Racing: the domain of rich people in silly hats Way back in her first term as FEI Prez, I remember hearing HRH Princess Haya mention that the disciplines of racing and polo were on her radar as potential future FEI family members. Because WEG isn’t big enough already, right? And because equestrian sport isn’t already an exclusive activity reserved for the world’s one percenters. Well,
Posts in London Olympics
You know, on balance equestrian sport is pretty clean (I’m talking Olympic disciplines – no hunters!), especially compared to the likes of cycling. According to a 2012 study by WADA, cycling was the worst of the 26 Olympic sports, with 3.71% of tests coming back positive for some nasty substance or other. At the other end of the spectrum, Badminton was the squeaky cleanest at
I was about to blog today about the many issues I foresee arising as a result of the FEI’s new six month ban for riding in unsanctioned competitions (see my previous post if you missed it). But before I started typing I realized that if I let loose with my hail of criticism without first asking the FEI for some clarification, I am likely to
Poor Charlotte. She must be good and sick of answering questions about her decision to wear a helmet. We’re over it! Let’s just face it. Helmets are in dressage’s future, and we know why. I’ve been on the ‘hell no we won’t be babied’ side of this argument since it all started in early 2010, and even I have now accepted the future, which is helmets
Just a brief intro to the latest video supplement from SS: This is his reading of my Circus Continues post from a couple of days ago. I’ll be back in an hour or so with more on the show jumping. Can’t talk now, don’t want to miss a minute of the individual jumping final. In case you have not been checking Straight-Up in the past
Here is SS with my post about how my days in London go – at least that’s how they went before the proverbial shit hit the proverbial fan tonight when Eric Lamaze showed us all what he’s made of by saying he will not wear the Canadian ‘pink’ coat as long as Equine Canada chooses pandering to the FEI ubermenschen over standing by its own
Today’s post should be read while listening to the following soundtrack: It’s official. These Olympic equestrian events truly are a three ring discipline circus. A trilogy of tribulations…a hat trick of high drama. The media is losing its collective mind because there is so much chum in the churning waters. I was just saying two days ago how quiet the media room was, now that the
I’m sure you have all been crying in your chardonnay about the absence of a video accompaniment to my blog of several days ago, the one titled Royal Goodbye. I’ll spare you the details of the technical difficulties and get right to the good stuff. Even if you already took the trouble to read that post (and gosh, I sure hope you did since it’s
I thought I’d take a little break from my feeble attempts at blow by blow coverage (don’t forget I’m also blogging daily or semi-daily on Straight-Up) and give you a step-by-step description of how my days usually go here at the Games. To really give you a taste of the cultural experience, I’ll insert the odd Britishism into the post, with a translation in parentheses.
Are you too knackered to read today’s post? Well now you don’t have to! Watch my private security guard SS as he reads this post with the most delightful British accent, to give you the real feel of what it’s like here in London. If you prefer to take in this blog in silence, by all means scroll down and read on! Did you watch