Horses and Happiness

Yesterday was a delight for Olympics viewing. I started out seeing individual women's archery and then moved into the Crosscountry Equestrian event from Greenwich Park. That was so beautiful, and it took until close to noon to get through all 74 riders so I had a chance to drop back now and again and see more of the rides. Such beautiful horses. Now, at 4:30 am, the Precision Jumping has started. This will go much faster since the course will take less than two minutes to jump. The horses are beautiful, the riders are planted onto their equine partners. I guess it doesn't take a lot to make me happy...this does :-)

The cross-country jumping event was absolutely fun to watch. Mesmerizing!

Precision jumping is the third day of the equestrian competition. Scores cannot be advanced, but they can be diminished so the goal is to ride as cleanly as possible within the appropriate time.


Gymnastics for the US has been somewhat of a disaster, and last night was no different. I don't quite know why we always seem to self-destruct when the chips are down. We come into events like this as one of the powerhouses of the world and then pratfall in front of the world. Oy! But we're getting a mixed bag in our swimming prowess, and it's fun to see the finals but our commentators seem so shocked that we are not always winning. Well, it's a world competition and we're good, but we're not going to sweep it all, nor should we. France is doing very well in swimming, the Chinese dominate in diving although we did get Silver for synchronized men and Bronze for synchronized women. Not bad.

The Royals have been out in force at the equestrian events. Kate, William, Harry and others have been there both for the cross country and today again for the precision. I guess they love the horses as much as I do (and their cousin, one of Princess Anne's children) is involved as a rider for Britain.

There is something so wonderful about synchronized diving. This photo is one of the Chinese teams. They are always like mirror images. Beautiful!

Tomorrow I will have my first true day off for the past two weeks. My schedule will be housecleaning and getting some beta work done for Lai that I've owed her forever. Sometimes I think it is a wonder that she puts up with me. But I'm very grateful that she does :-) Off to watch more horses...have a phenomenal day!