When I was younger, the Olympic Games were the domain of amateur athletes.

It was a noble ideal, but not without its problems. The line between an amateur athlete and a professional was always a little blurred.

I can remember communist bloc countries having top athletes serving in the military, where no doubt their quest for a gold medal took precedence over more mundane duties.

On the capitalist side of the equation, things were equally troubled. I remember one world-class amateur track athlete explaining how he would always be given first-class airline tickets to track events, which he would downgrade to economy class for a bit of cash.

Boomerang and Eddie Macken in 1978

And, of course, drawing the line with sponsorship was also difficult, with top “amateur” sportsmen and women understandably pushing the limit to maximise their return.

Remember Irish showjumper Eddie Macken and the legendary Boomerang? They are just one example; Macken, as a professional with sponsorship, was not allowed to compete at Munich in 1976 – a time when the combination was at their best.

The International Olympic Committee realised the only way forward was to lift the ban on professional athletes, and it was surely the saving of the Games.

Without it, controversy would have raged around amateurism and, quite simply, the best in the world would have stayed away, more interested in a pay cheque than an Olympic gold.

Top athletes are the best in the world and they are part of a multibillion-dollar entertainment industry. They deserve to be handsomely rewarded for their dedication and skill.

Technology has played a huge role in sport, whether it is latest swimsuit or new coatings on a boat hull. All of this, of course, can be controlled with regulations to ensure that when the best athletes in any given discipline front up, they are competing on a level playing field.

Equestrian sport is, to my mind, on a different level altogether.

Naturally, any rider in contention for an Olympic medal has to be a supreme equestrian.

They need exceptional riding skills, the heart of a lion and nerves of steel. But they also need a mount that has the athletic ability, temperament and training to win a medal.

It is, on this level, such a unique sport. The medals are not only a recognition of the riders’ abilities, but also those of the horse.

Therefore, at the end of 2011, before an FEI deadline requiring horses entered for the London Olympics to be registered with the world governing body as the property of owners of the same nationality as the athlete, we saw a flurry of horse trading.

It is, of course, to be expected. Countries invest millions of dollars in their pursuit of Olympic Golds.

It is all perfectly understandable and transparent, but I am sure every Olympic trainspotter has a nagging thought or two about this.

When you see stories that begin along these lines – “Two of Britain’s top showjumping horses will now be ridden by Saudi Arabia team members following a number of sales and transfers in the run up to the Olympics” – it becomes uncomfortably clear that there is an added dimension to the quest for Olympic equestrian glory.

The Saudi Arabia show-jumping team, the last to qualify for the games, has been boosting its horsepower by the December 31 deadline, as have other athletes.

In New Zealand, Katie McVean sold her mount to the Saudis last year in a move that may ultimately cost her an Olympic berth.

Where does this begin and end?

At present, it ended on December 31 – the FEI cutoff date.

I cannot be critical of anyone who takes this route. The rules allow it and big budgets help in the quest for pretty much anything.

But anyone who takes a promising young horse, brings it on and takes it to Olympic glory is the kind of Olympic hero I’m looking for.

Some recent sales of top horses:

Showjumpers:
Al Capone – from Antonio Mariñas (Spain) to Saudi ownership
BMC Van Grunsven Simon – from Jeroen Dubbledam (The Netherlands) to Beezie Madden (US)
Cadjanine Z – from Patrick Spits (Netherlands) to Gregory Wathelet (Belgium)
Caramell KS – from Svante Johansson (SWE)  to Saudi ownership
Casanova  - from Christina Liebherr’s (Switzerland)  to United Arab Emirates
Ciske van Overis – from Guy Williams (GB) to Edwina Tops-Alexander (Australia) to Rodrigo Pessoa (Brazil)
Copin van de Broy – from Gregory Wathelet (Belgium) to Marcus Ehning (Germany)
Hunter’s Scendix – from Belgium to Eric Lamaze (Canada)
Kellemoi de Pepita – from Michael Robert (France) to Qatar
Luikka – from Shane Breen’s (Ireland) to Eric Lamaze (Canada)
Noblesse de Tess – from Rene Lopez (Colombia), to Edwina Alexander (Australia) then Kamal Bahamdan (Saudi Arabia)
Sanctos Van Het Gravenhof – from Katarina Offel (Ukraine) to Scott Brash (UK)
SIEC Livello – from Cameron Hanley (Ireland) to Sweden
Sultan V – from Bruce Menzies (UK) to Saudi ownership
Talan – from Robert Smith (UK) to HH Prince Faisal, Saudi ownership
Titus – from Guy Williams (UK) to Edwina Tops-Alexander (Australia)
Uraquay – from Nina Fagerström (Norway)  to Karina Johannpeter (Brazil)
Verdi – from Stephanie van den Brink (Netherlands) to Eric Lamaze (Canada)

