Olympia 2008

-














Comments

Anonymous said…
Do you remember when Olympia used to be on the TV? And you'd spend the evening watching the show-jumping? Can't find it in the schedules now...
22 December 2008 at 16:57
Jane Badger said…
Gosh yes! People were saying it was on tv, and not just Eurosport, but I don't know where, when or what. It used to be on straight after the news at 9.25, but I wasn't allowed to stay up that late and watch it until I was 15.
22 December 2008 at 18:23
Juxtabook said…
I remember watching it on the TV too. If they can resurect One Man and His Dog why not this? 9Not having a go at OMAHD - I quite like it!)
22 December 2008 at 20:26
Liz said…
I used to love watching it on TV in the 1970s - I remember Nick Skelton setting a puissance record with Everest Lastic there. And, of course, there was Dorian Williams's commentary - "It's gorn, it's gorn"! All the shows used to be on TV then - the Horse of the Year Show, the Royal International, Hickstead ... I used to really look forward to them.

In the 1980s I had the privilege of covering the show as a journalist and it was great fun - the World Cup round had come in by then and there were lots of world-class horses there, and the hospitality was just amazing - used to stagger back to the hotel after phoning over my story. I used to cover some of the other big shows too, but Olympia was the best. It had a very festive feeling.

Good to know it's still going at any rate.
22 December 2008 at 21:52
Anonymous said…
Ah, and the Shetlands?? I went in 2006 and ended up marooned in the press gallery which was rather like a staff room at a prep school. The BBC were deigning to cover some of the jumping for the first time in umpteen years. I was just dazzled by all the pink riding gear, and Ellen Whitaker's horse.
23 December 2008 at 10:05
Jane Badger said…
Susannah - yes, the Shetlands were there (daughter's favourite bit) but I didn't photograph as I didn't want to miss anything. There was also a presentation to the Riding Club Quadrille winners which I missed as I was buying (hideously expensive) sandwiches: amazing costumes I'm told (Quadrille not sandwiches).

Juxtabook: do entirely agree (and I like OMAHD too). And that reminds me, there was also dog agility relay, which was excellent fun.

Liz - I don't think Dorian Williams and Raymond Brooks-Ward have been topped, though Mike Tucker (I think it was he) irritated me less live than he does on tv.

Susannah and Liz - cor. I hope it was as fantastic covering the event as it sounds. Is the press box like the normal box? They get tv feed in there, and apart from the girls watching everything, hanging over the edge, everyone else in the boxes watched not one jot; just talked and drank.
23 December 2008 at 10:57
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rollkur and the blue tongue

-
I've been meaning to write about this all week, but reading the exclusive in Horse and Hound about the controversy tipped me over the edge. For my non-horsy readers, rollkur is a training/warming up technique used by some dressage riders. It basically involves riding the horse with its jaw pulled in virtually to its chest, in order to increase suppleness. Patrik Kittel , a Swedish competitor in Odense was videoed riding his horse in this way. If you watch the video , you'll see the horse's tongue hanging out - blue. It takes a while before the rider notices this. When he does, he stops, puts the horse's tongue back in, and carries on. There are two things which bother me about this. Firstly, I am fully aware large sections of the dressage world, and some of its brighest stars, consider rollkur perfectly ok, but the FEI guidelines state this practice should only be for short periods, allowing the horse to rest. Patrick Kittel apparently rode the horse for two hou...
Read more

Michael Morpurgo: War Horse

-
Image
It's been a shamefully long time since I did a review. My fellow reviewer will not be contributing to this. I made the fatal mistake of buying her the first two Georgia Nicholson books, and so all hope was lost as far as horsey book reviewing went. Added to that, she is now off in Germany on her school trip, wildly excited as this is the first time she has been Abroad. She was so full of whoomph she managed to get up effortlessly at 3.00 am on Wednesday so we could get to Kettering in time for the 4.15 am start. Although I am definitely a lark, and usually wake at 5.00 am at this time of year, 3.00 am was pushing it a little, particularly as I didn't sleep well, being too petrified of oversleeping and missing the off..... despite having own mobile, son's and husband's all set for a 3.00 am alarm call. When son did this trip (though it was France in his case) one of his friends did miss the coach, and so his mother chased it down the M1 before finally catching up at...
Read more

Review: Susan Richards - Chosen by a Horse

-
Image
Susan Richards - Chosen by a Horse Constable: £7.99 This is yet another book that's been in the review pile for months: so long, in fact, I can't remember when I got it. It's about a rescue horse: a Standardbred mare called Lay Me Down, and the woman who rescued her, Susan Richards. Lay Me Down was rescued when she and her companions were seized by their owner, who had neglected them so badly they were nearly at the point of starvation. At first, it wasn't even clear if Lay Me Down would survive, but she and her foal both did. The foal was reclaimed by the abusive owner, who had to sign all the foals over to his vet in lieu of fees, but Lay Me Down stayed. She really was a quite exceptional mare, and Susan Richards shows you just what a complete sweetie this horse was. Despite the horrors she had known, she bore no one any malice, and was always accepting and kind: no mareish nasties at all, unlike one of Susan Richard's other horses, the Morgan Georgi...
Read more