Viva le Difference

FEI, or at least European events are different than what we often experience back home. A couple of things we’ve noticed have more to do with the nature of the local culture – dogs are all over the place all well behaved but seldom on a leash – than the competition. We’ve noted previously that the hazards are fantastic and we did not exaggerate. Many have features built of brick and mortar or stone. All have some sort of rub protection against sharp edges for the horses and, at least for this event, the hazards are very close together. I’m not just thinking of the location of the hazards – that is to say they are all in a central area for easy spectator viewing but also the length of track between obstacles. I’d guess a driver has about 30 seconds drive time between hazards 5 and 6 on this course. So if you aren’t real sure of your route, you don’t have much time to go over it. Having hazards in a spectator friendly, central area also means close quarters with the same spectators and other competitors. For this event there’s lots of two-way traffic from one hazard to the next and lots of activity along the route. You need to have your team thoroughly focused on the task at hand.

Of course we’ve all known that driving is much more a spectator sport in Europe than in North America. That’s evident here too although it’s difficult at times to tell who is a ‘real’ spectator as opposed to the large national team contingents. Whichever they are, they seem both informed and interested – groaning at a break of pace and “oohing” a nice extension. The food vendors offer a fairly wide range of choices from pizza to fresh pasta or crepes (with Nutella is my choice) and the ubiquitous beer tents.