About the Author:  The Olympic Games are very special and take many people to far and wide places.  It took Athletes from all over the world to this one place where the Greek community welcomed the Olympic Games back home for the anniversary of the event, that has become the pinnacle of sporting achievement. 

The spreading of wings has not only taken place at this personal level, but many people have used the Internet to find out more and enjoy some different perspectives regarding the performances of their favourite athletes.  Cyberhorse has had many 'international' visitors and we warmly welcome them to our pages.  Cyberhorse has been serving horse lovers since 1994 and now records over 10 million hits per month and regularly records over 300,000 individual users of our various horse related information services, this has increased substantially in August 2004 and we thank people for the many e-mails that we have received.

Bill Saunders has a technical and IT background and has written the administration systems which operate our service and make it possible for us to feature changing commercial information on our news pages.  Bill has a sound knowledge of the thoroughbred racing industry in Australia.  Cyberhorse caters for this popular Aussie interest.

Berni Saunders ...  As a dressage enthusiast I am keen to play a role in furthering the development of the sport in Australia.  I am a National A level judge (1988) and FEI Dressage competitor, and currently on the Victorian State Dressage Squad.  I have taken a different approach to reporting on competitions and try to give those who are not able to be part of the action, a 'judges eye' view of how the results came to be.  I hope you enjoy my reports.

Pictured below are some of the nations flags proudly flying over the top of the dressage arena - they were the cause of problems for some as they created quite a noise flapping in the very strong winds that sere part of the  Meltemi.

Dressage Final Grand Prix Kür - 25th August 2004 at 3 pm.

What a thrilling contest this promised to be. After the two days of Grand Prix the world No 1 rider, Ulla Salzgeber from Germany seemed to have taken an unshakeable lead of almost 4%. With Rusty in top form and perfectly set to take gold, the following competitions seemed to be about establishing the runners-up.

A disappointing Special on the 23rd August, which saw the 16 YO Rusty make several uncharacteristic mistakes, mainly in the flying changes.  The wind which gusted all around Athens on a number of days during the Olympics was bought on by the Meltemi, and events such as the rowing and sailing had to be cancelled.  He shied and hit the arena surround near M which upset the flow, causing a loss of concentration the steadiness in the following moments of the test.  Rusty put in a few less secure steps with his hind legs.  I would not have described it as lameness (as was put forward by a small minority of the watchers out there), but his incredible rhythm and power were not as convincing in the Grand Prix.  At the Press Conference at the completion of the Special, Ulla said that she was disappointed that the very strong winds had contributed to Rusty's mistakes on the day. After a wonderful Grand Prix score of 78+% the Special was disappointing and gave them a two day total of 76.524%,  which reduces to just .052% ... and opens the competition right up with only 2% between 1st and 4th place.

Athens 2004 was Anky Van Grunsven's fifth Olympic appearance and equals the record set by the legendary Dr Reiner Klimke (Germany) who also notched up 5 separate Olympic appearances in his illustrious career.  One aspect of this comparison is that Anky has done it starting when she was barely out of her teens and is still comparatively young.  If she goes on competing until she reaches the age when Dr Klimke had his final Olympic ride, she could quite double her  current number of Olympic starts and this would set a record that is likely remain unchallenged for centuries.  

Anky and her long time trainer and partner Sijeff  Jansen considered the lessons of the first day and took every precaution to ensure that Salinero had no reason to feel overly fresh and reactionary - something Anky said had let her down in the Grand Prix qualifier.  So they were up at dawn on Wednesday and the first of two pre competition training sessions took place at 'sun-up'. The horse was in such high spirits that he almost bucked Anky off!  So, Salinero was given another run later on and came back to his stable much more settled and ready to compete later in the day showing his best form.  Anky told how she and Sijeff  had arranged to have some photographers 'clicking' around the horse in the practice session the previous day.   This addition to Saleniro 'usual' routine was done to help de-sensitize his reaction to the sound.  While it is not loud, the sound had caused the horse to become distracted and lose concentration. 

This unique noise would be difficult to recreate at home or at other competitions as it is not often that dressage has such a large number of photographers clicking away in close proximity to where the most concentrated work of the Grand Prix takes place.  Anky and Sijeff  knew what they needed to do ... and did it!

Anky and Salinero carried forward a total of 76.004%.   The tension was felt by all. Salinero entered the ring on Wednesday almost as a different horse ... and the rest is history!  I will cover his performance in detail a little further on in my report.

With just half of two percent between Rusty, Salinero, Beauvalais and Brentina  leading into the Kür,  we now have a real contest of talent and nerve which is sure to feature many highlights.  The riders must 'go for it' ... and the scores will be very high, if they pull of the big risks, but we may see some mistakes causing lower that usual scores for some of the work that is known to attract high marks.  Experience and a finely tuned preparation and a large measure of good luck on the day will all be factors that influence who becomes the 2004 gold medalist.

A number of people who are closer to the 'international action' have suggested that this event is likely to be Rusty's and Beauvalais' final competition appearance.  If this is so, it is an honour to be here and witness the great battle that is sure to become a special part of dressage history! The dressage arena (showjumping events were conducted in a separate adjoining arena which was the grassed surface preferred by the jumping  riders) is now almost full and this is best crowd so far and there is an electric atmosphere - we all have 'butterflys'.

The medal presentation was a colourful event with Greek tradition playing an important role.  The Greek costumes go back to ancient times and were a reminder of the origina of the games.  All medalists had a laurel wreath placed on their head as well as a medal around their neck and it was a lovely touch and made these Olympics a unique occasion.

 The five O Level judges officiating are at E: Vincenzo Truppa from Italy,
at H: Stephen Clarke (GBR),
at C: Mariette Withages (Bel) President,
at M: Beatrice Burchler-Keller (Sui) and at B: Wojciech (Poland)

Mariette Withages - Belgium	Vince Truppa - Italy
Stephen Clarke - Great Britain	Beatrice Burcher-Keller (Switzerland)

Above -The view from the competition arena to the magnificent stables
There were 300 permanent stables 12 lunging rings 4 outdoor sand arenas and two full sized grass training areas for the  showjumping riders and 12 tables and covered areas for trainers to sit in comfort while they helped the riders.  Misting sprays for an effective cool down for the horses  (great for people as well!)
Above - the standard of the building is apparent when looking
at the structure of the roof.  The stables all had insect zappers.

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