The British Open Showjumping Championships (Pic and Vid Heavy!)

Hi everyone!

I really hate only being able to come on here in stops and starts. This year has just been so incredibly busy with preparing for my upcoming GCSE exams (first one is on the 13th May, yikes!) that I seem to be devoting a lot of my free time to study and tying off loose coursework ends. I'm missing chatting to everyone so much!

I did however get a break last Friday to watch the British Open Showjumping Championships in the NEC in Birmingham and had a fantastic time, and I just had to share some of the pics I took. I took absolutely loads, I just love my new camera, the quality of the pics and videos is fantastic and it's a shame that photobucket loses some of the quality. Also, at the moment it's not letting me upload a few of my vids, so I'll see if I can post them a bit later on. Apologies that some of the pics are a bit dark or blurred, I'm not the greatest of camerawomen lol.

Anyway, to begin with, here are a few pics from the first showjumping class, the Grandstand Classic.

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...VanAstenVD.jpg

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...rPristanna.jpg

Just look how flat this horse can get in mid-air! http://petoftheday.com/i/our_smilies/eek.gif

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...rSonybanta.jpg

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...VleutenVDL.jpg

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...pen2008028.jpg

The winner of this class was Robert Whitaker and his beautiful mount, Rusedski II.

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...erwinstheG.jpg

And here are the runners up!

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...ersupinthe.jpg

Still loooooooooads to come http://petoftheday.com/i/our_smilies/wink.gif

Next was the scurry driving (there was plenty besides showjumping at this event!). I just loved these charismatic little ponies.

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...werBillBen.jpg

And a vid http://petoftheday.com/i/our_smilies/smile.gif

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...rampinthe2.jpg

Yup, there was also a little Wild West in the West Midlands with some Barrell Racing! I'd never seen a live display before as Western riding is relatively uncommon over here.

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...acingGWhit.jpg

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...lroydGiska.jpg

And another vid http://petoftheday.com/i/our_smilies/smile.gif

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...pen2008048.jpg

This is the puissance wall. The Puissance competition was being held on the Sunday rather than the Friday so I didn't get to witness it, but just seeing the huge wall itself was pretty spectacular.

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...pen2008003.jpg

The next showjumping class was the Development programme, where riders as young as 17 show off their skills, hoping to be possible 2012 stars.

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...mentSBrash.jpg

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...FeelingFin.jpg

Still lots and lots to come!

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...osterOsiri.jpg

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...dLeMarquin.jpg

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...erLoxley57.jpg

This is a video of Ellen Whitaker's (the Whitakers sure are some family!) jump-off round, I think the video I took of her actual round is too big for photobucket, hee hee.

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...pen2008074.jpg

This was the winner, Louise Pavitt and her magnificent horse Unbelievable Darco.

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...PavittUnbe.jpg

Another showjumping round, this time the 'Accumulator'. The riders had to jump a course as normal, only for every fence they jumped they scored a number of points for that fence number (i.e. successfully jumping fence 5 gets 5 points, fence 11 gets 11 points etc), ending in a joker fence which they could decide to jump or not; successfully jumping it gave 20 bonus points, knocking it down lost 20 points.

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...erCortafle.jpg

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...erInsulTec.jpg

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...dWilliamsS.jpg

Yup, plenty more.... http://petoftheday.com/i/our_smilies/wink.gif

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...sserVonkaA.jpg

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...VleutenVDL.jpg

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...kerQuinton.jpg

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...erFinbarrV.jpg

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...nnLateNigh.jpg

The winner of this class was Nick Skelton and the beautiful stallion 'Russell'

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...tonRussell.jpg

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...fAccumulat.jpg

Oh yes, lots more :P

Now onto the indoor cross country event, which was really quite something! Unfortunately my video of Jeanette Breakwell and the amazing horse 'Over to You' is well over 100MB and photobucket doesn't like it. Over to You is twenty years old and still pops the fences with the springiness of a youngster! Here are some of the other competitors :

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...pen2008107.jpg

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...pen2008108.jpg

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...pen2008109.jpg

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...pen2008111.jpg

The winner was Georgie Spence and Song For Gull

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...pen2008118.jpg

There was even a little indoor polo at this event!

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...pen2008122.jpg

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...pen2008124.jpg

Getting bored yet? ;) More...

There was a lovely dressage to music display, but it's unfortunate that it was performed in the dark with strobe lights that sent my camera crazy! Here are the best shots I could get. I have a video of the pair as well which I'm trying to upload, and hopefully can post tomorrow.

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...pen2008134.jpg

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...pen2008135.jpg

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...pen2008136.jpg

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...pen2008151.jpg

Here are a Trick Riding team who performed an awesome display. .

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...pen2008166.jpg

Here's a video of their stunts

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...pen2008168.jpg

The final show-jumping competition was the championship which spanned over the entire four days (Thurs - Sun), so this was the second round.

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...pen2008138.jpg

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...pen2008175.jpg

Still some more (getting there now, lol)

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...pen2008176.jpg

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...pen2008181.jpg

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...pen2008183.jpg

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...pen2008184.jpg

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...pen2008189.jpg

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...pen2008198.jpg

And finally, a video of Robert Whitaker in the jump-off with Lacroix 9 (again, the vid of his actual round was too big to upload!). At this point I was running out of camera memory, so that's why it starts and ends a bit abruptly. :p

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...pen2008208.jpg

OK, that's all of them, I hope you enjoyed. :)

Bump? Have I been gone so long that I've been forgotten?? :confused: ;)

These are ACE!! It looks like an amazing experience there. :) Thanks for all these pics and vids.
The thought of men barrel racing in England made me laugh. :P

My daughter and I loved all the photos and videos you posted! :D
I love to watch show jumping and the trick riders looked really cool too.
Thank you for posting so many wonderful horse photos and videos. :)
It's been such a long, snowy winter here that my daughter and I are both itching to get back to horseback riding sometime in the next few weeks.

That was fantastic! I remember you went and posted about this last year, as well. I am SO pleased you went and thought of us again. I LOVE seeing all of this.

The scurry race is so weird, I've not seen anything like that. The person in the back, just keeps leaning like on a motorcycle taking turns, lol.

The horses are lovely. Watching the vid of trick riding, I couldn't help but wonder what the horses think of all the crazy lights? "Just another weird human idea!" most likely lol.

They really do up some of the jumps very artistically and creatively!

Best wishes on your exams!