Eventers
Butts Leon – from Andreas Dibowski (Germany) to Nina Ligon (Thailand)
Charlie Weld – from Kai Ruder (Germany) to Julian Stiller (USA)
Mr Medicott – from Frank Ostholt (Germany) to Karen O’Connor (USA)

The sun shone, the iconic view sparkled and those attending had a lovely time at the test event for the 2012 Olympic Equestrian phases at Greenwich Park.

“A huge success,” proclaimed both the FEI and the London Prepares press offices in joyful union. But was everyone and everything perfect, or have some people been carried away by the wave of mass Olympic euphoria pervading London’s World Heritage site this month?

The FEI and London Prepares both declared the Greenwich eventing test event a success.

It must be said that, so far, to all appearances the equestrian organisers have treated the oldest Royal Park with appropriate respect. Trees had not been “severely pruned” as mentioned in the LOCOG planning document and no holes have been dug; quite the contrary, as far as the latter is concerned. Where a ditch was required, the surface was built up so a ditch could be dug into that without touching the original park surface beneath. The stables have been constructed on small “stilts” for want of a better expression, to keep them off the grass and the waste fluids to be channeled away more efficiently.

The arena itself is raised off the ground to combat the natural slope and again no significant holes have been dug. The logistical problem of getting the horses on site was solved by having a “staging post”outside the park gates which all worked smoothly according to organisers, riders and grooms.

But the fact that there was  a need to find this “logistical solution” only because of the choice of venue was conveniently forgotten.

The competitors and their connections were impressed. The grooms were accommodated in the nearby hotel and could not have been happier, according to a spokesperson for them. The stables were a good size although possibly not as well ventilated as one might like in warm weather but this issue will be addressed by next year.

“It is, after all, a test,” said Tim Hadaway, Equestian Manager. The riders very much liked being in the city with all the shops and restaurants Greenwich village had to offer.

“It is great being so central with a pub outside the gate and there is so much more room than the I was expecting after all the things I have heard,” said one rider, who had clearly forgotten, as this was “only a test”, that there would be no chance of visiting the local pub (assuming the security services let it open as usual during the Games proper anyway) because the competitors would be ferried in and out from the Olympic Village in Stratford.

And with 50% more competitors and horses, a 30% larger arena and double the infrastructure plus a set of grandstands ten times as big as those currently on view, there is not going to be so much room, either. Particularly as much of the green space would be taken up by the cross-country course which, the press were assured by Tim Hadaway, would be the full 10 minutes long, double that which was tested.

And talking of the course, more than one experienced observer was heard to remark that the visibility was very bad from fence to fence because of the tree cover, making it very difficult for the television cameras (one will be required for every fence) and, more importantly, for the fence judges, who might only have scant seconds to stop a horse when it finally comes in to view. So it seems the tree surgeons will indeed be required for “severe pruning” and a sceptic might say that one of the purposes of the test event was to lull the objectors into a state of false security and demonstrate how little the park would be damaged because most of them know little about horses and horse shows and would not be aware of these considerations.

One also wonders, if the venue was not for an Olympics and in front of the iconic view, whether any event rider would be prepared to ride a championship course at a place which Mark Todd described as “a little cramped” and where the course (even at only five minutes long) was “a little like riding a jump off”. William Fox Pitt thought it resembled “a BMX track”. And these comments were made BEFORE the rest of the infrastructure, etc, is in place as already mentioned. A party of people with much experience of international events, especially in Hong Kong, walked around for a few minutes and then asked me where “the rest of it” was. On being told that this was it, mouths dropped open and there were expressions of “but Sha Tin was bigger than this” and other words to that effect.

