Olympia Horse Show Coupons & Promo Codes February 2023

It is June 1907 in West London. Carriages, motor coaches and pedestrians, all heading toward Olympia Way, crowd Hammersmith Road and Kensington High Street. Every ten minutes a train disgorges more excited passengers at the nearby Kensington Station. Outside the large exhibition venue of Olympia there is a queue of well-dressed ladies and gentlemen and their excited families. The first International Horse Show to be held in London has opened its doors to the public.

Once inside The Great Hall visitors gasp at the flamboyant floral decorations. Large arrangements festoon the chandeliers and displays of trees, palms and potted hydrangeas adorn the balconies. There are even trees and banks of flowers in the arena. In the Royal box an elderly King Edward VII accompanied by Queen Alexandra, smokes a large cigar. His heir, George, Duke of York and his wife Princess Mary and their young children Mary and Henry, Duke of Gloucester have arrived by open-topped carriage to accompany the King and Queen. In the arena the horses of the magnificently polished four-in-hand carriages stand patiently as judges in morning dress discuss the merits of the coaches and the expertise of their top-hatted drivers. Later in the day the crowd gasp at the skill and daring of Gentlemen Officers, many from France, Italy and Belgium and even Russia, as they and their horses tackle the ‘jumping course'. The course that consists of flimsy upright rails, sleepers, picket fences, walls and gates even includes a large turf bank. But the real excitement comes at the end of the day when these dashing officers and British hunting heroes and their brave horses will take on the ‘high jump'. The show closes at 11pm and all the way home wide-eyed spectators re-live the extraordinary events of the day.