Charlotte Dujardin and Valegro during Valegro retirement ceremony during the Olympia International Horse Show at Olympia, London, UK; on 14 December 2016
Excitement is ramping up for this month’s Olympia Horse Show (12-18 December 2017), and what better way to celebrate than to kick back and watch our pick of videos from the Christmas spectacular?
Olympia Horse Show videos
1. From bare hall to equestrian extravaganza — in just 1 minute 47 seconds
As 12 December looms, so does the prospect of the sound of horseshoes in central London, horseboxes creeping along Kensington High Street — and an equestrian extravaganza coming to central London. It’s some feat turning Olympia into a venue ready to host seven days of top sporting action.
2. A blast from the past…
Military uniform, a distinct lack of hats and women riding side saddle — things looked a little different at Olympia in 1922.
We imagine that anyone tackling the Olympia puissance this year (Thursday 14 December 2017), will be studying Nick Skelton’s 1978 puissance round with military precision, when he broke the record aboard Lastic, jumping 7ft 7 5/16in (2.32m).
At Olympia 2014, Valegro beat his own world record to achieve the highest-ever recorded grand prix freestyle dressage score: 93.4%. “He owes us nothing, he is loved by everybody here, he is loved by everybody in British dressage — it is just so touching that he will be retired here and loved by all of us,” said Carl Hester.
Top-class sport, pint-sized Shetlands and the chance to belt out The First Noel are all at the top of our agenda for the show — but we’re also pretty pumped for the spell-binding demonstrations, including the The Metropolitan Police Activity Ride. Who isn’t impressed by horses jumping through fire?
Don’t miss this week’s special Olympia preview issue of Horse & Hound magazine (7 December 2017) where we meet the people on the ground who make the show the Christmas spectacular we all love, and ask riders to take a trip down memory lane to remember their standout Olympia moments
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A graduate from Durham University, Madeleine joined H&H in 2011 and became Features Editor — producing content across the magazine and website, including the popular inside back cover article ‘The horse that made me’ and the weekly ‘The best of my fun…’ interview. She has written on topics as diverse as hay making and headcams, to hot totty in the horse world and circus horses. Madeleine now works as a freelance feature writer for Country Life, The Telegraph, Horse & Hound, cntraveller.com, The Spectator and The Field, as well as writing obituaries for The Times.
