Photo via CrossCountry App.
While I have hunted and hunted in the corners of the internet, I have not been able to find a map of the 2006 World Equestrian Games cross country course to compare it to this year’s 20 year anniversary track at the FEI Eventing World Championships Aachen 2026. Now that I’ve said that, I’m sure I’ll receive a smug email from someone with a copy of the map attached (okay, but even if you have to be smug about it, please do send it as I would love to see it). So I did the next best thing: I asked someone who competed in 2006 for their memories of the track.
“Those days, it was a tough enough course,” Karin Donckers, who finished 13th individually for Belgium with Gazelle de la Brasserie that year. “I remember [there were] ‘piano’ steps up and down — a lot happened there. We had to go further away, we had a longer course — it was a bit more hilly because we went really to the back. The intensity and technicality on fences of course was different those days, but times are changing. There’s so much change — it’s normal. I think that’s necessary, that’s good also. We have to move up and follow the changes.”
So while this year’s Aachen track (remember, it’s usually a CCI4*-S here — the only Long format tracks that have been built were for the 2006 Games and this year) is unique to its typical counterparts, it’s not quite a total callback to the past. Instead what we have before us is a truly European, modern course, and while some riders wish it was more open in places, the general sentiment is that yes, Giuseppe has built something intense and difficult, but fair to all.
But there’s a qualifier here. The course designer is tasked with laying out a course that lends itself to safety and horse welfare. It’s a monumental task, one full of pressure and risk. Once the course is open and approved by the Ground Jury, that responsibility shifts onto the riders.
Giuseppe elaborated on this concept of rider responsibility and what he prefers to reference as “management of risk.”
“I don’t call it ‘safety,’ I call it managing the risk,” he told me. “If you want to be safe, sit in front of the TV — don’t try cross country on a horse. We have to be honest with the public, otherwise we shoot ourselves in the foot by saying “it’s safe, it’s safe.” It’s not safe — it’s something that carries risk. And that’s very important to me. We mustn’t sell something we can’t sell. This isn’t a safe sport. It’s a sport with risk that we manage — and the training, the preparation, and the respect are what let us manage that risk.”
The Coffin at 8ABCDE. Photo via CrossCountry App.
Here, Giuseppe talks about two different forms of risk management: active and passive.
“I always talk about two aspects of risk management: active risk management — preparation, training, understanding where you stand, and choosing the route that’s right for you that day. Maybe in two years you’ll be a champion, but today your horse and you should take a certain route. And passive safety, which is what happens after something goes wrong: frangible devices, hedges, and so on. We need to think more about active safety, proactively — it’s fine that the passive systems can help, but let’s avoid needing them in the first place.”
And here’s where the rider responsibility really comes into play: “What you can do with active safety is much more than what you can do with passive safety. Here, when you choose to go the direct route or the alternative someone has built, that’s your choice, and you’re responsible for it. You’re not obliged to go there if you know today isn’t your day. That’s why we have 78 fences.”
The crux of designing a World Championships or an Olympic track is that the course must provide a strong enough challenge for the best riders in the world. This part, Giuseppe says, is almost the easier part of the job. The complexity compounds when you think about the riders who are less experienced, who have less exposure to top-level tracks. For this reason, we often see lettered alternatives up to, sometimes, even the letters D and E, to provide less risky options for riders who need to be able to complete safely. But the alternate routes “still need to have a flow,” Giuseppe says. Otherwise, you’re wasting energy — mostly that of the horse.
Photo via CrossCountry App.
“If you just keep turning them around, eventually the horse says, ‘Okay, enough,'” he elaborated. “So the effort has gone into creating alternatives with a bit of lateral, creative thinking that still have a flow but are longer and easier. We put 78 fences out there. I didn’t put them there just for decoration. The idea is that I hope they use them, and I think they should, because if you want to win a medal you clearly need to jump a very strong four-star track — and doing that within the time won’t be easy. And I know not everyone in this field is at that level — which is fine — but it would be wonderful to have everybody get home. That’s why I put out 78 fences. Whether they use them or not is in their hands now — I can’t do it for them.”
To that end, we’ve got a whole lot of alphabet soup out there, out of necessity. Each combination on course has at least one alternate route — some fences even have two options you can take. So, much studying is needed to ensure riders are clear on exactly which routes are which, how they can avoid crossing their tracks.
After an inviting opening to the course, which starts off with four single fences to get the horses up in the air and into a rhythm, the first combination is also fairly friendly: two arrowheads set on a bending distance, going slightly downhill. There was a similar question in the same place here last year, and it caused virtually no issues. This will get the horses perked up and seeking the fences as they head off into mostly familiar territory where the intensity really kicks off.
We’ll see the riders sort of doubling back on themselves several times throughout the course, as well as the use of an additional piece of the ground that’s been meticulously prepared by the building team over the last year.
One of the more inventive elements of the alternate routes on course comes at fence 8, which for the direct route is the Coffin complex. But take a look at this map:
I stopped and had a quick chat with Dutch team coach and course designer Andy Heffernan, who was the one who called this alternative “inventive” in the first place. The A element of the alternate route for fence 8 comes much earlier than the direct route, sending the riders on a circuit around the coffin complex and eventually putting them back on track for fence 9. This circuitous route isn’t necessarily “easy” but it allows for more time and setup if a steep, serious coffin isn’t quite in the cards. Yes, there will be seconds lost, but potentially a 20 or worse avoided. Often with alternate routes, it’s difficult not to interrupt flow because they often involve much turning about or using creative lines to get to them; Giuseppe’s goal, as I wrote earlier, is to make the alternates make sense, not just spin the horses around.
