I am here on my fourth day of the Paris Olympics and the eventing has just concluded - more on that later. It has been so eventful, emotional and magnificent to the extreme and to witness the British team win the first gold medal of the Games and Laura Collett win bronze, is something I will never forget. As well as reporting for BE, I have been contributing stories about our talented trio for national newspapers and educating a number of editors on the FEI rules of Olympic eventing - which by the way is actually not that straightforward even for an event rider!
I arrived the night before the first trot-up to what Tom McEwen described as “Irish weather”. Luckily the rain largely stayed away on trot-up day and I managed to walk the course in the sunshine. I have seen hundreds of cross-country courses all over the world and this was arguably the most beautiful course I have ever seen. The magnificent backdrop of the Palace of Versailles would bring out emotion in anyone. We are very lucky in our sport to have the grounds of some of the most fantastic stately homes as venues, particularly in the UK but Versailles was on another level. History, majesty and tradition are part of the fabric of eventing and Versailles embraced this with it’s magnificent Palace and Grand Canal as a backdrop.
The cross-country fences themselves were creative and beautiful and I didn’t hear a single rider say anything other than what a a fabulous course it was. I walked with Lucy Henman and Zoe Pike with whom I work on the BBC’s coverage of Badminton and were out here working on the OBC coverage of the sport and we all agreed that we definitely had the best jobs in the world right now.
The Dressage day brought every chief sports writer from all the British newspapers who were looking to get angles on the horse welfare issue - in light of the recent Dujardin welfare case which has made headlines around the world. Luckily Laura deflected the disaster story back on to the greatness of British equestrianism, not only with her Olympic record winning score in the dressage but her perfect responses to some difficult questions, highlighting the amazing connection eventers have with their horses.
The atmosphere was out of this world with a hugely enthusiastic crowd cheering riders on all the way. I spoke to both British and American supporters who said they had never experienced a crowd like it in terms of enthusiasm and noise. Luckily for Laura, Ros and Tom, Dan, Walter and Dubs love a crowd so they rose to the occasion.
Laura gave the media a fabulous interview after her round which did the sport proud, explaining that she has barely slept since she has been here and will sleep for a week on return.
“It was such a buzz. London is my horse of a lifetime, he was just unbelievable. The time was tight, there’s an awful lot of twists and turns and he lost a shoe and was slipping all over the place so I had to be quite careful on those turns and reduce the speed a bit to get around those trees. I think he lost a front shoe quite early because the amount the was slipping. Not ideal but it shows what a good horse he is. I am just relieved that it’s over and I haven’t let anyone down.
“He is so talented and for me knowing what he was like as a young horse and knowing how much he has had to trust me and believe in me, he is not a natural cross-country horse and then to go around that like he was on railway tracks it just shows what a partnership you can build up and you can make them believe in you and I have full faith in him now and you can go and enjoy yourself out there.”
In most people’s minds all three jumped clear cross-country but the mood was slightly dampened by Ros and Walter being awarded a 15 for catching a flag. There was about five hours of appealing which went on with the Ground Jury and it definitely caused quite a stir on social media.
Luckily it didn’t matter as the Brits did us proud in the showjumping and the stadium was full to the brim despite 28 degree heat (although there was a lot of fans on the go). The victory was ours and frankly at the moment I am still too emotional to say anything profound on it, so more on this in a day or two when I have reflected on it all.
