Greenwich Eventing Test Event
5 July 2011
Hot to Trot
There are horses everywhere, all chasing around Greenwich Park, almost as if we were back in the time when the deer who live there spent all day looking over their shoulders in case Henry VIII was pointing a bow and arrow at them.
It's not hunting these days, of course - although that's what Greenwich Park was originally intended for - it's the test Equestrian event ahead of next year's London 2012 Olympic and 
Paralympic Games. We went along to take a look at the horseys.
The sandy area, where the horses do their stuff, is roughly the same size as it will be in 2012 but the arena itself only holds 2,000 people this year. Next year it will be 20,000 so there's going to be a lot more grandstand standing.
Looks good though, doesn't it? The Queen's House is directly behind the arena with the shiny towers of Canary Wharf looming up behind, all of which should make for some spectacular TV shots next year...
We saw some of the Dressage competition which involves the horses doing cleverly dainty little dance steps around the arena while the rider sits and looks smart. Sometimes they go backwards.
That's not, by the way, the actual description of the event in the official Eventing book of Dressage rules, but it paints a pretty accurate picture. Anyway, we enjoyed ourselves and commented on how big and clever the horses were and how smart the riders were, even when they were going backwards.
It's been Cross Country today, which is more like ta ran ta ra charge, off we go over the fences round the bends, up the slopes, down the hills, into the water and over the line hurrah!
As you may be able to tell, I'm a little hazy on the rules for this discipline as well as the Dressage, but it all looks very exciting and it was followed by another spot of Dressage, this time featuring the Paralympic athletes.
There's Show Jumping tomorrow followed by Modern Pentathlon on the 9th and 10th, all of which should give the organisers plenty of information to help with putting it together again for the real thing in 2012.
Gosh. The real-life Olympic Games in Greenwich in just over a year's time. Exciting.
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