Greetings From Rio: A Pre-Olympic Social Media Roundup

Horses and riders are settling in at the Olympic Equestrian Centre of Rio for the Summer Games! Competition doesn’t start until Saturday, but the fun is already beginning.

Are you excited for the Olympics?? No matter what discipline you might ride at home, it’s safe to say that we all unite behind our equestrians in eventing, dressage and show jumping as they compete for the United States (or whatever nation we call home!) on the international stage before the eyes of the world. The Olympics are such a unique opportunity for the equestrian sports to share the spotlight with other athletic pursuits, and it’s as fascinating to see how the different sporting “cultures” mix as it is to see different nationalities coming together for a common cause.

The eventers will be the first to contend for their medals with dressage starting on Saturday. Grand Prix dressage takes the torch next week, and many of those horses are arriving and starting to settle in. While there’s certainly plenty of work to be done to get horses and riders prepared, there’s also plenty of time for sightseeing and fun as well! We caught up with some of our favorite equestrians on social media to see how everyone was “doing the Olympics.”

US eventer Phillip Dutton is professional to the core, even as he and the team find time for some quintessential Rio experiences such as seeing Christ the Redeemer:

US eventer Clark Montgomery also appreciated the iconic sculpture … in his own way, referring to it as “the big Jesus”:

He also found some time to enjoy Rio’s other quintessential experience:

Don’t worry, there’s plenty of actual horse work going on as well — team USA eventers are looking good!

We were also pleased to see that basically everyone goes all squealy-fangirl when they see Charlotte Dujardin and Valegro, including the local Olympics volunteers. Ain’t no selfie like a Valegro selfie.

As usual, we’d also like to give a shoutout to the Dutch for rocking that national pride in eye-catching orange.

No, but for real.

We’d also like to take this moment to give a special shout-out to our USA eventer Boyd Martin for providing what might be the most entertaining social feed of the equestrian Olympics so far. You know how when you bring your non-riding friends to their first horse show, and they kind of wander around aware that they’re not really sure what’s going on but they’re having a lot of fun just watching everything anyway? In an interesting role-reversal, that’s Boyd, only he’s on the inside looking out — an equestrian lost in the world of all of those other sports, finally feeling how all those folks must feel trying to figure out what we’re up to all the time.

Here Boyd takes on the gym at the Olympic Village:

And here Boyd tries to figure out what on earth is going on down there:

And here is Boyd observing the Indian speedwalking team:

No matter what kind of adventures the equestrian athletes are having, however, we know the Olympics are an unforgettable experience, and we know our riders from all over the world will remember to breathe deep and take a look around them.

We’ll keep bringing your daily social updates from Rio as well as daily recaps of the action! Keep it here on Horse Nation for everything Olympics in the coming weeks.

Go riding!