London 2012 Day 8

So we had made it to the final of the Olympic Games and today is the day for the Individual competition. We were pretty chuffed that we had qualified for the final, there were some big name riders that hadn't made it through.

After Vedors morning routine, we had to prepare for the final vet check for all horses and reserve horses in the final competition. Australia was second to trot up behind Argentina. We had Julia and Edwina with James as a reserve. All horses trotted up well and passed the vet check. Final here we come. Vedor had a workout after the vet check and then a small break before getting ready for the competition.

Looking rather relaxed before the trot up (photo: Mathieu Mougeot)

I went for another wander around the venue and found the Olympic souvenir store. There wasn't much to choose from at this stage of the event, but I got some folks back home a few bits n pieces. You'll have to wait until I get home to get them, you know who you are.

Now it was time to get ready and warm up for the class. I should probably mention that the warm ups here are a lot more relaxing to work in than at other shows. We were provided with 3 big warm up areas with a few fences in each and pretty much had a fence to ourselves to warm up over. At any other show, grooms are scrambling to get a fence for their rider. Here it a little less stressful for the horse and rider who had to enter the ring at any minute. We get called out to the holding area at a minute to go and once the previous horse has jumped the last fence in the ring, we have to race over to the holding area and into the main arena.

Entering the main arena, this is actually taken from the second day of competition

Vedor warmed up well, maybe a little on the weary side, but he knew he had a job to do. Julia and Vedor looked amazing in the ring over the very big fences, Vedor is such a pro and so is his rider. The last line became a bit of a challenge. The treble combination of an oxer, vertical, oxer. The pair came in a little late and tired to the first jump and had it down, that was unlucky, then they had the next 2 fences in the treble down too. The last fence on the course also came down. My first thought was Julia is not going to be happy about that, but she took it all in her stride. The pair incurred 17 jumping penalties after a pesky time fault also. This put us out of round 2. Vedor was happy to be done and retired to his stable for lunch and carrots.

The canary army watching Julia's final round

The second round was a nail biter and I think I got to see bits of it throughout the afternoon on the tv screen in the lunch room and some in the arena itself. Unlucky for Edwina and Itot, they had 2 rails down. She was rather disappointed as she had a good chance for medal contention. It was just not their day.

Watching the pro Nick Skelton and Big Star go round was pretty cool, everyone in the stands thought he would go clear and win the class, until he had a rail which put him out of the medals. The whole crowd sighed at that as I think they were all holding their breaths until he finished his round. I know I was. Such as super pair.

There was a jump off between Dutch rider Gerco Schroder and Irishman Cian O'Connor. Swiss rider, Steve Guerdat, had already won the gold. Gerco and London jumped a super clear round and in good time. Cian just had to jump clear and beat his time to get silver. Cian had a rail which put him in third and with a bronze medal. Well done to Gerco for coming in second and silver to Holland.

After a long few days, I met up with Julia's mum and dad, Lesley and Alan, at the local pub for a few drinks and time to wind down. Brigid Willis, Ginny and Nickie also joined us and it was lovely to catch up with them all after so long, finally!

By the end of the show I ended up with 31 pins! I lost one though, the Great Britain pin, I wasn't happy about that. I replaced it with a London 2012 pin, which I bought at the shop. I gave my remaining Aussie pins to the volunteers at the gates. They were over the moon. Once all the pins had been swapped and the competition was coming to a close, some of us grooms swapped shirts (clean shirts) with grooms of other countries. I swapped one for the USA team shirt (thank you Dawn) and one for the Canadian team shirt. Just in time before I go to Canada and USA next month.

All my pins I collected, now hanging in my bedroom

Day 9 - departing

We departed Greenwich Park on Thursday morning, before the Dressage Kur I might add, and travelled in the car back to Valkenswaard, Holland. The horses and gear arrived a couple of hours after we did. Vedor and I were then ready to go back to Stal Becker in Germany for a big break.

It was definitely an amazing experience to be at the Olympic Games in London. Something I will never forget. I met so many lovely people and horses. Julia did an amazing job and I'm very proud of her and Vedor for doing as well as they did. She was one of four women in the final at her first Olympic Games, well done Jules!

The End