Photo by EQ Media.
As Alec Lochore looks ahead to the CCI4*-L at The Event at TerraNova (November 14-17 – Myakka City, FL), he holds firm to two core guiding questions: How am I educating the horse? How am I preparing the combinations to get to the next level?
He’s certainly got the resume to help him navigate the latest challenge to come his way, coupled with the experience he’s gained from designing this spring’s Short format events at TerraNova, as well as serving as a Technical Delegate for the event in the past. He’s also served as the Technical Delegate at two Olympic Games and has designed at some of the most high-profile events in the world, including Blair Castle in Scotland, which has just run its final event in 2024.
This year, Alec stepped into the shoes of Captain Mark Phillips, the initial designer at TerraNova who stepped aside in 2024 ahead of his retirement. With this year’s Event at TerraNova just a few weeks ago and entries closing soon, Alec is feeling pleased with the work he has done, though as any good course designer will add as a caveat, “we’ll know for sure in a few weeks!”
Of course, the first question Alec fields these days is whether or not the recent outbreak of hurricanes in Florida has affected the property. Most recently, Hurricane Milton ravaged the Gulf coast of Florida and farther, though TerraNova team members are happy to report that the damage sustained by the venue was minimal and posed no threat to the upcoming event (the venue did cancel its CDI-W, which had been scheduled for the weekend directly following Milton, citing power outages and widespread effects from the storm). The venue also took in equine evacuees during both Hurricanes Helene and Milton.
Alyssa Phillips and Cornelius Bo. Photo by Shannon Brinkman Photography.
“I was very pleasantly surprised and obviously very pleased there was no sign of damages, other than the odd tree down or branches down. There were no noticeable signs of damage on the property at all,” Alec noted.
With little hurricane detritus standing in his way, Alec could fully turn his attention to the finishing touches of his courses, which he’s worked to open up more for this year’s running. The topography at TerraNova is minimal; most of the terrain you’ll find here is manmade and still a work in progress. This challenges a designer to get creative when it comes to creating courses, particularly for a Long format, that challenge competitors on the clock. And, standing at the foundation of Alec’s designing, there is an element of flow he wants to create that reduces the need to use twists and turns and complications just to “slow down” a horse.
“I just set about trying to make my own mark,” Alec described, noting that the work Capt. Phillips had done to this point was much appreciated and respected. “For the spring event, I was very conscious of the fact that people were preparing to go to Kentucky or a [four-star Long] in the spring. So I wanted to, as I’m sure Mark Phillips did, want to build big and encouraging tracks to get people going. I hope that was achieved. My design, particularly in the four-Long this year, I’ve tried very carefully to use the lumps and bumps and bounds sympathetically and have been careful not to ask the same question over and over again.”
“In a course like TerraNova, you have to try to slow the combinations down a bit, but you also don’t want to punish them,” he continued. “So it’s not a go-kart track. I haven’t added a lot of loops and twists and turns. I might have used some jumps and features, but there’s still quite a lot of gallop in there.”
Lucienne Bellissimo and Tremanton. Photo by Shannon Brinkman Photography.
Historically speaking, you’ll tend to see a few general trends in the 4*-L entries at this event: a mixture of horses and/or riders stepping up to a Long at the level for the first time, those pushing for a competitive finish to cap off a year at the level, or horses rerouting from earlier Long formats. For Alec, his job is to design something that suits all of the above – but he said he actually doesn’t factor these variables in as much as he looks ahead to the big picture for these pairs.
“I don’t really think to myself, ‘is this a four-Long?’ I think to myself, ‘is this one step?’ And it is only one step on the way to Kentucky or Badminton, et cetera, because if they get around here, that is one step toward their five-star MER. So, how am I educating that horse, and how am I preparing the combinations to get there? I don’t really think about it from a perspective of whether someone is a first-timer or somebody’s coming to it as some sort of final run. I just balance it and ask myself, ‘is this appropriate?’”
There are some new elements to the course this year, including a new track that routes through the main arena (which will make for some excellent viewing for VIP patrons!), a new expansive water complex, and a man made mound that both the 4* and 3* tracks will use, adding some extra elevation to the course.
