The course is big, the course is technical, the course is everything we have been talking about for the last few months and the riders have definitely noticed. Most of the eventers spent Wednesday afternoon walking the cross-country course. A few riders who ride early on Thursday might not have walked the course yet, but most of the riders have seen the course and it’s time you did too.
We will have much more XC analysis and preview later, but one thing that really stands out to me about the Mike Etherington-Smith designed course is that every combination includes an option. Internation championships present the toughest challenge to course designers because the very best riders in the world need to be challenged while at the same time the riders from smaller nations (who maybe have never even done a four-star) need to be considered. I feel like Mike ES has risen to this challenge beautifully with the options that he has designed and if a rider were to take every single long route the course would probably ride like a huge and very windy CCI3*. For the riders who are riding to win and pressured to win, taking all the direct options at speed will make the course feel like a CCI5*.
The early word from the riders is that the course starts off nice and easy but gets serious in the infield with a very tough coffin that requires a lot of energy out over a big corner. From there, it’s big and technical all the way home with an especially tough last combination with angles over ditches. Speaking of angles, there are lots of angled ground lines–the sunken road bank is angled, the first jump into the HOTL has an angled bank ground line, and the final combination has angled ground lines as well. In his latest blog entry (which is an excellent read), Jimmy Wofford predicts that just 20 horses will go clear and only 5 double-clear. This is definitely a course to lose some sleep over. Go eventing.
