For the fourth year in succession I made my annual pilgrimage to the international 3 day event. This year I was only able to go to the dressage day on the Friday. I arrived in good time and parked my car in the usual place over the road from the event. It was so strange as there were so few people about, hard to believe that such a prestigious event was taking place nearby. The main road into Pau, which I had to cross, was extremely busy at that time of day but crossing it posed no problem as 2 gendarmes sprang into action as soon as they saw me and strode into the road to stop the traffic and let me cross. I did feel like giving a royal wave to everyone but managed to stop myself in time! Walking down the long drive to the main area I once again felt quite alone, hardly anyone else around. Once I got to the shopping area most of the stands were still closed but there were a few people around the dressage arena waiting for the first test to start. I watched the first few tests and then when there was a break I went and had a welcome cup of coffee and did some people watching, always a fascinating pastime at this event! I spent the rest of the day between the dressage arena and the practise area. I think that, of the two, I find the practise area more interesting as there are always several of the riders riding in there before their test. Lunch was a sandwich and a glass of wine and more people watching then I went back to the practise rings. At one point Willim Fox-Pitt walked past me and leant against the rails, only a few yards from me to watch on the big screen, Emily Baldwin doing her test. It was difficult to appear nonchalant at the proximity of such a great horseman but I did restrain myself and contented myself with sneaking glances at him from the corner of my eye! an hour r so later I found myself standing quite close to him again, this time he was geared up for his test and looking oh so smart. At the end of the day the Belgian rider Karin Donkers had the best score.
The event was won by the German rider, Andreas Dibowski with William Fox-Pitt taking second place and also holding on to the lead of the HSBC FEI Classics. The full results can be found on the following link.
http://www.event-pau.fr/
and many photos here
http://picasaweb.google.com/drnmarsh951/Pau4EtoilesDressage2010#