After completing these questions and the first trip through the main Allianz Water Complex, riders will then head out into the newly-opened space, which features a new question that’s arguably the most buzzy one amongst the riders: the Longines Challenge. We’ve seen similar questions like this: of course, the iconic Burghley Leaf Pit comes to mind here. It’s a serious drop off a bank, after which you must organize quickly and get your line for a sharply angled related distance question. I spun around some of the course with Boyd Martin and a group of his owners yesterday, and listened to Boyd speak on his plans for the question.
Photo via CrossCountry App.
Photo via CrossCountry App.
“It’s only at the last second that the line appears,” he said. “So you really need a horse that’s locks on to it. I think the long way here is considerably easier, and I would guess it’s only about six or seven seconds longer — this is the only option where I think you’re not out of the competition.”
There is also a new, skinny keyhole jump at 15 as well as a “rollercoaster” log on a mound at 18 in this opened space, and while you’re approaching the end of the course by the time you gallop to two picnic tables at 21 and 22, you’re not out of the woods yet.
After coming up onto a mound to jump 24A, riders will make their way back down the mound to a technical corner question. Photos via CrossCountry App.
Here is where a couple of riders expressed some dislike for the course.
“I think it’s a it’s a tough course, but fair build,” Michael Jung (GER) said. “Maybe a little twisty, especially in the end. That’s a bit — how can I say? Not so nice in the end. But the conditions are very good. The ground is perfect, and I think it’s a good course. We have all the options for different horses, different riders. Everyone can choose a bit what they what they need, and I think it’s a good course.”
The track to two of the final combinations on course. Red indicates an alternate route. Photo via CrossCountry App.
The twistiness at the end he’s referring to comes particularly at fences 23 through 25, which require riders to jump through the DHL Water Complex, wind back to the SAP Village (also a question I saw many teams camping out at to formulate plans) — an intense question in itself, especially at the end of the course — before then heading back to the DHL Water for another combination.
“The course is very championship-like,” Felix Vogg (SUI) said. “It’s tough. Proper questions until the second last fence. Quite twisty, quite turny — you heard that already a few times. Not so happy about that. Don’t know if it has to be like this, but I understand if it’s a bit at the beginning, but at the end, when the horses are tired, it’s really, really tough on them. So I was hoping more like a course like 2006, where we actually can gallop and maybe the people don’t see us too much sometimes, but it’s quite on a small space and of course they made all out of it. The ground is fantastic, but I don’t know who who will be top — probably the ones who are today good in dressage, which are really ridable, which are still straightforward, and which are very very honest.”
What about the time? It’s notoriously difficult here when it’s a short format, and just 20% of the competitors who completed the 2006 World Equestrian Games made the optimum time when it was a Long format. And remember, that would have been a course with that much more room to gallop. So it’s not likely we’ll see many — if any — catch the 9:50 time, and there is another layer to this when it’s a Championship team competition.
“In a team competition it’s always a much harder prediction, because strategy changes everything,” Giuseppe said. “You could end up with half the field no longer riding for the time at all — because the last two riders on a team might be told, ‘We already have one horse eliminated, one with refusals — we just need a clear round,’ and a clear round means taking your time. So the number of riders actually going for the time can drop dramatically.”
So, I’d go out on a wager to say we won’t see any pairs — well, we do have an Artist and a Humble Glory in the field, two horses (among others who are speedy, of course) who can generally make time on just about any track — make the time.
Julia Krajewski and Uelzener’s Nickel en route to winning CHIO Aachen in 2024. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Overall, it’s a cumulative course. Fence by fence, nothing is abjectly terrifying, nothing is unreadable to even my inexperienced riding eye. “You must be clever,” advises dressage leader Julia Krajewski (GER) — who has won CHIO Aachen twice, including once on her horse this weekend, Uelzenger’s Nickel. Riders must stay aware of their horses energy and mental aptitude, and be willing to adjust accordingly. “If you just push them through, you can’t push a horse for nine minutes 50. They have to have time to just breathe and gallop. So I think you have to be clever to ride where you can, but don’t override early on.”
And Giuseppe agrees. This, he says, is the essence of cross country riding. “The problem is putting it all together — if you ask me about one question, I’ll tell you about the course. It’s the whole course, done in the time, that makes a championship. That’s what I try to stress: I don’t want a single fence where you stop and think ‘how do I jump this?’ Everything should jump — but put it all together with the time pressure, and that’s the test.”
Above all, the course must be clear and fair to the horses — the reason we’re all here.
“I stress that a lot, including in the course-design seminars I give: the question must be clear to the horse,” Giuseppe said. “If it’s clear, the horse understands what’s being asked, even if it’s hard. If it’s not clear, that’s when it gets difficult. The line can be tough — closer, tighter, whatever — but the question itself must still be clear. Riders always tell me my courses are clear, and I appreciate that.”
Here’s a look at the course from our walk around:
If you want to hear much more from Giuseppe (and I recommend that you do), be sure to tune in to my sitdown with him here at Aachen on a mini episode of The Go Eventing Podcast, accessible here or on your favorite podcast platform.
Cross country begins at 9:15 am CEST, which is 3:15 am EST (use this handy website for time zone conversions!). You can find the starting order here and a full fence-by-fence preview on CrossCountry App, featuring guidance from Germany’s Anna Seimer, here.
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