England and Ireland: England. Part 6: London Day 4

London, England Day 4

Our last day in London was my favorite. We saw Equestrian Jumping that day. Fabo!

After we packed and checked out of the hotel, we made our way to Greenwich, where the Equestrian events were held.

We got to walk through the neighborhood. Colorful folks, colorful doors!

Erin got to know a couple of the local friendly constables.

AND we got to stand on both hemispheres of the Earth at one time!

I had bought "Category C" tickets for the Equestrian Jumping event and didn't hold much hope for good seats. I thought that binoculars would be in order.

I was stunned and delighted that the venue was quite intimate and our seats were very close. The final jump of the course was right in front of us!

I didn't know much about jumping before attending this event. Unlike dressage, jumping scores consider neither elegance nor ungainliness in the jumps. Scores reflect the speed through the course and the avoidance of penalties for knocking down rails.

It is intriguing that both beast and man must be in top condition and must trust each other implicitly. Unlike other sports, the human athlete depends on the whims of a sometimes-unpredictable beast.

Though elegance is not scored, it is a wonderful sport to watch!

We saw 75 riders in this preliminary qualifying round. Each rider took about 90 seconds to ride the course.

Here are some videos of what we got to experience.

A rider completing the entire course:


A rider on the last jump, right in front of our seats!
And there is always the chance of a wreck. Do jumping spectators get a perverse thrill in the hopes of one like NASCAR aficionados? I don't know, but Erin caught the wreck of the afternoon. Neighther horse nor rider was injured.



(At Annette's request, the video above is listed as Private on YouTube. Sign in to YouTube to see it. If you cannot access it, view the version below)