The arena is raised off the ground to combat the natural slope.

If the concerns about the cross country course were muted to an extent, the show jumping riders invited to test the arena surface had no qualms at all about slamming the organisers’ efforts so far. It seems that the surface supplied required the application of water so it could be compressed and made suitable for jumping a 1.60m track but Thames Water had already stated that there would be restrictions on the use of water in the park well before the surface was laid and did not budge from that position.

When William Fox-Pitt completed his dressage test and came out of the arena expressing joy at the lovely “springy surface” anyone with any depth knowledge of show jumping should have heard alarm bells ringing. Nick Skelton, Laura Kraut and William Funnell used words like  “dead” and  “holding” and that  “jumping 1.45 felt like 1.65” in the conditions.

Event riders hardly ever get a prepared surface to jump on, as often as not they make do with a boggy grass field but generally they are only jumping about 1.25 and not against the clock, either. At any other major championship with mixed disciplines, the surface is usually put down to suit the show jumpers because if it works for them, everyone else should be fine.

But the London Olympic Games Organising Committee created another problem for themselves because they failed to appoint anyone amongst the Equestrian management team who, from what I can see, appeared to have the kind of experience needed to run top-class show jumping and dressage – especially that being run at an inner city outdoor show. Run almost entirely by eventing people with little or no experience of either world class show jumping or inner city shows, eventing was the main focus. This is the area in which Great Britain is most likely to win Gold as far as equestrianism is concerned. But, this discipline is selected by the IOC as the one for testing because the facilities for all three Olympic disciplines can be assessed at once – not because Great Britain is the best at it and could run a big British Equestrian Federation PR exercise.

For most other countries show jumping and dressage are far more popular disciplines, which is why tickets for the Kür in dressage and the individual show jumping final are much much more expensive than their eventing equivalents.

To excuse the basic lack of sporting expertise other than eventing, once again the refrain “this is a test event so we can test” was heard. Probably it is fair to say that certain things do not need to be tested: the surface in the arena is hardly a new idea and there are outdoor shows in places such as Rio, Rome, Monte Carlo, Cannes and Valencia to name a few, all of which are inner city shows and jump on a prepared surface whose organisers could have been asked for advice. Rome has many significant parallels as it is run at the Piazza di Siena, right in the centre of the city on the small park attached to the Villa Borghese.

But as far as we know no advice was asked of any of these shows.

Discussions about the showjumpers’ reactions did provoke what could only be called the most staggeringly ignorant comment from a professional rider heard all week. One event rider proclaimed in an airy fashion that “the show jumpers were much too fussy, they should just shut up and get on with it”.

Indeed. Just as the eventers should if their BMX, jump-off type cross country track happens to come up wet …

The BEF had handed out many tickets to various riders, officials and organisers of all three Olympic disciplines, but primarily British Eventing. The members of that august body descended upon Greenwich in their droves and professed themselves delighted with everything as they sat on the grass (mostly in spaces that will not be available next year) in the sunshine. When asked about the absence of the locals (local adults had just a tenth of the ticket allocation), the opinion seemed to be that “the locals would not want to come anyway” or “they all objected, why should they be invited” and “they will only have to put up with it for a couple of weeks”.

The raised dressage and jumping arena used for the test event.

The sheer arrogance of some of these comments was astonishing. The invited school children aside (and most of those got their tickets only through default and enterprising teachers, because there was no official borough-wide notification that tickets were available to schools who registered, according to one teacher), the demographic of the audience should have indicated the lack of anyone other than the BEF’s finest. And for all those congratulating themselves on the success of the visiting children, it should be noted that on cross country day there about 2000 of them, which is not even a tenth of Greenwich’s 35,000 under 16s registered with the borough.

