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Well I flew in this morning, I am completely buggered, the last three nights I have had less than 3 hours sleep per night.

Well our team was awesome and deserve a lot of credit.  One thing to keep in mind is although we got the silver, all five of our team contributed to our score, if you look at the total score for all five riders from the teams we even beat the Germans, not bad for a group of Novices (NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!).

Anyhow I am sorting through my photos and uploading as we speak it will take a few days but I am breaking them down into days or specific events.  I am starting at the beginning.  I also have some videos which will probably go to youtube but I will post the links when done.

In the meantime this is the general link to my photo pages

http://picasaweb.google.com.au/john.r.lechner

What a night!

It's 8am and I've had about 3 hrs sleep. We had a nervous wait during
the trot up as Sonja and Jag were held for re-inspection thankfully
they passed and produced a double clear on the teams round.

Our team was amazing and produced some amazing performances. I really
don't think any of the critics have a leg to stand on. In the end we
were beaten fair and square by the best combinations on the world.

Personally it was an amazing week this was no doubt a true 4* event.

The cross country was spectacular, fair and very tough but there were
pleth of slow options flor those less experienced.

As for last night I have almost no voice left after leading the
"Aussie Aussie Aussie" chant 9 times.

I fly out today so a quiet one I just need some sleep. See you all soon.

The pic is Shane at final trot up. More pics when I can get near a
computer.

Final day

Todays trot up will be one of the most exciting in a very long time.
First up let's hope all our ponies are fine and all get through.

Our team is less than a rail behind the Germans so we are well placed
to put some heavy pressure on them.

As usual I will probably be proved wrong but here is my prediction for
the final results.

Team gold Australia
Silver great Britain
Bronze Germany

Individual
Gold. Megan and Jester
Silver clayton and ben
Bronze who cares. Apparently the rules stop three members of a
national team taking all three individual medals even if they place 1
2 3?? Hopefully I am wrong and if so a third Aussie for the Bronze

John

Wow!!!!!!!!!!!

Are our guys and girls awesome or what!!!!

I was scared that I needed to stop Clayton Amy Tryon fell at the fence
after me and there was confusion as to whether the course was clear
thankfully it was.

All of our combos looked awesome although Lucinda had her hands full
with Little Brit who pulling for much of the course.

Jester and Jag also looked great I have a great photo of Jester at my
fence. Shane did his thing and was fastest on course with only 9.2 time.

I had a number of incidents at my fence. The first was a rider
eliminated for missing the B element.

I also had the first rider to attempt the slow route have 3 stops and
get eliminated. The most exciting was when Karen O'Connor glanced of
the BC of the fence and ended up JUST staying on the saddle.

So all horses and riders finished basically unscathed we will see how
the trot up goes.

So all of our guys finished clear with time.

Megan on 51.0 is 3rd with 15.6 time
Clayton on 53.4 is 4th with 16.4 time
Lucinda on 57.6 is 11th with 27.2 time
Sonja on 58.8 is 13th with 13.6 time
Shane on 62.5 is 16th with 9.2 time

Germany lead on 158.1 with Australia on 162.0 and the Poms on 173.7.

Go the Aussies

John

It's 3.50am

I've been awake since before 3 and am jumping out of my skin. There is
nothing more exciting than XC day at the Olympics even at 3 am.

I wish all the riders and horses well and know that they all will not
finish XC the course is too tough for that I hope that they all come
home safe and well.

John

After dressage

I'm sitting here as the last few horses are finishing their dressage.
Firstly the good news Australia is still first on 102.8 with Germany
on second on 115?? And USA in third.

Sonja went out early this morning and they did a very good test
scoring 45.8. Unfortunately Shane wasn't so lucky (no pun intended)
but Lucky got spooked by the TV camera and wasn't quite settled for
the rest of the test they finished on 53.3.

We are off to the cross country Course this arvo to have another look
it is bloody muggy at the moment.

John

Sonja Johnson after dressage

I forgot

We were shocked to find out that Nicholas Touzaint withdrew only
moments before his test. Apparently the horse went lame on the warm up
the French team are now down to 3 riders as they only trotted up 4 to
start with.

Another but of goss this morning Bettina Hoy (she is a coach for
Japan) she was commenting quite loudly how she is trying to get Andrew
to switch to riding for Germany!

John

A couple of clowns at Beas River

The main arena under lights

One of the Aussie I don't know who!!!!!

Olympic mascots before start of dressage.

Mark Todd warming up

1st day of dressage!!!!!

Well we are in the lead after day one. Clayton took the early lead
with a great test.

There was no doubt in most peoples mind that Lucinda would beat
Clayton and possibly even kick his butt but Little Brit was just
magnificant her flying changes were awesome she got two 10's. Even
sown of the dressage riders that were watching were jealous of the
changes.

The American girl Gina Miles gave us all a big scare with her test
which was brilliant and was beating Clayton until her flying changes
which were woeful, thankfully. We have really been talig the piss put
of both the Pommy and US spectators and official nothing like a bit of
rivalry.

The dressage started with a US rider taking 2nd place from Clayton.
Then Megan and Jester followed immediately and for most of the test
were slightly in front of Lucinda. I guess in the end those tens of
Little Brits really did make the difference.

But Jeater is a DUDE!!!!!!! I have never seen anybody enter the arena
so quickly Megan was so keen she almost took out the stewards on the
gate.

The final test of the night was a Belgium rider who pulled of an
awesome test to take second place.

So at the end of day one Australia is leading by nearly 20 points with
Lucinda in outright 1st. Megan in 3rd and Clayton in 5th. Tomorrow
morning we have another early start Sonja is on at 7am Shane at about
9am.

It's 11pm and I'm ok the bus to go back home.

Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi!!!!!!!!!!

John

Approach to the drop

One of my triple brushes up close

The view from the top of my fence

XC rehearsal

What a day, after our cross country rehearsal this morning and the
public inspection of the course I was able to sneak back to Shatin to
watch tow trot up.

Firstly our team all passed with no issues. As did the USA, GB,
Germany, Italy and Ireland. I didn't see the rest as I needed to run
back to the Uni for a shower before the party.

However I did see a poor fella from Chile get spun, I can't imagine
how heartbreaking it must be to male it to the Games and then not even
be able to do dressage.

Off to the party!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Early start

It's Friday morning 4.09am and I'm sitting on the bus waiting to be
taken out to the cross country course. Today we are to rehearse our
protocols and procedures for cross country day.

Aparently we will have a number of people in gold carts that will have
refusals take alternate routes or have more serious incidents.

Then the public course inspection will be on from 2 - 6pm our job will
be mostly to keep the public off the track and answer questions.

Finally we have the opening ceremony party lucky we don't have to do
anything tomorrow.

John

Sector 3 Team Briefing