Your Tips for London International Horse Show

[Sealine]

I’m going to the evening performance tomorrow. Are you allowed to take your own food in with you?

 

[ester]

Yes they bag check but that's for bombs not food.
No eating in the stands technically, but if you're not walking in with a burger and chips on a tray . . .

 

[chestnutwbz]

I’m going to the evening performance tomorrow. Are you allowed to take your own food in with you?

I brought lots of food in with no issue. Like previous post said there’s technically no eating in the stands, but saw lots of people bringing snacks into the performance on Thursday evening and I was definitely guilty of it!

 

[ester]

Drinks are allowed in so I think its just a don't eat a stinky messy meal next to someone else situ.

 

[ecb89]

It's warm! I wore my big coat and hat on Thursday and sacked if off for a thin packable one yesterday.

Extra tip, some of the loos are down some stairs (they have an arrow under the sign) during normal levels it's not worth using them but if it's during a break it's prob worth the trip down the stairs.

The churros are a lot better than the waffles.

I always take a rucksack of food and drink (especially the latter), especially now not training it to actual olympia and lugging stuff around. Driving in you're not actually that far from your car (I'm still not quite sure how!) so trips back are feasible if needed.

They have errd towards combining final prize presentation and the finale in one, because there is nothing better than terrifying the showjumpers with a bunch of elves. (Elf having clearly never been near a horse attempting to hand back a dropped rosette was amusing). They didn't do with the dressage horses though ?

Thank you!

 

[Bobthecob15]

You absolutely won't need a coat, it's so warm in there!

Go early...shop while a performance is on because if you go between performances the shops are heaving! Same goes for toilets!

Most reasonable coffees are the pub hand and flowers by the warm up...also less queues!

Shops are ok...but lots of samey stuff...not amazing deals if I'm honest.

Disappointed the household cavalry weren't there...the French guys were pretty boring!

 

[ester]

All the big performance options just get rotated, there's only so many options to use for group displays and obviously cheaper to ship the UK options. The household cavalry were there last year- I actually find the french version more interesting to watch. I suspect we're due the police activity ride again next year.

 

[Bobthecob15]

All the big performance options just get rotated, there's only so many options to use for group displays and obviously cheaper to ship the UK options. The household cavalry were there last year- I actually find the french version more interesting to watch. I suspect we're due the police activity ride again next year.

Hope so, I've not seen that one!

 

[ecb89]

Had a lovely time. Made the mistake of sitting in the Albion platinum revelation saddle. Anyone got a spare £5k ?

 

[nikicb]

I think everything else has been covered, but just to point out that there are water bottle filing stations - I used the one by the entrance, but I am sure there are others. It was my first time visiting the Excel centre for LIHS, and once inside it still felt like Olympia.

 

[Bobthecob15]

I think everything else has been covered, but just to point out that there are water bottle filing stations - I used the one by the entrance, but I am sure there are others. It was my first time visiting the Excel centre for LIHS, and once inside it still felt like Olympia.

We totally missed this!!! We spent a lot on drinks as its so warm and I think we were still dehydrated ?

 

[nikicb]

We totally missed this!!! We spent a lot on drinks as its so warm and I think we were still dehydrated ?

I hunted it out as I wanted to refill my bottle to take back to the hotel. Hopefully my post will be useful for others still to go.

 

[asmp]

We found the parking really easy on Friday afternoon. We didn’t like the very slow traffic though on leaving at 5.30 pm. Got out of the centre quickly but then it took 50 minutes to go a couple of miles towards the M11. In hindsight we should have hung around longer and left later.

Liked all the options of eating and drinking. Found the actual arena a bit claustrophobic as the roof is low compared to Olympia.

Loved the hot chocolate from the chocolate fountain stall (had to have two!)

 

[Sealine]

Nightmare parking for Sunday evening performance! Arrived at 3:45pm and queued for approx 1hr 20 mins to get into the multi storey car park. The situation appeared to be that the car park was full until the afternoon performance spectators started to leave. The start time was put back from 6pm to 6.30pm which I'm told was due to people unable to access the venue due to parking issues. I don't know if I was just unlucky and other entrances were ok? We had no problems leaving at the end of the evening.

We used Groupon vouchers which worked well and we only paid £22 for £65 tickets. We took our own food and drink so I can't comment on the catering.

There was a great atmosphere and we all enjoyed the evening.

 

[shortstuff99]

Nightmare parking for Sunday evening performance! Arrived at 3:45pm and queued for approx 1hr 20 mins to get into the multi storey car park. The situation appeared to be that the car park was full until the afternoon performance spectators started to leave. The start time was put back from 6pm to 6.30pm which I'm told was due to people unable to access the venue due to parking issues. I don't know if I was just unlucky and other entrances were ok? We had no problems leaving at the end of the evening.

We used Groupon vouchers which worked well and we only paid £22 for £65 tickets. We took our own food and drink so I can't comment on the catering.

There was a great atmosphere and we all enjoyed the evening.

I was there sunday afternoon, the queue for evening parking was massive as people were waiting right at the front for spaces. Further up there was loads of room but when I told the drivers to move further up as spaces they refused and chose to wait until someone left right at the front ?‍

 

[Bobthecob15]

Absolutely you need to get there in the morning really go get a parking spot for weekend performances...regardless of what time the performance is. Crazy! Weekdays it's not too had, we got there Friday at 1.30pm and there were some spaces but not many x

 

[Sealine]

It's easy for me to get there by train so I'll probably go by train if I go again.

 

[ester]

I guess there’s not really an incentive for the afternoon session people to leave immediately if they’re parked (given the 24h).

it did seem like there were more stewards parking last year. I got there about 12pm but those were dressage days

 

[asmp]

I guess there’s not really an incentive for the afternoon session people to leave immediately if they’re parked (given the 24h).

it did seem like there were more stewards parking last year. I got there about 12pm but those were dressage days

I agree - as I said above the traffic was awful leaving at 5.30 so no incentive to leave early. I did wonder if that was going to impact on the parking for the evening. I only saw parking stewards at the entrance but there were lots of spaces further in.

 

[NinjaPony]

Went for the freestyle and had a great time. My main tip is bring plenty of your own drinks and snacks as the purchase options are pretty grim and horrendously expensive. They made more of an effort to make it feel like Olympia this year compared to last. I’d recommend having a look at the warmup ring as it’s available for everyone as a spectator and you can see horses/riders close up.