The residents who did appear were mostly supportive but rather dismayed at the lack of information provided to them. “We won our tickets through the 500 offered by the local paper,” said one couple, “we know nothing about horse sport and we had no idea there was even a test event until the notices went up in the park a few weeks ago. Until then we thought, as did most of our neighbours, that the work going on was for next year.”

Another comment comment from the horsey faithful was that “it was a working day in London so local people would not have come anyway,” but perhaps with more notice and a larger ticket allocation, more of the population could have rearranged their schedules as the BEF’s invited audience had. Unless of course none of them have jobs they would usually have been at.

It is also somewhat surprising that despite initiatives like the so far toothless London Horse Network and HOOF, virtually none of London’s horse people appeared to have been invited to attend, either.

Many of them have specific expertise regarding keeping horses in urban environments (because that is what they do all the time!) and had they been consulted possibly could have made some of the problems faced at Greenwich easier to overcome. Out of five London riding schools asked, only one had had a single ticket. Lord Coe has said the legacy of the London Games will be to bring sport to a new and wider audience. It is a pity that the people who will be responsible for the education of any potential new equestrians were not given a taste of the Olympic experience.

“Frankly,” said one proprietor, “we wish them luck but the Games has done nothing for us, we keep thinking that if there is going to be a new riding public some of the money spent on Greenwich would have been better used in improving the riding facilities in other London parks and commons.”

Hundreds of schoolchildren saw eventing and horses up close for the first time.

Riding in Greenwich is against the law by anyone except the police or military so it will never be a public riding venue without an Act of Parliament, even if the plans for a new riding centre in Shooters Hill ever get off the ground.

Local support should be encouraged, though. There is much disinformation floating about currently which will only end up confusing the non-horsey residents or, even worse, alienating them.

Even Lord Coe, in a BBC London debate this week, referred to the “two weeks” of the Games. Perhaps he has forgotten the Para Olympics, which will mean Greenwich will not be able to get back to usual for about six weeks. Mark Evers, who is the Director of Transport for London (TFL) Delivery Unit said during the same broadcast:

“Yes, there will be some places on the Olympic Road Network (ORN) that are open to different interventions but we do not want to be in the same position as Atlanta where athletes did not reach their event on time.”

He fell short of actually confirming which roads would be closed but it was interesting to note that Lord Coe later discussed the reason that the Marathon course was moved away from the East End. Had it stayed there, it would mean the closure of Tower Bridge for two days, which would cause havoc in the area for both athletes travelling to other venues and the public.

One supposes that the havoc which will be caused by closing the Blackwell Tunnel, even partially, for a month, is acceptable then, despite the volume of traffic that it carried probably exceeds Tower Bridge by 10 to one. Mathew Beard of the London Evening Standard made the excellent point that if the ORN was open only to athletes and actual officials instead of the entire “Olympic Family” which includes media, guests and sponsors, that would be 22,000 less persons needing preferential treatment and therefore not so many closures.

Mark Evers also mentioned the closure of several railway stations, particularly around the Greenwich area (eg, Maze Hill) because visitors might get confused as to which one to use for the actual venues; never mind all the local commuters. “This was an opportunity for them to explore alternative ways of getting to work,” he said in what can only be called a patronising fashion. The Maze Hill station is just outside Greenwich Park’s eastern gate, and the closure of this station will be a major inconvenience to those who live and work on Trafalgar Road, for example.

A few other non horse considerations (my comments are in bold):

One Greenwich resident mentioned at the BBC debate that the bill for the equestrian phase is heading for £60 million. Interestingly, Lord Coe did not contradict him. A member of Team GB senior support staff who did not wish to be named said that he had never seen such a waste of money in his life; it was being “thrown about like water”. There are riding tracks and exercise rings in many London parks including Richmond, Wimbledon, Tooting, Mitcham and Streatham commons, Trent Park and Lee Bridge. No money has been earmarked for any improvement in any of these facilities.

As well as the fencing off part of Blackheath (also against the law and ignoring a charter several hundred years old) which would not need to be done if the venue was big enough, Blackheath was never part of the original plan submitted to the IOC. LOCOG have also applied the same high-handed approach to Wanstead Flats. The area of marsh and heathland is home to many species rarely seen in London, and another much-used and loved by the locals but it has been partially fenced off for the use of the Metropolitan Police during the Games.

