Suzanne after Hong Kong: My Olympic Debut

Last week, someone donated tickets to us for the equestrian Olympic events, which are being held in Hong Kong. Of course, I jumped at the chance to go!

The event I went to see is called Dressage. According to Wikipedia, "Its fundamental purpose is to develop, through standardized progressive training methods, a horse's natural athletic ability and willingness to perform, thereby maximizing its potential as a riding horse. At the peak of a dressage horse's gymnastic development, it can smoothly respond to a skilled rider's minimal aids by performing the requested movement while remaining relaxed and appearing effortless. Dressage is occasionally referred to as "Horse Ballet."

Riders are able to tell the horse what to do next (ie trot, walk, gallop, walk sideways, stop) all by different pressures they put on the horse with their legs, and so just by looking, you won't see the rider doing anything but sit there. Apparently, it can take about 8 years to train a horse to do this.

So this morning, my alarm went off at 4:10 am, and a group of us piled into taxis at 4:45 am to head to the University station in Sha Tin, where the events took place.

From University, we met crowds and crowds of people piling onto free shuttle buses to the venue. By now, it was about 5:30 am.

We arrived at the venue soon after, produced our tickets, and went through a security checkpoint much like that at the airport. Once inside, we were greeted by the Olympic mascots walking around and posing for pictures, masses of people milling around, and of course, lots of official Olympics merchandise.

We found our seats, and watched the sun come up over the mountains and buildings surrounding the venue.

The events started at 6:30 am and lasted until almost 10 am. They had 3 sets, and during the 15 minute breaks, they had performances by the mascots and also by people doing martial arts.

It was so fun to be a part of the Olympics and to see all the different nationalities there. I was sitting in a section with Australians, New Zealanders, and Brits, and as Australia took the lead the people got very excited. (USA was third) The group I went with comprised 5 different nationalities alone.

It was quite interesting to see such skilled performances. We were told to remain very quiet during the tests, which were about 7 minutes each, as it is easy to distract the horses since they don't usually perform for such crowds. Apparently they train the horses with music so when they do perform, the horse is used to the music and the music can mask some of the crowd noise. One of the Australians, who was doing really well, had his horse get distracted when the music changed during the performance (all classical or easy listening), which was a bit sad for him. They recovered well, but still, he lost points. And one poor girl from Belarus had her horse lose concentration, and though we were all trying to be quiet, there is no way to mask the collective gasp of thousands of people.

All in all, I loved it. I don't think I can go to another sporting event because I have now been spoiled by the Olympics.

Me and Vanessa with our tickets, circa 6 am