Olympic Show jumping

At last it was time for us girls to go to the Olympics!  Maggy, Katie, Nora and I left the house at little after 9 in the morning for a 45 minutes drive to Stowmarket where we caught a train to London.  I was stressed to be not only the only adult responsible for 3 young girls in London during a major international event but to catch all the right trains and be on time.

Thanks to Josh T we made it without me making any mistakes!  He drew up directions, train numbers, platform numbers and even drew me a map!  He is a friend of the Barnes and was a real blessing in guiding us to the Games without me having a nervous breakdown.

I don't know how long it took us to get there but it must have been 3 hours.  All of that was train changes, train stops and 30 minutes of walking to get to Greenwich Park where the Show Jumping event was held.

Here the girls are outside the gates of security to get into the park.  The security was much like airport security with scanners and x-ray machines.  We couldn't take in water or liquids and had to dump a bunch of water that Maria gave us to get us through the day.

We got there an hour early.

Time enough for pictures.

We took a long walk to the bathroom and found this guy on the way back.

After finding our seats I discovered that our seats were not together.  The girls would have been sitting in a whole other section than I would.  Clearly that was not acceptable.  I could have sat a row or two behind them, but a whole other section was just not going to happen.  An attendant sent us to the ticket resolution office to complain.  I knew that if it didn't work out we might not have a place to sit.  I wasn't stressed, I knew it would work out.  The girls were beside themselves as we stood in line to talk to someone about the tickets.  The competion was starting and they weren't in their seats.  They had to watch it on the big screen and they were upset with me and not grasping the situation.  It all worked out and we got new seats in the 8th row!

See how close we were!

I don't remember this riders name but I love the expression on his/her face.  Click on the picture to see it larger.

Timmy, this is for you!  They have John Deeres at the Olympics!

Again.  SEE HOW CLOSE WE ARE!

Team USA

The American Team.

Mclain Ward riding Antares over the water jump.

Breezie Madden riding Via Volo.

Did I mention how close we were to the arena?

Reed Kessler riding Cylana.  Reed just barley qualified in age for the Olympics.  Her 18th birthday was just weeks for the Games.  The girls and I have been following her on the lead up to the Olympics on facebook.  At one time I even asked if the girls could met her and she (or whoever writes her FB for her) said it might be possible.  We never heard more about it, but that is perfectly fine, it was worth a try.

Reed had 12 faults unfortunately when most people only had 4 or 8.

Rick Fellers riding Flexible.

I think this horse is so beautiful!

All in all team USA didn't do so well, in the end they placed 6th.

The Saudis

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia had a strong team.

One of their competitors was a prince, I don't know if this was they guy or not.  I took lots of pictures and I can't keep their team members straight.

We were sitting near some of the Saudi cheering section.  Notice the skyline behind them.

This guy was the ring leader, he was a riot to watch!  He tried his best to get everyone to cheer for their riders and horses.

In the end their team took Bronze.

The British Team

The British team. 

See the horses tongue sticking out?

The crowds went wild!  The Brits tied with the Dutch and had to come back for a jump off.  In other words a tie breaker or overtime.  It was very thrilling!

The Jump Off

The Jump off between the British team and the Dutch team for gold and silver.

While I wish the American team had done better, it was a lot of fun being in the stands of a host country cheering its own team on.  And boy did they cheer!

The Netherlands team wore the orange coats and Brits wore navy.

The teams took turns.  The British matched the Dutch for clear rounds and the tension and excitement was building.

Here is the final jump that won the gold for the English.  The sound that rose out of the stands after that was deafening!

And Britian wins gold!

The final scores!  The winners were announced and the crew came into clear the arena for the presentation of the metals.  While they were doing that I got to teach the girls how to do the wave.

Metals Presentation

For the metals presentation they moved some jumps out of the way at one end of the arena and brought in the platforms.  Here they are dusting them off after setting them up.  Hmmm, are those Norwex cloths?

These are the photographers,  I think it's funny they lined them all up behind a fence.

The three teams were brought in for the presentation of the metals.  The team above is the team from the Netherlands.

How much money is standing down there on four legs?  The cost of the horseflesh in this picture must be staggering.

The Saudis won Bronze and were first to receive their medals.

After the presenting of Silver to the Dutch the British received their gold.

The rider remounted and prepared for the victory gallop.

The British team's victory gallop.

The Netherlands team.