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A slight woman approaches a great podium standing in the midst of the infield of a racing track. Bright banners ring the golden dias, colors gleaming in the early spring. With a huge goofy grin, she surveys the jostling, whispering crowd for a few moments before letting out a shrill

"YEEEEHAAAAWWW!!!It's finally here!!!! The start of the first Official Virtual Horse Ranch Olympics!"

Another crooked smile beams out over the crowd. "This all started months ago with an idea and with help from ALL the Ops, several players and Nefertete, it's all finally come together.
Did you know there are over 1200 horses entered into these first Olympics? Twelve Hundred!! That's double what I was expecting and exceeds my wildest fancy by more than a third.."

A quick straighening of her back and a puffing out of her chest displays her pride and she continues, "It makes me glad we decided to do this and that is was worth all the effort, thought and work put into it, not just by the ones who've helped set them up, but by the entering players. By all of you!!"

Seated behind the lady at the podium, several chairs covered in the Olympic colors support an array of persons. The speaker turns slightly sideways at the microphone, extending first one hand and turning the other way, her other hand in a sweep over the exalted habitants of the colorful seats behind her. "A special thanks to our judges and stewards who will be making sure events are run in a timely manner with the horses that are supposed to be there. These ladies and gentlemen will soon wear out their shoes running around after everyone.

Overseeing the Draft beasts, Desert and her steward, Lady of Spades.

Jellybeanjoe with the help of Quinnly as her steward, will be in charge of the Feral breeds. Jellybeanjoe will also keep an eye on our smaller friends, the ponies with the aid of kwiedman.

Trixter will keep The 2nd Cavalry stepping prettily as they manage the Gaited crowd.

Show Horses will be graced with the elegant Moose with PaperWings and two stewards, Neurotic and Twit.

Kholran and Oriyana, teamed with Bodom247 and Neurotic, will run their pants off with the Sport horses.

Dragon and VooDoo, with kwiedman and miss sarabi, will ride herd on Stock Horses.

Warmbloods will have to manage with myself, Shekeira and Prancer."

With a slight bow to the chairs, she returns her attention to the crowd, a wry smile plays on her face and she glances around suspiciously..
"There are a couple Ops not willing or able to make their marks publicly for the Olympics, but you and I know they'll be lurking in the locker rooms, flitting around tack rooms and hovering over other places to see if they spy any fowl play or nefarious activities, Hawk, Anamaere.

"A special thanks to Nef," the speaker salutes the VHR flag, waving lustily above the crowd, "for allowing us a special account from which we can run so many events, the special addition of awards for eventers, owners and horses once the Olympics are over and we know who gets what."

"And finally, the biggest thanks goes to all the players who are taking part, both as active entries and as interested bystanders." Looking out over the crowd, Alabama attempts to make eye contact with as many people as possible, "Without YOUR interest, the work we have done and will do over the next 3 months would have been for nothing.. THANK YOU!!"

"And now, with the utmost respect and overwhelming grovelling, let me welcome Queen Nefertete and beg her to grace us with her beneficence and laudable eloquence." The speaker bows and backs solemnly away from the podium, preceeding the entrance of a wonderous and seldom seen sight, the great Nefertete....

Welcome to Virtual Horse Ranch's first big official Olympics! Today the games begin, celebrating seven years of one fantastic community - and the best community, of horse enthusiasts around the world!
Despite trials and tribulations that occur in the real world, we come here to unite as horse lovers and share that common love here, no matter our differences. We could care less what our competitors look like, believe in, or where they live. It is the common passion that unites us, and the competition that only briefly strives us but only for pure harmless fun. Today we kick off more years of fun with our grand horses, great times, and lovely jockeys and equestrians!
I first built Virtual Horse Ranch because I wanted to play this game myself. When I started this game I pretended to be a few other players to get the community going, and it got going, and now most, if not all, are still here! My thanks go out to all of you folks who represent the grand community- new and old, I would be pretty lonely still talking smack to myself if you had not come along by now. Or.... Is it me still pretending to be everyone else....
I made the game but can not claim much credit for the community management nor these Great Festivities we call the VHR OLYMPICS! The responsibility for the Olympics and the great coordinating and hard work goes to our volunteers- lets give them a big thanks for fun! E-Hugs and V-Cheers all around!

Thank you all for the wonderful turn out- And thanks again to the Game Ops who are breaking the sweat to put this all on!

LET THE GAMES BEGIN!

WAAAHOOO! I get to be first to post!

Thanks SO much for all you do, Nef, and the Ops and players who made this happen.
Also Nef, that was beautifully said, and Bama... you made me feel as if these were the RL Olympics.

beautiful!

Shrieeeeeks happily! I bow to you all! Don't know how you did it!

Wow, a wonderful and fitting start to what will hopefully be a great event! Thinking about how many of you wonderful people have put in so much time and effort to make this happen, and you really have bought so much of the community together - welldone and thankyou to all of you, and heres to a wonderful Olympics!

Good luck all!

I am happy that I am getting to participate in the first ever VHR Olympics. I was a little worried about entering because of all the stuff that is going on in real life now. I almost decided not to join.... but I managed to convince myself to enter a few events, because this is the very first Olympics to be held on VHR. Who wouldn't want to be part of this?

A big thanks goes out to Nef and all the Op's and players who made this grand event possible .... and to all the players who are participating in in this. I know this is going to be very tough to event in because of all the great horses entered in the Olympics, but I wish everyone the best of luck, and see you all at the end of this for the handing out of the medals!


....Now I am going to get eventing my horses before I get left out!

Good Luck Everyone!

WOW Great, thank you! Great introduction, thank you NEF nd all ops! And anyone else helping!

Beautiful speech I can't wait

Oooh, check out the cool brand thingies Olympians get. Woot!

Thanks to everyone for the hard work and cooperation!! You all rock!! Wonderful opening ceremony!

1200+ entries?! geez.
You'd never guess it with how well organized everything has been!

Love the Olympic rings done in horse shoes on the Olympics Ranch layout

So excited to get underway with my events!!

Good Luck to all the competitors

Wonderfull! Bamy while I was reading your intro I thought I was for real in a stadium and everything came to life!
Excellent work everyone and thank you!

*cheers wildly*

* cheers wildly with tlmstar * great speech!!!!Good luck everyone!!!Thanks for making the Olympics!