Following Canada's Equestrian Team

this is the first post with my new iphone . Good to know it works! Hopefully Sha Tin will be full of wifi hotspots. For those who have or are getting an iphone ,there’s a great app on iTunes : a Lonely Planet audiobook on Cantonese. I’ve downloaded it and it’s great. It won’t make me fluent, but I’m looking forward to having a few basic phrases I can say.

Eric Lamaze & Hickstead - photo © TetleyPhoto.com

CBC is doing some great coverage of Equestrian on their website.

Check out this feature article on Eric Lamaze including a video clip interview.

While you’re there, you can also read the profile on Ian Millar who is busy preparing for his record 9th Olympic appearance and already talking about a 10th in London 2012! Now that’s what you call longevity in the sport.

Leslie Reid & Orion - Photo by Bill Keay/Vancouver Sun photo

Dressage makes it to the front page of the sports section in the Vancouver Sun this past weekend, profiling BC’s own Leslie Reid.

Leslie flies out to Amsterdam tonight. Jacquie Brooks and Ashley Holzer fly from New York to Amsterdam later this week.

Safe travels everyone!

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/story.html?id=f9a5d0c0-dd5d-4f76-b1ab-509ac99c38fe

Countdown to Beijing

Canadian Equestrian Team Leader extraordinaire Mike Gallagher was on tonight’s episode of CBC’s Countdown to Beijing. Way to go Mike! Olympic Showjumper Beth Underhill was also on the show, talking about Canada’s Equestrian Teams and their prospects in Hong Kong. They also provided some fantastic coverage of the stable facilities, indoor arena, cross-country course, main stadium, and veterinary facilities. All I can say is….WOW! Looks absolutely incredible. The stables are air-conditioned to maintain a 23C temperature at all times, the entire aisleway and all stalls have rubber mats, and not only are there misting stations outside, but there is also a portable misting station.

If you missed the episode, it should be repeating Saturday July 12 on CBC.

Or you can go to the CBC archives at http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/countdown/archive/

CBC Bold will be showing coverage of the Olympic equestrian events. Nancy Wetmore will return as commentator with Cara Whitham as the analyst for Dressage and Eventing, and Beth Underhill as the analyst for Showjumping. Check out their website at http://www.cbc.ca/bold/.

Since my ‘thing’ is dressage, there will undoubtedly be quite a bit of dressage content sneaking onto here. I’ll do my best to keep things balanced though.

Here’s a video of Canadian Olympic Team member Ashley Holzer & Pop Art performing their Grand Prix at Blainville Quebec in June 2008.