The word ‘marathon’, used in relation to a WEG, usually refers to the marathon of the Four in hand Driving, or the incredible (and inhumane IMO) distance of the Endurance race. But today the marathon is at the show jumping, and the athletes are the spectators. There are 33 teams in the competition, for cripe’s […]

I’ve already gone on enough about the appalling lack of traffic planning at the Haras du Pin on Saturday, so now I will turn my attention to the actual sport, which was not Eventing’s finest hour. Because of the footing (which one FEI media representative assured me was ‘perfect’ when I had the audacity to […]

If you are feeling sad to have missed coming to France for the WEG Eventing, don’t. You probably would have missed the cross country anyway and resorted to watching it on TV like my friends who sat in stationary traffic for an hour five kilometres from the venue before giving up and turning around at […]

I’m going to do this in chronological order, so that if you watched (or are watching archived FEI TV footage) my comments follow the same order. I did miss Parzival. I had to get a friend to a train and the timing was so tight that even missing the last horse we barely made it. […]

Holy Moses that was a day not to miss. It’s too late in the evening now and I’m almost cross eyed from so many early mornings, but I’ll be back with my usual blow by blow of freestyles by the time most of you are pouring your first cuppa’ tomorrow morning. I’ll leave you with […]

I’ve had a feeling for months that this was going to be the year that Off To Paris would come into her own and carry Lauren Barwick back onto the podium. I’m delighted to report that I was right. Lauren followed yesterday’s bronze medal performance with a brilliant ride in the freestyle today. 76.25% and […]

Someone PLEASE turn down the music in here. The background music they normally play during dressage to cancel out random noise that bothers the horse, and to lull the borderline interested into a light snooze, is being played at near rock concert volume. I imagine the point is to render dressage more palatable by making […]

What a way to spend your birthday, posting a personal best, and at the World Championships no less. I think Belinda was the first rider of the morning to improve on her GP score. Everyone before her had failed to do so; in fact, I think all but one had actually done less well today. […]

I was rattling off a list of judging sins that I’ve witnessed today to my colleague and pal Pamela Young, and she cleverly dubbed my rant the Sin Bin. So here are a few judging sins I’ve observed today, in no particular order: Parzival: The blind eyes turned toward his totally unlevel hind legs in […]

What a way to start day two of team dressage, with the amazing Isabell and her beautiful Bella Rose. It’s another world from yesterday to watch the likes of Isabell. Worth getting up at 5:30 am for, without a doubt.  It’s only a month and a bit since Aachen, but it’s plain to see that […]