The tide has turned! My bag has turned up! The Frenchman has not been seen and the threatened bed re-arrangement has not happened! The canteen had “grab and go breakfasts” available instead of scrambled eggs! The press centre is awesome! The wifi works!
Yes, its all go here. Jenni Autry (from Eventing Nation) and I were first in the media centre, soon joined by photographer Shannon Brinkmann. We are about to head to the first trot up, and see every competitor go past the ground jury.
The media course walk yesterday with course builder Pierre Michelet was really good, although we only went to the highlight fences, as the rabble of media were worse than herding cats. We started with a stable tour, under strict instructions we were not allowed to touch any horse or any person or anything except our cameras. We could take photos of anything we liked, but we were not allowed to use this as interview opportunities.
I did get a laugh seeing Clarke taking a video of the media, with a very gleeful smile on his face; turning the tables! There wasn’t a lot to report on the stables, everyone looked very comfortable, there were a lot of flags, and the Americans had a great motivational poster and one of those wind whirly things.
Then it was out to the cross country. The media group seemed to head in all directions, and take forever to get anywhere. Poor Pierre, on turning up, had cameras clicking and it took about five minutes with more and more cameras being honed on him. Click click click. And then more click, click, click. Of course I had to join in and take one or two.
I enjoyed his talk about some of the fences and what he was trying to achieve. He has designed a beautiful course, it is challenging, there is no question of that. There are plenty of options for those not up to the straight through routes, and a couple of them I really did question whether it was achievable, especially those angled brushes!
There were some really funny questions asked. “How many times do they have to go around this course” was one. “Can they jump this jump in this direction” (pointing the wrong way over the fence), and plenty of others at Eventing 101 level.
In the end, I abandoned the tour which had basically deteriorated into complete chaos with journalists and photographers all over the place, taking selfies by the Olympic rings, and mainly losing interest in walking further up the slopes. The course is beautiful, and did I say I was really impressed?
The opening ceremony is tonight. From what I can find out, it may be that only Julie Brougham will be going from the equestrians, as with the competition for the eventers starting the next day, it is doubtful whether they will attend. Perhaps those who are drawn to ride on the second day may. It ends up being a very late night for those involved. Julie was really excited about the opportunity when I spoke to her earlier. So keep your eyes peeled for her in the crowd.
More soon, off to watch the trot up!
