London 2012 Day 2

Day 2 started just like any other day at a show, feed my horse, muck out the box and take him for a walk and pick of grass. Once that was done we, the grooms, got stuck into pin swapping. Every country was given a bag of Olympic pins unique to their country. To collect pins from other countries you need to ask them to swap a pin with you. You give them an Aussie pin in exchange for their country's pin. This became very addictive for everyone in the stable block, grooms, vets, volunteers and eventually the riders got on board after realising just how cool the pins are. By lunch time on day 2 I had 16 pins including the most prized pin of the Equestrian, one of four of the USA team pins. We pin them to the lanyard on our accreditation and they become our trophy and you can see how many pins every one has. My fellow Aussie groom had already visited most of the countries so made it hard for me to swap pins as they already had my Aussie pin...thanks Mat! I thought this was a great way to get us mingling with other countries and keeps it all rather relaxed and fun.

Taking Vedor for a morning walk to check out the grounds.
How cool are the rugs?

Julia came to ride at 10.30am and worked her horse for quite some time, I continued pin swapping...as I walked the stables I found my favourite dressage horse. Spanish horse Fuego. A gorgeous Andalusian stallion and he is big! Bigger than he looks on TV. I need my photo with him soon. I also had Salinero, Dutch dressage horse, walk passed me on his way to his test. I don't know the exact figures but I think he has been to 2 Olympic Games and 2 World Championships. He is a bit of a star in the equestrian world.

The dressage started at 10.30am and our first rider in was Kristy Oatley. I didn't see her test, but I heard she did a super test and scored 68%. She returned to the stables very happy with her ride. The Aussie dressage grooms were live streaming the dressage online, so I had a bit of a sticky beak when I had a chance. I caught Anky's test with Salinero, the horse was showing his age in the extended trot, but was listening much better to his rider, not getting too hot and did some lovely work. We had our viewing of Anky's test commentated by Lyndal Oatley who was chilling out, preparing for her test.

Our Aussie jumpers had a private trot up with our vet, just to see how the horses were looking. My rider is not the most organised, she only just got back in time for the un-official trot up at 12pm and we stripped the tack off the horse, took him outside and trotted him up. I don't know when Julia last trotted up her horse as a show, not since I have been here. The riders have to trot up their horse at the Olympics. At other shows, all the grooms trot up the horses.

The Aussie team have a house where some of our officials are staying. It's just outside the perimeter of the venue, about 150m metres down the road. We can go here to collect our team uniforms, pins, talk to officials, or just to hang out for a little bit. I rocked up there at around 1.50pm, to collect more pins, and I was just in time to watch Lyndal Oatley do her test on the tv. I was welcomed by my former employer and dressage rider, Brett Parbery. He was commenting during Lyndal's test and she did a lovely test with a few tense moments, but overall a nice test for her first Olympics and scored 69% on the first day. He will be a super horse with more experience, this was only his 7th Grand Prix test. It was great to catch up with Brett before he flew home to Sydney that evening.

To get back into the venue, we have to put our bits and pieces into the xray machines, our accreditation is scanned and we have to walk through metal detectors. Just like at the airport. The British Army man the gates, they are pretty laid back, no stress at all but thorough. This venue really is amazing and blows my mind just seeing how much work and effort that has gone into the facilities, the security, the planning and overall rather relaxed atmosphere. All for equestrian. I am yet to find the merchandise shop though.

Vedor was ridden again at 2.30 and we had the official vet check/trot up at 5pm. Australia was second out after Argentina and Julia was first to trot up for our team. The trot up didn't start until 5.15pm, so all the riders were held in the warm up arena walking their horses until they were allowed to enter the main arena, country by country. Then we were on our way to the main arena behind Argentina, all very official. The trot up was down the far end right alongside of the Maritime Museum. Vedor trotted out great and the rest of our team passed the vet check. We were all very relieved. The vet check was like an event of its own. We had a team photo after the trot up, 3 of our riders weren't present tho, mine was one of them.

Julia and Vedor preparing for the trot up (photo Mathieu Mougeot)

Group shot, but where is my rider?

On the way back to the stable we bumped into the German team and our friend Otto Becker. Edwina and I admired their trot up outfit and I was wondering where I could get one of their jackets. The men were wearing nice bright blue jackets and matching shoes, the ladies were wearing bright pink jackets and matching shoes. They were super nice, the Germans are always so well dressed. The Dutch were covered in orange, their national colour. Edward Gal was walking around in his orange jacket, orange shoes, orange iPhone cover and even had an orange cup. Can't miss them.

If you see orange, that's the Dutch

By the afternoon I had collected 20 pins from all different countries. I am still missing some though. The most impressive aisle to walk down is the Canada/USA aisle. Of course the Americans make everything so over the top with their flags hanging off every stable and banners across the aisle. They have a massive flag at the end of the aisle, about 10 metres high. Only in America right!

Okay maybe it's not 10m high, but it's a pretty big flag

Later after the horses were put to bed and I'm back in the hotel, an American groom told me that they love our uniforms and they have been admiring them all day. Australia really stepped up with the clothing at these games. We're all decked out in our green and gold and you wouldn't lose us in a snow storm. You can spot an Aussie through a large crowd of people and horses.

After dinner there was a jumping grooms meeting at the bar of our hotel. The FEI just wanted to tell us a few rules and inform us of the media and how this is going to be the most memorable games and lets not do anything to tarnish that. We were informed about, doping, media and logos, any logos we have on our gear cannot be visible to any media as 1.6 billion people are estimated to watch the Jumping alone. We have to cover up any logos on the horse's tack and grooms gear using black tape. More horses than ever before will be drug tested and the horse's legs will have thermographic testing done at some stage, this tests for any heat in their legs. The officials also congratulated us on our achievement for making the Olympic team and our athletes, both the two legged and four legged ones, could not have gotten to this level without our help after a long arduous journey. This is the top of the top of Equestrian sport. The organisers look after us very well, which really helps for our preparation each day. Once the meeting was over, free drinks were on.

Day 2 done, early morning for day 3.