact all horses passed with the exception of Chile’s Ricardo Stangher and Brazil’s Fabricio Salgado. Great Britain’s William Fox Pitt was asked to stay for a second inspection but was eventually passed (the jury was concerned about a girth gall).

Dressage starts VERY bright and early tomorrow morning with Canada’s Kyle Carter being the second rider in and the first Canadian, following the one and only Mark Todd who gets the party going at 6:30am.

Canadian team heading back to the barns after a job well done

by the looks on their faces, it's obvious that jogs are serious serious business (l-r: Jenn Ward, Mike Gallagher, Jennifer Miller and Holly Jones)

just had to take a snap of this perfectly braided tail.

The Jade Market

Thursday was a bit of a slow day again. I accompanied Eventing Team Manager Janette Leask to the airport to pick up some owners and family who were arriving for the Event Team. We had a big Canadian flag with us so that people could spot us easily. Touching down in Hong Kong today were the Davies (owners of Columbo), Samantha Taylor’s family, Selena O’Hanlon’s mom, Kyle Carter’s family and Grit High (High Performance Chair for Eventing). That’s a big contingent! Everyone arrived safely and are excited for the competition to begin. The jog is today (Friday) at 4pm with Canada being the 4th country to go after Belarus, New Zealand and Poland.

Between airport runs, Janette and I found some time to check out the Jade market in Kowloon. I’m not a big shopper, but was interested in checking it out. 1 hour later and I found out how dangerous the place is even for a non-shopper like me! I came away with quite a few bags of stuff after spending $1,000 HK (equivalent to about $133 Canadian). I was also starting to get the hang of bartering and managed to get some swinging deals. Every seller at a stall has a calculator, and when you ask how much for something they type out the price on the calculator. If it looks like you’re balking, then they’ll immediately drop the price. If you start to walk away, then they push the calculator towards you and ask you to type in what you want to pay. The non-shopper in me worked wonders because I had no problem walking away from the majority of things I saw……so the price was always dropping for me 🙂 . I picked up some gifts for back home and a beautiful yellow jade pendant necklace for me. Janette swung a great deal on some jade bracelets and I became the lucky owner of a beautiful purple jade bracelet. Dressage team vet Jennifer Miller and team rider Leslie Reid met us at the market but Janette and I had to leave to be back in time for airport run # 2 which was a good thing because who knew what other things I would have bought! It was a good prep excercise for me for the Ladies’ Market (dubious name, I know!) and the Stanley Market which I hope to do next week.

Although I was able to go to the venue that night, I hear that the place was really hopping. The main competition arena was open again with a dressage ring now set up and the judges’ huts. Dressage chef Ali Buchanan told me that the ring itself was packed with some near collisions. Our dressage riders stuck to riding around the outside of the ring which was likely a good plan given the chaos on the inside. The jumbotron was on, but no cartoon horses this time. The screen didn’t pose a problem to any of the horses.

This afternoon is the Eventing jog followed by a welcome reception to usher in the beginning of the games. After being here for so many days, people are definitely starting to feel the excitement now! Will do my best to grab some snaps and post here later.

The media hotel (where I’m staying) is also starting to get packed. Our jumper team is staying here with Jill, Jonathan and Mac already here. Ian and Torchy arrives later today with Eric coming tomorrow. Then our entire Team Canada will be here! I ran into Jenn Ward and Karen Robinson in the lobby who are both covering the events with a Canadian perspective. I know that Cealy Tetley has arrived as well but haven’t seen her yet.

One last thing…..Marks & Spencers rocks! Just bought some Sweet Thai Chili and Coriander flavoured chips. De-licious.

it was a rainy and foggy day.....the low hanging clouds over the hills looked very picturesque

the Jade Market

Jennifer and Leslie scoping out the merchandise

decisions, decisions, decisions.....

hitting a wee bit of traffic on the way back to the village

on the way to the aiport....this new tunnel has only been open for a couple of months and still looks shiny

I'm a huge Amazing Race fan, and I swear this is where they had to go in Season 2 to move containers in order to find their next clue

arriving at the airport for one of the many pickups

the Olympic shuttle bus area at the pickup

Olympic well wishes

I received this email yesterday from the “Rising Stars” group in British Columbia:

“In this the  eve of the Olympics when all eyes are on the hero’s of our sport  – none more firmly focused in your  direction than that of the youth in our sport.  As the organizers of the Rising Stars Youth  Dressage and Hack Challenge and on behalf of all the competitors we wish you the  best Olympic experience ever.  We are proud that you are representing our  sport and our country.

We salute the ‘Stars’ of our sport from the ‘Rising Stars’ in our  sport.

Greetings from Canada  Sue  Holtby,  Wendy Christoff and Nancy Olson”