“I would love the riders to love the event and to come here as a prep run because they feel it’s the right place to come to,” Alec said. “What I consider to be successful is when I look at the results of the next event at the next level and see how those horses progressed. At Blair – and I haven’t always been responsible for [that course] – we’ve had a very good record of producing horses that go on to do well at five-star. I get satisfaction from that, that the job is being done well when you see those sorts of things.”
Lucienne Bellissimo and Tremanton. Photo by Shannon Brinkman Photography.
Adding a scientific element to the cross country at TerraNova is the team working with Mike Boekholder, a specialist who has worked with events like Fair Hill/Maryland 5 Star and the Kentucky Three-Day Event to test the ground on the courses.
Using a device known familiarly as a VST – a Vienna Surface Testing machine – Mike gathers data of the ground conditions in the weeks leading up to an event. At the heart of this work lies a desire to ensure horses have the safest ground possible to run on.
“I provide independent ground testing for eventing courses,” Mike, who is the former Director of Field Operations for the Philadelphia Phillies and whose primary career involves designing football and baseball playing fields, described. Through his work, he’s also collaborated with Mark Lucey, an equine vet and ground testing pioneer in the UK. “It’s a coordinated effort, trying to figure out how to improve the surfaces for equine safety.”
The use of the VST machine involves a bowling ball-like mechanism with an accelerometer/ decelerometer impeded into the ball. During testing, the VST is dropped from several different heights to collect data. In the initial ground test, the unit will be used every 125 meters along the course. The data collected is then loaded into a spreadsheet for analysis.
“It gives us a cushioning rating, firmness rating, depth of penetration rating, energy return rating, and a lower and upper level stiffness rating,” Mike said. He also takes soil moisture readings with a moisture meter. “We process all of the data and that gives us a ‘going value’ and then a course variability average for the whole course.”
Jessica Phoenix (CAN) and Freedom GS moved up to finish in second place from fifth after a successful
cross-country round in the Galati Yacht Sales CCI4*-S. Shannon Brinkman Photo
The goal here is to make the ground as consistent as possible from start to finish. These tests allow Mike to provide feedback to the grounds team at each venue so that they can make necessary adjustments according to the data.
“We’re looking at two things,” he explained. “Overall going [rating] and overall variability rating. The consistent ground is what we need to provide the horse, so it knows what to expect while running. The worst thing for a horse is not having consistent footing. If you’ve got a high variability rating, the way Mark [Lucey] described it, the horse can lose confidence in the ground or go on to pull a tendon or strain a ligament. So the lower variability, the better for the horse and therefore for the rider.”
Mike says the data he’s seen, in terms of how it correlates to the actual ridden condition of the track, has been “amazingly accurate.” The tests he performs involve the pre-event test, then another about 10 days before the event, and a final test the day before cross country.
Speaking to his tests at TerraNova this year, Mike says the ground is looking and testing “the best we’ve tested a month out. The soil moisture is where it needs to be at this point. They were pretty fortunate in that they didn’t get a lot of rain out of this hurricane, which actually helped them. They didn’t get overly saturated, they got enough for it to be useful. Too much is just as bad as not enough.”
Lauren Nicholson (USA) and I’ll Have Another, in 19th place after stadium jumping, finished in third place after cross-country in the Galati Yacht Sales CCI4*-S. Shannon Brinkman Photo
“What we’re trying to do is create a safer environment, because a fatigued horse or a horse that doesn’t have confidence in the ground is more prone to injury,” Mike continued. “The testing is a snapshot in time, and our test [done the day before cross country] is done at every 250 meters, and when you take a course like [Maryland] that’s 4.2 miles, there’s a lot of ground in between. So you have to look at it with a bit of realism. It’s not a 100 percent guarantee, but it’s a really valuable piece of information.”
Mike hopes more venues will take advantage of this technology, and the inclusion of numerous frangible fences on cross country at the outset of this event also underscores TerraNova’s investment in safety for both horses and humans.
Alec Lochore echoes this sentiment. “I just think it’s a great venue,” he said. “The ethos of the whole estate and the family is that they want people to come and enjoy it, and they want the horses to be safe and have a good time. That sounds cliché, but it is the truth of it.”
You can see more of the work Alec and his team have put into this year’s cross country courses below:
Entries are open until October 29, with late entries accepted through November 5. You can view the full omnibus for The Event at Terranova, November 17-19 here. For information on hospitality experiences, click here.
