The International Ring
What a perfect way to spend a Friday evening - blue skies (which was a welcome relief after a week of rain), a new friend, a picnic and every little girl's dream .... beautiful horses and big jumps! Spruce Meadows is a world class show jumping facility located just a 30 minute drive from the ranch. This week, Spruce Meadows has been host to the 'Nationals', featuring riders from all over the Americas, including many Olympians. For over four hours, we watched the horses and riders compete over two different 1.50 metre and 1.60 metre courses (winning round and then jump offs). I had never seen a pure show jumping competition at this level before and continually marvelled at the height of the jumps and the agility of the horses and their 'bounciness' - it truly seemed like they had springs in their hooves. The competition ended at around 9 pm, when there is still at least another hour and a half of daylight left. When I woke up this morning, I realised that I had been dreaming of show jumping .... perhaps it's time to get back into it? But first, today is the day of my polo debut. Wish me luck!
Very clean jumping
Tall and wide jumps
Check out the girl standing at the yellow and black jump - big jumps!
Ah, the good old dazzle boards - memories of pony club!
One .......
Two .......
Three .......
In the middle of the competition, they had a 'Name the foal' competition - just too cute
Eric Lamaze, a Canadian Olympian, wins the event
That's Jessica Springsteen in the middle, Bruce's daughter
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