by Susan Stafford-Pooley
Day 2 of Olympic Grand Prix dressage featured some real superstars in that exclusive club. They were a joy to watch, even for a hard-core eventing/jumping fan like me. I love the live scoring; you can rate each movement in your head and immediately see if you are on the mark, or not even in the ballpark. We had done a “Ride a Perfect Piaffe” article in the August issue which was very helpful to me – I think I can safely say I can identify a good piaffe from a bad one now with some degree of confidence and accuracy. The Japanese horse Fabriano 58 took exception to the entire idea (Trot in place? Not today, buddy) and replaced the movement with some lusty bucking that scored ones and twos. I personally thought he should have received extra points for originality.
Great Britain’s Charlotte Dujardin lived up to expectations and had a stunning test aboard Valegro – a true master class in dressage. And what a lovely, witty, personable young lady she is. She enchanted the press core with her candid answers and brilliant smile. She talked about her Athletes’ Village experiences: “I’m loving it! The food court is insane. There’s so much food in there, I think we’re going to come away gaining weight. But I think, how’s this meant to be for athletes? The queue for McDonalds is a sell-out every day. By five o’clock they’re out of burgers.” (The food is free at Micky D’s, hence the long lines). The underfed media types interviewing her were visibly salivating. I admit I had to wipe away a little drool myself.
Fiona Bigwood and husband Anders Dahl.
There are a lot of fascinating stories here in Dressageland. Take Fiona Bigwood of Great Britain, for example. A couple of years ago she suffered a hairline skull fracture in an accident during a warm-up, and the resulting lingering double vision had her considering giving up riding altogether. Today she competes in an eye patch and is sitting in 8th place at these Olympics with her mare Orthilia following the Grand Prix, heading into tomorrow’s Grand Prix Special, while her team is in second place. Another interesting tidbit is that she is married to a fellow competitor, Anders Dahl, who is here riding Selten HW for Denmark. He is in 37th spot, but Denmark is 6th and so the team will advance to the Special tomorrow. It all must make for some interesting dinner table conversation. Fiona had remarked that post-ride critiques “go on for days.”
Something new and exciting turned up in the food stands today – frozen açaí sherbety stuff with granola sprinkles! It was a nice change and quite tasty. There is hope after all…
We were discussing what vegetarians, vegans, and gluten-free people do here. Starve, I suppose. One person I spoke to who had not eaten meat or eggs in yonks had to resort to scarfing the greasy scrambled eggs at breakfast just to avoid keeling over.
To solve the Brazilian Food Crisis, I plan to venture out on a supermarket expedition. There are none within the sprawling military base we are on, but I found one nearby just outside the perimeter in a safe-looking area. I need fresh fruit and wine, which is like a fruit, right? And maybe toilet paper, which is in short supply in the hotel.
Saturday is the only “day off” I will have while I’m here. Although I could stay and watch the jumper training session, I really need to get off the reservation for the sake of my sanity. I plan to take the media shuttles to the Main Press Centre in Barra Olympic Park, Copacabana Beach and Ipanema. Expect many photos.
The beer we have been drinking here ‒ which is delicious and refreshing and necessary and comes with a free cup and I need to collect the whole set ‒ is Skol, which has a long and convoluted world history, according to Wikipedia. It was even produced by Labbatts in the ’60s (Go Blue!). It is Brazil’s most popular brew, and I can see why. Mais uma cerveja, por favor. There, I learned some Portuguese!
And finally, last night I spent a couple of hours online watching the satellite tracking and tweets from the conclusion of the Mongol Derby, which is a grueling 1,000-km race in Mongolia. A Canadian, Heidi Telstad, was leading the fray with two other riders, who ultimately all crossed the finish line together. You can read about it here. I thought to myself, how cool is this, to be in Brazil, watching a horse race in Mongolia? It is a crazy old world.