Lord Coe: “We are providing London with the venues it should have had 40 years ago. Bringing the Games to the capital will involve more people in sport, that is the real legacy. We wanted to regenerate east London.” However the residents in the area are not getting preference for the available jobs and according to Mathew Beard there has been no regeneration east of Stratford unless you count disreputable brothels being turned in reputable bed and breakfast establishments.

A study has recently been done to see the long-term impact of having an Olympics in any city going back many years. It seems you need five or ten years to assess the impact properly, a statement which was echoed by Lord Coe in a different context when he said “that we would need to wait to find out the real legacy of the London Games”. So far only Barcelona (1992, which by the way, had all the equestrian except the cross country inside the city at an excellent facility still much used) has come out ahead. The most recent city in the study was Athens. The impact on the Greek economy has had an impact on ours as Great Britain, along with many other countries, is currently bailing them out of bankruptcy. Barcelona is also the only venue so far where unemployment was reduced by the arrival of the Olympics. Rushana Ali, MP for Bethnal Green (close to the main Olympic Park) commented that in 2005 Lord Coe said winning the Games would create new jobs, but that in the London Borough of Newham, employment figures had barely changed since, and only 20% of any jobs created had gone to locals.

Kevin Fewster, who is the director of the National Maritime Museum and was in charge of a similar institution in Sydney during the 2000 Olympic Games, said: “There are two Olympic Games, really. There is the one that you present to the IOC which has lots of things in it that probably are not workable in reality but you are trying to win, and then when you have won, you have to make things work and so there is a second Games where things inevitably change and have to be twisted and turned about to make that happen. When London won, instead of Paris, things in the original bid had to be altered.” This is an interesting comment if taken in reference to Greenwich, where Mr Fewster works, because it implies that LOCOG could have changed many things including venues, after winning the bid (and in fact have done so) but on this occasion decided spending untold millions on Greenwich was a better alternative.

Much of Greenwich's green space is expected to be taken up by the cross-country course, which is to be 10 minutes long.

Mathew Beard, London Evening Standard: “Two thirds of those who applied did not get tickets. So what about the hundreds of thousands who were told ‘this was a Games for everyone’ and have heard no discussion that it is otherwise.

“I am not really sure how LOCOG could have been surprised by the demand for tickets, they ramped it up as ‘the greatest show on earth’. You cannot even find out what tickets are available for which purposes. Like these 125,000 set aside for children (according to Lord Mayor Boris Johnson). What sort of tickets are they and when and where? It’s all so vague.”

Sarah, Beckenham resident: “I was mad keen when we got the Games, but we didn’t get tickets, my offer to volunteer seems to have got nowhere despite hundreds of emails and I feel, as in integral part of London, that I have been ignored. I am very disillusioned that there is such a lack of opportunity to get involved.”

Tony, Tooting resident: “There was no preferential treatment for London residents and I cannot get in either as a paying customer, a volunteer or a member of the media.”

Andrew Gilligan (Daily Telegraph London Editor): “The principle sponsor of the games is us, the public. The ticket figures are not adding up. Lord Coe just said there were two million tickets available in the UK out of 22 million in total. But eight percent of those went to corporate sponsors. I understand they have paid for those tickets in some way but Londoners are also paying through a £250 rise in council tax. Would it have been too much of a stretch to give London residents an extra shot in the ballot or something, after all we are the ones paying for a great deal of it.”

Munira Mizra, Cultural advisor to the Mayor of London: “Boris Johnson has said he wants at least one out if every eight children to be able to attend and schools which want to take advantage of any ticket offer must register with the LOCOG Get Set programme by December.”

The Last Word …

… probably ought to go to the teenage student from Stratford who cannot get one of the jobs promised at the new shopping centre, which will in effect kill off the current one and add to the problems already facing Stratford High Street, which is in danger of becoming a ghost road.

“At the Olympics,” she said sadly, “the only time the rich and poor will meet up is at the traffic lights.”