that was the biggest crowd I have ever seen. I was pleased, and amazed. Have you seen that camera that was on a runner? I have seen it and tried to link it, but I was unsuccessful
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Sounds like she just got him in Jan/Feb of 2024. In April they took the high score in GP at Terranova on two days back to back. She’s done a world of good in a very short amount of time.
the second day’s ride, where I pulled these SS from.
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I got a few (not great) photos and videos
PXL_20240728_083922889.LS
At the very beginning of this video, on the left
PXL_20240728_083455866
The crowd was insane. Almost made it unenjoyable - very hard to see the exciting fences - but the energy was so good and people were so excited you couldn’t get upset. 
ETA the internet delivers https://www.instagram.com/reel/C9-0pxpoYeA/
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@Demerara_Stables what an amazing trip you got to take! Did you get to pick up your helmet while you were there? I don’t know why I recalled that bit lol.
Question for you- Lucinda was quite upset in the broadcast (when Jane got spun up with Orlob) about the way the horses in ‘straight dressage’ were coming and going, and insistent that the eventers were going about it in a different way. Maybe they were leaving a A then turning right and walking a little before heading back to the in/out gate? That would let the next horse come in and start moving around the arena, so the horses weren’t passing each other coming and going. Does that ring any bells from your observations?
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The French rider Basquet (?) was sure lovely. 
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when you get home, if you have Peacock, and can watch them, those shots were fabulous!
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Yes, it’s been great! We did Rio as well (our first Olympics) and decided we’re going to try to do every summer games. It’s so fun and I highly recommend it. LA will be easy(ier)!
I had a bunch of recommendations to just order online through a European retailer because Europe always takes summer holidays. I figured that was probably easier as I was looking at a tight timeframe regardless. Still haven’t ordered. 
There was discussion about this somewhere else (discussion starts here: USA team eliminated in Paris?), but the short story is that the horses were coming and going from the same gate in both eventing dressage and pure dressage. I think the only difference was in eventing dressage, they maybe held the horse that was entering the ring so they had more space to come and go without running into each other. There were not two gates so the only difference could be the timing. I will say that during eventing show jumping one horse almost ran smack into another when it was exiting the ring, so the timing was not very consistent and I did not get the impression that the people at the gate had any horse experience at all.
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thank you for your reports! It is fun living vicariously thru you!
Of course! Would love to have a COTH contingent at LA 
Also since this is the dressage forum and it didn’t get posted here, some people might be interested in my XC day photos/videos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/cZdWSbNkESYHWo9J8.
We didn’t go to pure dressage, but did SJ today and are at the final tomorrow. 
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Yes I read that thread. I think she meant just that, they had eventing dressage do this and that with the one gate, and the crew in straight dressage wasn’t doing the same. How awful to have non horsefolks doing the gates!?
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Ah I see. Ya, I can’t believe at least the people interacting with the horses didn’t seem to have experience. It’s not like there’s a shortage of riders in France.
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FWIW, one of the Peacock commentators (John or Lucinda - can’t remember which one) mentioned that the crowd was the largest ever at an Olympics. I am not sure of the number of spectators but I was amazed when I saw the video coverage of those huge crowds.
Edited to clarify that the comment about crowd size was in reference to the XC crowd.
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The Versailles stadium holds 15,300 spectators, plus broadcast crews, television crews, and many staff members.
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I think it was Steffen Peters I recall who played loud crowd noises over the PA at home to desensitize one of his horses to the atmosphere. May have been Ravel?
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I’m not sure if it’s uploading as I’m on my phone, but there are two gates on either side of the short end of the arena. Dressage has only been using the ingate on the right; Eventing had them come in through the right and out on the left.
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This is incorrect. The gate on the left of your photo was for crew and staff only, no horses came through this gate.
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Pauline Basquin on Sandro Hit son Sertorius de Rima Z. Yes, so lovely.
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I thought this was a delightful story from the Ecudorian competitor. https://www.horseandhound.co.uk/features/olympic-dressage-jewels-goldstrike-866545?utm_medium=social&utm_content=horseandhound&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=facebook.com&fbclid=IwY2xjawEZ8YhleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHabZ9yJKJI_lHiHt3usYUask-l3IDA63aCVpF4ZEqZ7UwUIRoshjCFxxFA_aem_OeLdfAHP-DXz1CxYtHoUNw
I too have spent 2 hours hand grazing on some horse show days so I appreciated that factoid 
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Agreed! Although it’s clear it was more of a sponsorship type deal than that the horse was really valued at $20. He was showing PSG, so certainly not without substantial value.
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Steffen Peters trying to deal with his Olympic ride. It has got to be horribly difficult and he has been open about dealing with depression.
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