Pinch Me Please!

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I'm a passionate person, no disputing that. Along with music, horses have been a lifeling obsession of mine - and for the last 30 years or so, dressage has been my main focus. The sight of a well developed, athletic horse with flowing, light but powerful paces, peforming the equine equivalent of dancing can move me to tears (the Spanish Riding School have done that when I've seen them perform). I've been to a European Championships at Goodwood (which was a heart-breaker for me, as the regining European champions, my great hero Dr. Reiner Klimke and the horse of my dreams Ahlerich, withdrew due to unsoundness just a few days beforehand - something I've NEVER got over). I'd love to see a World Championships. But for me the quintessential dream has been to see an Olympic final - something I knew would never be possible unless the Olympics came here to the UK. There's something very special about the Olympics,the history of it, the way it brings together not just countries but so many different sports - it's quite unique. Added to which, equestrian competition was almost certainly one of the original features of the Ancient Greek games - they were masters of equitation. The earliest surviving work on producing a horse to this level using sympathetic and humane treatment is "On Horsemanship " by XENOPHON (c. 430 - 354 BC), a treatise which has provided the underlying principles throughout much of the history of dressage (yes, I do have a copy of it .... lol)


So, imagine my joy when London was awarded the 2012 games! The dream was getting closer. Now it was simply a matter of getting hold of a ticket, haha. Getting ANY Olympic ticket is a matter of good fortune, let alone managing to get one for the event of preference. When the date for applying arrived, I did so - never really expecting to be one of the lucky ones (I applied for the showjumping finals too, on the pretext that if I was unlucky with the dressage it would give me a second possibility).
When I discovered that not only had I been awarded a ticket, but it was for the dressage, my joy knew no bounds! I was ecstatic. In the past dressage has been dominated mostly by Germany and Holland, regarded with a little distain by many in the UK as being 'wimpy' compared to jumping and cross-country. But over recent years we here in the UK have become enlightened about dressage and have now started to produce some seriously good riders and horses, and we may well be in with a shout for medals. That really would be something (though if only it could be the legendary 1984 Los Angeles final, won by Klimke and Aherich, I'd be quite happy for the gold to go to Germany! Oh to have seen that performance.....)
It's been a long wait, but this morning my ticket finally arrived (it had to be signed for so I had to make sure I was up by 8:30, a mean feat for me on a Saturday morning!). But it's here, I have it at last. Right now I'm buzzing! And I can't wait for August 9th.

Am I really awake, is this real? Maybe I AM just dreaming this - someone pinch me PLEASE!