Olympics Dressage photos

[Miss Z]

Onto the canter!













Canter pirouettes have to be one of my favourite elements. They are fiendishly hard to perfect, requiring a lot of precision from both horse and rider. The ideal is that the horse picks up and replaces his inside hind leg on the same spot as he spins around.




More to follow

[Miss Z]

This guy is well worth an inclusion: this is Hiroshi Hoketsu of Japan and his horse Whisper. Hiroshi is 71 years young and still competing at the top level!





And this is veteran Olympian and the face of dressage, Anky van Grunsven of the Netherlands, here riding Salinero. I think she finished 6th overall, but she's been at the top of the sport for a very long time and I grew up watching her training videos.







If you're unfamiliar with dressage and are string to imagine the stills in action: here's a couple of videos I took of Anky's test:






More to follow...

[Miss Z]

And the ones we cheered on: here's GB's Carl Hester and his mare Uthopia doing us proud:









Looking pretty pleased with himself - and deservedly so: he finished top that day on a score of 77.6%!





And here's Laura Bechtolscheimer and Mistral Hojris. The pair went on to win an individual bronze medal.









Couple more left!

[Miss Z]

These are a couple of miscellaneous ones really

The Olympic torch visits Islington:





A few friends and I pushed the boat out and had a home-made afternoon tea in honour of the Olympics!



Fancy some scones?



Or perhaps some brownie and clotted cream truffles - golden of course!



And here's the men's 10k swimming event in the Serpentine at Hyde Park. It was such a glorious day out! Now the games are over and the athletes are heading home, seems they're taking the sun with them...







That's all! Such a shame they're over now. From Britain to the rest of the world, hope you enjoyed the show!

[Karen]

We did, I promise! Hats on horses and all!

[Alysser]

Great pictures, Zara! I am so glad you and your country enjoyed these olympics. You didn't disappoint. I really enjoyed the swimming, crew, and kayaking events. Dressage was great too, thought I didn't catch much of it. I'm glad you posted these photos. Thanks for sharing.

[Freckles]

Enjoyed all the pictures. In the dressage, do the judges sit in the little booths?