One of our big goals on Eventing Nation is to help the many different elements of the eventing community understand each other better by providing an open forum for discussion.  In this spirit, it is a pleasure to welcome cross-country course designer Tremaine Cooper for a guest article on the differences between levels from a course designer’s perspective.  Tremaine, of Hardwick, MA, has designed courses for many fantastic events over the years, including Poplar Place Horse (GA), Millbrook Horse Trials (NY),  Puhinui Horse Trials (New Zealand),  Morven Park (VA), Plantation Field (PA), and Southern Pines (NC).  I had the pleasure of meeting Tremaine for the first time at Millbrook last year after I popped off in the middle of Tremaine’s advanced coffin.  It was Saturday night and I was obsessively walking the line I had missed–Tremaine drove up on a tractor and we struck up a conversation about  the possibility of course designer guest articles for Eventing Nation.  Thanks for writing this Tremaine and thank you for reading:
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One of Tremaine’s jumps at Poplar

From Tremaine:

One of the most important aspects of course design, even at the upper levels is education.   Hopefully upon completing a course you are on a better horse than when you left the start box.  Conversely even a good horse can be turned off to going cross country if they are run over uninviting, trappy courses, or tracks that are not appropriate for the level.

One complaint or comment of some courses is that there is a big jump between the levels, especially from Training to Prelim.  To determine what is appropriate at each level, one must always start at the top.  Even if a designer will never design an Advanced track, they must have an understanding of what is being asked at that level.  Then they must take a step back and ask themselves what skills must we ask at the proceeding levels to prepare the competitors to answer those questions.  This process can be continued all the way down to Beginner Novice.

One example of this can be seen in combinations.  A simple bounce is introduced at the Prelim level.  Since this is the first time that the horse has seen this in competition, the designer should try to place it in a helpful location – off a bend and up a slight hill will help to balance the horse – and they should use solid inviting material.  It is ideal if they have a good experience while first learning this exercise.  Taking this back to Training, it is important that they practice jumping a combination at one stride.  It is not seen often, but a bounce step, which is much more forgiving than two uprights, can be a good question at training as long as it is not a first of the season or move up event. The next step back would be two related jumps at two or three strides at Novice.

This progression can be applied to many different types of jumps, be it water, ditches or corners.  The most important thing is that if this is the first time that this question is being asked, that it be asked fairly, and not in conjunction with another question.  An example of that would be it is fair to have a proper corner at the Prelim level.  It is also fair to have a jump where the take off and landing is in water at Prelim.  I do not believe though that it is right to ask a water to water corner at Prelim.

On the other hand, one must look at the whole picture of the question being asked.  Look at a corner in a combination.  A jump a number of strides before the corner can help by putting you on a good line and on the proper stride, or it can ask for a slightly more open stride (harder) or a more difficult line.

So while courses should not ask questions above the given level, I also think that a designer is not doing any one a favor making a course too easy for that level.  If I were to run a horse at a number events where none of the jumps were up to size and few questions were asked it might give me a sense of false security and give me the impression that we were ready to move up a level.

One more comment about ‘move up’ events.  There is nothing wrong with a course that is straight forward, but if the level is Prelim, then they should be jumping Prelim jumps – not 3’3″ ones with green flags.  If a horse is going prelim it needs to be able to jump 3’7″.

As a final thought, a designer is not out there to trick people.  We want to provide good sport but there is nothing more satisfying than a good horse ridden well over ones course making it all look easy.  Actually, it is most satisfying to be on that horse!