Odesseyo!

As we drove into Vancouver, I was feeling a little down and out. The day was dark and rainy and gloomy, all the things I associate with a west coast winter and dread coming back to. 

This felt kind of majestic and Christmas-y

This.... not so much

We made a quick stop at the hotel, I had a quick shopping trip to cheer myself up, and then we headed off to Odesseyo. The huge tents are set up at the Olympic Village site on False Creek, so super easy to access especially if you don't mind taking the Skytrain.

View from our room, looking up Robson Street. The shopping is good there! :)

We ended up arriving a little early because I was excited and there was no way I was going to be late :) From the moment we walked on site, workers were going out of their way to greet us, ask us if we needed anything, and wish us a fun evening. Pretty cool. We went inside and waited and G was pleased to find tables set up and Heineken on offer at a reasonable cost. 

Eventually we found our seats. Our seats were great, about midway up and facing the center of the stage. Honestly, though, I don't think there was a bad seat in the whole place and if we were to go again I might be tempted to save money and go with some cheaper seats - the sight lines would have been pretty much the same.

The actual show was super fun  - I'm sure its all part of the act, but the performers really did look like they were having the best time out there, as did the horses! For super serious people looking for impressive training or tricks, there is a possibility you could walk away a little disappointed. There was a lot of basic round pen type work and some not overly technical (or well executed) jumping and dressage. I loved it anyways, because it was more just about having fun with horses and reminded me of all the fun and silly things we used to do with our ponies when we were kids. The trick riders were of course excellent, the acrobats were absolutely amazing, and the centerpiece of the show, the horses, looked like they were having a great time. One little Arabian in particular made me smile over and over again because he was obviously so excited to be out there and have fun he could barely contain himself :) He would get carried away showing off or trying to get the other horses to play, then suddenly realize he had missed the plot and was going the wrong way, look all panicked and have to quickly try to find his place again. At one point the horses were supposed to be travelling left, do a spin, the continue left. He somehow got lost and went the wrong way after his spin, then ran back to his spot, did the spin and continued on to try to catch up. Kind of like me in an aerobics class :) The problem? The rest of the horses were done the act and standing in a line facing the audience and every one was just waiting for him. So cute. 

I've been to Cirque de Soliel shows before, and the feeling was very similar - lots of fun and high energy but very professionally executed and run. The 'stage' is pretty cool and has a large projection screen behind it making it seem even larger, and at one point even filled with water to create the effect of the horses running in a waterfall. Sorry about the lack of horsey pictures, but they don't allow you to take photos during the show and there really wasn't much I thought picture worthy in the parking lot. You'll have to trust me - they have 67 gorgeous, photo worthy horses :)

I really enjoyed the whole show, and G gave it two thumbs up as well. As we all know, he's an animal lover and likes horses so that helps. He sort of felt like he'd seen the horse stuff before at the various clinics and shows I drag him to, but he really liked the music and special effects and he particularly loved the acrobats and trick riders. When I told him I was writing a blog post he really wanted me to tell you it was 'unbridled fun', so there you go - it was 'unbridled fun' lol.