There were some long days spent at the Aachen CHIO grounds to spectate at everything from dressage to showjumping, 4 in hand carriage driving, and of course my favorite, eventing. Apart from the sport aspect, the statistics are staggering. This is a huge event. For 2016 they are summed up as follows. 350,000 spectators, 334 competitors, 567 horses, 2.7 million Euro price money over 9 days of the event.
The first day for me included the Eventing dressage, The Grand Prix special and culminated with the Eventing showjumping, along with walking the cross-country course for the following day.
The following day I tried to follow some riders at some of the more thrilling (difficult) jumps before settling in at the Rolex Water complex where I managed to get a prime spot after a while for photographing the last 10 or so riders coming through. As the cross country was run as the last phase in a reverse order, it meant the last 10 riders were currently in the top 10 spots. The winner ended up being Ingrid Klimke, second Michael Jung and third place Australian Shane Rose, With Chris Burton also being in the top 10. This meant that the Nations Cup winners in eventing was the German team, second being the Australian team. Good effort.
Some of the other events I watched that day was the Hickstead jumping in the Main arena, the 4 in hand Marathon driving on the Cross-country track and the very fun Jump and drive, where the rain did not dampen the spectators or competitors enthusiasm
Regards
Walter Berger
Ph 03 5967 7147
email wberger
website http://www.horseoz.com
PPlease consider the environment before printing this e-mail.
