postaday | The Slower Road

May 24, 2012

the colors! the variety! (part 1)

Posted by Jennifer under carriages / carriage types, RWHS, Windsor | Tags: postaday |
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I have so many photos from the Light Trade Vehicles class at the Royal Windsor Horse Show that I’ll be sharing them with you in three parts.

Today: some of the various entries in the class, which featured a tailor’s vehicle, fruit-&-veg sellers’ wagons, a butcher’s cart, a small Royal Mail vehicle, a milk float, and more.

Tomorrow: the class champion. (Can you guess who it might’ve been?)

And Saturday: some of my favorite details from the champion vehicle.

Enjoy!

This tailor’s vehicle was inspired by the owner/driver’s grandfather, who was a tailor:

One of the two fruit-&-veg sellers’ wagons …

… and three views of the other one:

The butcher’s cart, and the butcher’s pony:

The lovely small Royal Mail vehicle:

And, finally, the beautiful milk float:

May 23, 2012

more castle views

Posted by Jennifer under RWHS, Windsor | Tags: postaday |
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Why, yes, I’m still stuck in Windsor (here on the blog, at least).

Did you know that when you buy a ticket to tour Windsor Castle, you can get it stamped before you leave and then reuse it anytime (free of charge) within a year? A.J. and I were pleased to discover this fact, had our tickets stamped, and then went back later in the week. We didn’t tour the state apartments again, but we had fun exploring all the balconies, porches, and walkways.

And I took more photos!

these festival rides were near the entrance to the horse show, and the rest of the show was off to the right (we couldn’t see it from this castle porch)

May 22, 2012

the jubilee pageant, again

Posted by Jennifer under RWHS, Windsor | Tags: postaday |
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Oooohhhh. The folks in charge of producing and promoting the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Pageant, which our big CAA group saw while we were in Windsor, has just released a beautiful video montage … with stunning still photos and video clips.

I’m unable to embed the video here, so I’ll have to give you a few steps to get there.

1) Click here.

2) When that page opens, go to the toolbar at the bottom of the screen, and make your way to page 30.

3) Enjoy the video!

UPDATED (with thanks to Bart, who posted the direct link in the comments):

May 21, 2012

it’s all video, video, video

Posted by Jennifer under RWHS, Windsor | Tags: postaday |
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This past weekend, one week after the Royal Windsor Horse Show, Windsor (the castle and the town) witnessed a huge military parade in honor of HM The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. The military units, bands, and singers all ended up in the horse show’s main arena, where we had watched the Jubilee Pageant the week before. The highlight of the day was a military-aircraft fly-over, which must’ve looked and sounded rather spectacular.

And for a YouTube tour of some highlights from our week in Windsor: there’s a professional video with views of the FEI-driving marathon, an amateur video of the talented and funny New Zealand Army Band, another professional video that offers a quick look back at the horse show and pageant, and Hoefnet’s video of Boyd Exell’s dressage test (in the pouring rain). Hoefnet has quite a few more videos on their YouTube channel (here). Just scroll down to the “CAI-A Windsor 2012” videos for dressage tests, marathon obstacles, and portions of the cones competion. Enjoy!

Throughout the rest of this week, I’ll continue with Windsor-related blog posts, as I still have LOTS more photos to share.

May 20, 2012

riding with the Chileans

Posted by Jennifer under horses & driving, RWHS, Windsor | Tags: postaday |
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We’ve been home from England for nearly a week now, but here on the blog, we’re still in Windsor!

On Sunday at the horse show, we walked past one of the pageant-participants’ warmup arenas and saw this:

The Chileans were clearly getting ready for one of their daytime performances. But, um, one of these things was not like the other. So we stuck around to watch.

The young British rider was clearly having a blast, chatting and riding with the group of pageant performers from Chile. But we still weren’t sure what was going on. A woman was standing near the edge of the warmup arena with what was clearly the young rider’s show pony, while she was cantering around the arena on a Chilean horse.

I finally asked an official-looking man in a bowler, and he said that the girl’s show pony had just won its division, and that the Chilean riders had been admiring it (the pony) throughout the week. The rider herself was the daughter of one of the show officials, which may have made introductions easier, but regardless, they had invited her to try one of their horses. They were just then asking her if she would like to ride with them in the demonstration ride later that morning, which they were warming up for. She seemed thrilled with the prospect.

As we were walking back later from seeing the BDS drive, the Chileans and their guest were exiting the Copper Horse Arena, and her huge grin said it all.