Para Dressage Saturday 1st Sept

[lesleypt]

I was lucky enough to have tickets to yesterday afternoons Equestrian action at Greenwich Park and see Lee Pearson in action.

It was quite an emotional atmosphere, watching such inspiring people overcoming a multitude of disabilities, including the South African athlete who was shot in the back during a robbery, and a number of competitors who had suffered falls from horses resulting in their life changing injuries.

Here is a few snaps we managed to get.

Such a shame he got knocked off the top spot!

Gentleman being nice and calm during the medal ceremony


And a massive well done for our (GB) Equestrian success today, and the Team Gold! Just a shame we couldn't watch any of it on TV!

 

[louisemum]

Thank you Lesley, for these pictures. You have managed to show more of the equestrian paralympics in these few photos than Channel 4 showed in two days ! !

Everybody I know and a lot on the forum I don't know are disgusted by the Channel 4 supposed "comprihensive coverage"

BBC spoiled us with their superb unbiased coverage of every sport.

I am glad you enjoyed your day at Greenwich.

 

[labruyere]

ditto above...

 

[HazyXmas]

We were lucky enough to go yesterday & watched Sophie Wells win her silver medal. It was very inspiring to watch these talented riders & their beautiful horses. A fantastic atmosphere & support for riders from all countries.

My only gripe was that there were still lots of empty seats & it was really sad that there were other people, who like us, had been repeatedly trying to buy more to take friends & family. Such a shame, i really don't think that the ticket sales system worked well at all & a lot of people who would have loved to have gone, have completely missed out :-(

 

[lesleypt]

I thought the same HazyXmas, there were quite a few empty blocks, and we struggled to get the tickets. Would have loved to have taken my mum to the event, but no joy!

My biggest criticism was a number of spectators not listening to the commentary, who were CONSTANTLY asking people NOT to clap as the horse entered the field of play or until they were re-united with their handlers at the end of the test.

People continued to ignore this and spook the horses, especially the Australians when their rider went into first place, poor Puch nearly got ditched and Gentleman also had a bit of a buck as leaving the ring.

If you are going, the rule is wave until the horse is connected to a leadrope with the handler then you can gently clap!

Simple and not to hard to understand

 

[Gorgeous George]

We were there on Saturday afternoon and really enjoyed it shame Lee just missed the gold, but it was wonderful and inspirational. We were talking to one of the games makers and the reason for all the empty seats was because only 10,000 of the 20,000 were sold on purpose, they were concerned that a crowd of 20,000 would just be too much for some of the horses and athletes.

 

[lesleypt]

That would make sense! Many of them were quite spooked by just a few people ignoring the advice to not clap!
Either way, it was a great experience and wonderful atmosphere.