paradise city (gnr)
abracadabra (steve miller)
the wall (pink floyd)
in the shadows (the rasmus)
stairway to heaven (led zeppelin)

nope. not the playlist of an odd retro dance party. the music that andreas helgstrand chose for his grand prix dressage freestyle routine. and it’s awesome. so watch it. (it’s up on nbcolympics.com at the 20 minute mark on the rewind: dressage freestyle video.)

chupa chup, a holsteiner gelding ridden by brasilian bernardo alvez. too bad his tail’s been banged.

clear round, too.

if i were riding in the dressage competition, i’d be really annoyed with the constant drone of airplanes taking off and landing.

no, that’s not true. if i were riding in the dressage competition, i’d probably be so focused on what i was doing that i wouldn’t even notice the constant drone of airplanes taking off and landing. in fact, if i were riding in the dressage competition, i’d probably be so focused that an airplane could crash into the stands and i wouldn’t notice it unless flaming bits of fuselage, cargo and human remains began to litter the ring around me. and even then, it would probably take me a few moments to move from “damn stuff in my way” to “what the…” to “aw, crap. will they let me start the routine again?”

judging from the amount of sweat pouring off riders and horses, the humidity in HK must be nearly unbearable. that notwithstanding, the skill level in the compulsories is phenomenal. i just wish i could find the routine online somewhere.

belarussian iryna lis is aboard the super-mouthy gelding redford, who finally calmed down about halfway through the routine (possibly because he’s more comfortable through the extended gaits). he kicked at her spurs during the piaffe, though.

oceano do top has quite possibly the prettiest rear-leg action i’ve seen in the competitors, but the lusitano stallion has a habit of resting his rear hooves during the piaffe - points off for that.

american courtney king, aboard dutch warmblood gelding mythilus, had a fantastic ride. gorgeous transition from collected to extended trot, smooth half-passes, and just the smallest bobble in one pirouette.

and i find it inordinately funny that german rider heike kemmer is aboard a gelding named bonaparte.
__________________________
¹ i couldn’t figure out where else to put this footnote, so the post title seemed as good a place as any. watching the dressage competition is triggering some really strong muscle memory: as i watch the binomio go through the set routine, i’m experiencing sympathetic muscle twitches in my hands, back, quads, and calves. i just wish most of the riders didn’t make such big shoulder and lower-leg movements through the flying lead changes; they should be able to guide the horse through the transitions with their seats (this seems to be predominantly a european problem).

i’ll get back to work in a moment.

my thoughts on NBC’s coverage of the equestrian sports: it sucks. even online, you can’t watch the full competition unless you do so live - and that means 7:15 wednesday morning for the dressage competition. NBC’s prerecorded video feed for the dressage portion of the 3-day event seems limited to two or three highlighted riders.

pff.

RSVP, and don’t forget, X marks the spot.

what with the olympics upon us, and a phelps phreak staying with us over the summer, i’m throwing up a list of olympians from years past who have caught my eye. it was spurred by a combination of alejna’s ThThTh lists (although today is not thursday) and the fact that the aforementioned phelps phan had never heard of surya bonaly. so here goes, in no particular order:

1. edwin moses. american hurdler. watched him in the ‘84 olympics. neat wikipedia factoids that i did not know: beginning in the fall of 1977, moses was unbeaten for 9 years, 9 months and 9 days.

2. surya bonaly. saucy french skater; after tanking her chances for a medal in nagano ‘98, she did a backflip (at 3:48) and ended her routine with her back to the judges. the crowd loved it; the judges Were Not Amused.

3. joan benoit. american marathoner, took the gold at the summer olympics in ‘84. she broke ahead of the pack early in the race (fourteen minutes into it, according to her IOC profile), and maintained her lead. my dad kept saying she was just a rabbit, but she finished more than a minute ahead of the silver medalist. IIRC, she was on her second victory lap in the stadium before the next runner showed up.

4. kahlua. big dark brown horse, perfect diamond star on his forehead. went to the ‘88 olympics with canadian lisa carlsen lubitz aboard. didn’t place, but i was entranced by the back-brushed checkerboard pattern on his rump.

5. karch kiraly, american volleyball player. lean, long, and overall pretty yummy looking. recently inducted into the u.s. olympic hall of fame. won the gold in indoor, 1984 and ‘88, and then took gold in that not-really-an-olympic-sport, beach volleyball, in 1996.

and because i only vaguely remember the hubbub surrounding the 1980 summer olympics (blame my tender years), i’ll throw in #6, nadia comaneci. she scored a whole passel of unprecedented 10s at the 1976 montreal olympics, where at the age of 14 she became the youngest gymnastics all-around champion ever. she was positively lanky by today’s standards, and her uneven parallel bar routine pales in comparison to he kexin’s routines, but she did capture the world’s imagination.

looks like i’ll have to come up with a new category for this post: olympics. i’ll put it under “random,” because i really don’t write much about sports.

as the world’s human athletes are girding themselves for nigh-unbreathable air at the beijing olympics starting friday, their equine counterparts are heading somewhere more hospitable: hong kong.

i had no idea the equestrian events were being held in HK - i’d figured they would be in beijing with everything else, and couldn’t fathom that the horse-and-pony set would voluntary submit their mounts to the foul atmosphere of the mainland. and they aren’t, although the reason given is that the mainland could not guarantee “disease-free zones” for the horses.

it will be interesting to see how the weather holds, though, as hong kong is prone to tropical storms in august. the weather was apparently problematic enough to lead the swiss team to withdraw from the games.