Oliva Nova Equestrian Showjumping
Photographic Group Visit - 7th November
A bright sunny day, free parking, free entry, minimal security around the showjumping ground and Olympic Champions to talk to. Wonderful! Apart from someone’s sat nav getting a little confused…everyone made the 11 a.m. meet in good time. A strong waft of horsey stuff led us in the right direction. Time for a coffee. Brace yourselves... 3.30€ a cup, and rather lukewarm at that.
Some of the views were interesting. Quite a few very attractive Brazilian and Italian riders in skin-tight white trousers...be still my heart! But we were there to photograph the horses competing, weren’t we??? Human distractions aside, the event was being held on the Valencia course, for 6 year olds. Horses, not riders. There were notices to say that Olympic silver medal winner Pippa Funnell was riding, and in fact she came over to chat with some of us during a break in the competition. One imagines the sport to be full of rather snooty ‘landed gentry’, but she was relaxed and very friendly.
This was a very well organised International event, and wandering round the grounds to get good shots of the horses over the jumps, one could hear loud conversations in many languages and accents. Children and dogs were generally well behaved, mostly on leads, and there was a set of practice jumps for people without horses.
An interesting field trip, and one which was very different from our usual visits to photograph architecture. Live animals, always my favourite! We hope to get to the Valencia Arts and Sciences Christmas Market next month.
The weather has been a tad unreliable this Autumn (our October trip to the L’albufera lake was rained off), so fingers crossed there won’t be a blizzard!
by Lorraine