Britain's Very Favourite Canadians!

As part of the vast itinerary (over 1000 horses, from countries all over the globe) put on every evening of the Show, The Mounties entered to a huge roar from the crowd.........that on its own shows what we feel towards our Canadian cousins, but at every practice, at any time of day, at whichever of the rings,  the crowd of spectators was thicker than fleas on a hedgehog, avidly watching , cheering, clapping, thoroughly enjoying the skill & spectacle of their routine.
On their part, although concentrating to produce a flawlessly choreographed exercise, they smiled at the crowd, put real warmth into their performance & wherever possible after they had finished, every rider brought their horses to the rails to speak with the crowd, chatting especially to the children.

If ever there was an advertisement for a country, The Mounties are it !

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Everybody loves the Canadian Mounties!  I would have loved to have seen their show.

I watched 3 practices & one night-time 'spectacular' in the two days I was there.
The NSW Mounted Police's 'Musical Ride' was very good, but not a patch on the discipline & sheer variety of drill of the Canadians.

I also have some nice photos of the 'Carosello dell'Arma dei Carabinieri', the Chilean Huesos equestrian team & the Karabakh Horses (from Azerbaijan)..............of course the photos we all wanted but couldn't manage to get were of the Kremlin Riding School, but the speed of the racing horses & the acrobatics of the riders were simply too fast to focus on with a camera!

What an amazing show that must have been.

It was, indeed it was.

Although I am not a natural rider, I love to watch good horses put through their paces by people that understand & handle them well.

I have almost no experience riding.  A friend took me to ride her big quarter horse when I was 10 years old and she had me jumping him over rails bareback.  It's a wonder I survived, but at that age, you're immortal.  I could not do that today!

I would pity the poor horse that had to try & hold me off the ground these days, love!