Olympics
OMG! I have *pages* of notes from the Opening Ceremonies. I'll type them up tomorrow. But for now... OMG!
And now, thanks to the wonder that is the Internet, I am watching Dressage online. Joy! I am slightly concerned I may be up all night.
Dressage Part of 3 Day Event
There's a horse named Gandalf competing! And one named Ben Alongtime. LOL
It looks very cloudy in Honk Kong. Also, there are not that many people there. Maybe because it's just a preliminary round.
First team is from New Zealand. Good luck to them! Oh, that's Gandalf and his human, Mark Todd. Yay!
Aha! The commentary to the side explains why the equestrian events are in Hong Kong -- apparently the horse members of the teams would have to have been quarantined too long if they'd held it in mainland China.
I wish I knew more about this sport. Their score was 543.
One good thing is that the online program pops up little notes every now and then and tells you what they are doing.
Okay, I thought Canadians Kyle Carter and Madison Park were having problems - they score 471. Apparently there were bit problems.
The riders and horses look wiped when they come out of the ring. That humidity must be killing them, especially in the outfits they wear for this sport.
I don't understand why the German guy's pocket says "Kentucky" on it.
The Italian team did really well - they are in second place, and I think Rock Model is the best looking horse so far. Not that that has anything to do with anything. But I like pretty horses.]
Now we have an American team - Amy Tryon and Poggio II. I thought they did pretty well, but Ms. Tryon looks disappointed. And she shouldn't be too disappointed - they took the lead with a score of 559!
Now we have Ben Along Time (*g*) and his Australian human, Clayton Fredericks. Wow! Thank you, cameraperson! Great closeups! I think they were great, and they got a huge cheer from the crowd. I was right -- the score was 610.
LOL What I thought was the commentary apparently wasn't. The commentary person just apologized for technical delays and started "commenting." It's like watching someone chat in IM. No punctuation, hardly any capital letters. But I now know that Ireland's Austin O'Connor is 33 years old. Okay, now the commenter is actually explaining what's going on. And also, that these horses are eventers, so this must be Part 1 of the 3 day event, and not the part of the competition that is just dressage. The 3 day event has always sounded really hard to me.
I think there is going to be 3 hours and 42 minutes total of this. Doubt I'll make it to the end. I know I won't keep up the liveblogging of it that long.
The commenter keeps mentioning how fit these horses are and how they are trained for cross-country mainly, which I think explains why it seems to me that the horses in many cases are sort of getting away from the riders. They have too much umph. I think it's incredible that they can manage all 3 events over 3 days.
Oh no. We are taking a break, and it seems Horse Medication Control was called to look at the last horse that performed. The break is so the judges can rest and so they can sand the arena.
The ring is very pretty. I may try to find a pic to post or link to. It has a sort of garden with a red bridge over a pool over water very close to it. And the judges are in gazebos that are placed around the ring.
After the break we'll have Daisy Dick -- yes, you read that right -- from the UK.
Speaking of dicks, ;) I was looking for international foods at the grocery store tonight, to fit in with the Olympics, and I almost bought some canned Spotted Dick. Just to try it. It was Heinz brand. I may go for it next weekend. They also had a canned treacle sponge cake thing, also by Heinz.
The camera pulled away during the break to give us a really nice shot of the Equestrian venue at Shatin stadium in Hong Kong, as well as a bit of Hong Kong itself (big buildings, mountains, water).
I went away for a minute during the break and missed that they have flag dancers performing. They seem to be stationed around the outside perimeter near the stands kind of semi-permanently.
Oh no, how embarrassing. I thought Daisy Dick was the horses name. It's not. The horse is Spring Along. She's actually very cute and her outfit is the nicest I've seen so far. Ms. Dick's outfit, I mean. Not the horse's.
Oh wow! It seems there is a feature that allows me to post the video I'm watching to my LJ or Facebook (or one of several others).
Next horse is Super Rocky! That makes me think of a giant Sly Stallone. Scary!
I have been eating dark (not very sweet) chocolate during this and drinking some wine. I think that may not have been a very good idea. My stomach will make me pay during the night.
Wonder what "jigging in the walk" is.
As much as I am enjoying this, I think I have to call it a night. So good night and happy dreams of gold medals!
