love it lol thanks for sharing, love the greenish one.
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Nothing like a quartet of penguins to cheer my afternoon.
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Handsome British penguins at that 
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How about these guys? http://www.artnet.com/artists/slim-aarons/the-four-kings-of-hollywood-clark-gable-van-Z4kJQiKUloF2YX-6CqIYug2
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That’s a fine idea. Thanks.
Still making it through Day 2. It is SO WEIRD seeing empty stands. So weird.
I do like the personal music they can play during the GP. I hope they continue with this in the future.
I love the large yellow clapping hands by the Swedish Chef d’Equipe.
PS. I LOVE that they show the horse’s feet from behind while waiting for the scores. I’ve been fascinating by the shoeing approaches.
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I love Maxine Collard’s black stone features on her ear net. Looks fantastic.
This horse is by Painted Black? PB was great but so crazy hot. His movement is fantastic but his tail is a swishing away in he collected work.
Helmets. Some of them are so wide-brimmed. Hers looks like it is falling over her eyes. I doubt these riders use their show helmets when everyday riding. Is this the style now? Or is it more functional to ride in? I suspect most of these riders didn’t ride in helmets until they were mandatory (I THINK, I could be wrong).
OMG, I love Charlotte’s horse Gio. He’s got to be 15 something hands! LOVE LOVE LOVE.
People might have mentioned this already but I’m just watching this now and so want to comment.
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There has been some discussion that many of those who go back to Kostolany (or maybe farther?) horses seem to have quite active tails. Don’t know the cause but it has gotten to the point that if someone says that fancy horse X has a swishy tail, I am not surprised at all when I find Kostolany in their pedigree.
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Thank you. That is very interesting. Even watching all of these back to back rides, the relaxed horses don’t swish their tails much. The more persnickety horses very actively swish their tails, especially in the highly collected work. Is Kostolany known to be nervous and produce nervous or persnickety offspring?
What breed is K and what is he known to sire? Temperament?
You might know his grandson, Totilas. 
(also a swisher). Blue Hors Matine was a granddaughter. Sire of Gribaldi. He was a Trakehner, said to have a fabulous temperament. Lived a long and productive life. Love the photos here: http://www.gestuet-haemelschenburg.de/html/e_ikost.html
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Somehow I managed to watch all 10 hours worth of qualifying rides. Cathrine Dufour was my favorite (not saying that to take away from anyone else, so many great rides).
@J-Lu I also have been fascinated examining the farrier work!
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Wow, I’m jealous, I haven’t made a dent into Day 2 (only first 45 mins). I’m going to speed watch during lunch and watch riders who scored well.
Exhausted, so going to bed in the next 30 mins or so and will miss following Special with you all. Dude, this time change has been exhausting, but, otoh, Olympics is not an annual event, so I guess I can suck it up 
Thanks! I owned a Trak and worked with her breeder for years. None of them were tail swishers and they came from Mahagony lines. I rode the approved stallion a bit and he wasn’t a tail-swisher, either. Huh. Many Traks have a really fabulous temperaments, mine included.
Totilas and Matine were great horses, but were really pushed by expert riders. Many people harsh on Rath for his scores on Totilas but I think some amount of Totilas was DONE by that point. He was pushed hard in his youth and I suspect had tons of wear and tear as a young horse and wasn’t so comfortable despite world-class vet attention. Same with Matine. Same with a lot of Blue Hors horses. It’s an elite business that showcases 6 to 10 year olds, with some exceptions. A 9-10 year old doing Olympic level dressage most likely won’t be sound at 12 or 14 unless managed very well. But that isn’t profitable for the barn as a business unless the horse is “making” a rider. Blue Hors is a business and they push their young horses hard. They push the young horses for sales horses, and develop the talented ones as elite sales horses. Totilas was pushed because he was so talented and the wear and tear caught up with him pretty early in life and the world expected him to be the same horse as a teenager as he was as an 7-9 year old. Despite his excellent horse care, the horse had a pretty difficult life. I’m so not surprised that Totilas was a swisher because likely he was pushed that hard as a young horse and pushed as a “wear-and-tear” adult. I find it hard to believe that is genetic versus wear-and-tear and objection to being pushed for these horses. Personally, I’ve never met a tail swisher that wasn’t complaining about something, and I don’t see the genetic influence. There is no reason that trait is important enough to be willy-nilly passed down.
This happens so frequently in dressage because there is more money than smarts, often.
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I know, right?
I’ve never seen shoes that extended towards the frog laterally so much or distal-laterally as I’ve seen in some of the horses. Boy would I love to know the rationale. So cool!!
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Adrienne Lyle is up.
Salvino is just beautiful.
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So much better than her first ride.
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Stunning passage!