Okay - one more thing. I love that on departure from the ring, the riders tip their hats to the two young ladies who are charged with opening and closing the gate.
And now, thanks to the wonder that is the Internet, I am watching Dressage online. Joy! I am slightly concerned I may be up all night.
Dressage Part of 3 Day Event
There's a horse named Gandalf competing! And one named Ben Alongtime. LOL
It looks very cloudy in Honk Kong. Also, there are not that many people there. Maybe because it's just a preliminary round.
First team is from New Zealand. Good luck to them! Oh, that's Gandalf and his human, Mark Todd. Yay!
Aha! The commentary to the side explains why the equestrian events are in Hong Kong -- apparently the horse members of the teams would have to have been quarantined too long if they'd held it in mainland China.
I wish I knew more about this sport. Their score was 543.
One good thing is that the online program pops up little notes every now and then and tells you what they are doing.
Okay, I thought Canadians Kyle Carter and Madison Park were having problems - they score 471. Apparently there were bit problems.
The riders and horses look wiped when they come out of the ring. That humidity must be killing them, especially in the outfits they wear for this sport.
I don't understand why the German guy's pocket says "Kentucky" on it.
The Italian team did really well - they are in second place, and I think Rock Model is the best looking horse so far. Not that that has anything to do with anything. But I like pretty horses.]
Now we have an American team - Amy Tryon and Poggio II. I thought they did pretty well, but Ms. Tryon looks disappointed. And she shouldn't be too disappointed - they took the lead with a score of 559!
Now we have Ben Along Time (*g*) and his Australian human, Clayton Fredericks. Wow! Thank you, cameraperson! Great closeups! I think they were great, and they got a huge cheer from the crowd. I was right -- the score was 610.
LOL What I thought was the commentary apparently wasn't. The commentary person just apologized for technical delays and started "commenting." It's like watching someone chat in IM. No punctuation, hardly any capital letters. But I now know that Ireland's Austin O'Connor is 33 years old. Okay, now the commenter is actually explaining what's going on. And also, that these horses are eventers, so this must be Part 1 of the 3 day event, and not the part of the competition that is just dressage. The 3 day event has always sounded really hard to me.
I think there is going to be 3 hours and 42 minutes total of this. Doubt I'll make it to the end. I know I won't keep up the liveblogging of it that long.
The commenter keeps mentioning how fit these horses are and how they are trained for cross-country mainly, which I think explains why it seems to me that the horses in many cases are sort of getting away from the riders. They have too much umph. I think it's incredible that they can manage all 3 events over 3 days.
Oh no. We are taking a break, and it seems Horse Medication Control was called to look at the last horse that performed. The break is so the judges can rest and so they can sand the arena.
The ring is very pretty. I may try to find a pic to post or link to. It has a sort of garden with a red bridge over a pool over water very close to it. And the judges are in gazebos that are placed around the ring.
After the break we'll have Daisy Dick -- yes, you read that right -- from the UK.
Speaking of dicks, ;) I was looking for international foods at the grocery store tonight, to fit in with the Olympics, and I almost bought some canned Spotted Dick. Just to try it. It was Heinz brand. I may go for it next weekend. They also had a canned treacle sponge cake thing, also by Heinz.
The camera pulled away during the break to give us a really nice shot of the Equestrian venue at Shatin stadium in Hong Kong, as well as a bit of Hong Kong itself (big buildings, mountains, water).
I went away for a minute during the break and missed that they have flag dancers performing. They seem to be stationed around the outside perimeter near the stands kind of semi-permanently.
Oh no, how embarrassing. I thought Daisy Dick was the horses name. It's not. The horse is Spring Along. She's actually very cute and her outfit is the nicest I've seen so far. Ms. Dick's outfit, I mean. Not the horse's.
Oh wow! It seems there is a feature that allows me to post the video I'm watching to my LJ or Facebook (or one of several others).
Next horse is Super Rocky! That makes me think of a giant Sly Stallone. Scary!
I have been eating dark (not very sweet) chocolate during this and drinking some wine. I think that may not have been a very good idea. My stomach will make me pay during the night.
Wonder what "jigging in the walk" is.
As much as I am enjoying this, I think I have to call it a night. So good night and happy dreams of gold medals!
Okay - one more thing. I love that on departure from the ring, the riders tip their hats to the two young ladies who are charged with opening and closing the gate.