Badminton unveiled Giuseppe Della Chiesa’s cross-country course this morning in an excellent 24-minute video in which Giuseppe and Hugh Thomas take viewers on a walk around the 30 jumping efforts. Hugh has designed the course for the past 25 years, so it’s definitely exciting to see a new designer inject a different feel and style into this iconic track. I grabbed screenshots of all the fences shown on camera for a course preview below. You can also see drawings of each fence with descriptions here and analysis of each fence in detail here courtesy of Badminton.
A few things to watch for in the video:
- Giuseppe wanted the course to feel more like “a ride across country rather than a trail of individual obstacles around a park.” The questions are technical but don’t require excessive yanking and pulling.
- The first water comes much earlier in the course than in previous years at fence 9. That jump into the water is just under the max height of 2 meters.
- The new pond complex at fence 14 comes at about the 11-minute marker in the video. Giuseppe says he’s a big fan of using silver birch to aid readability, especially in a case like this where the question is shaded.
- Giuseppe likes to use logs in questions like the new mound at fence 18 because they’re forgiving to the horses. Also think of this new mound in the context of WEG, as course designer Pierre Michelet likes to incorporate them into his courses.
What do you think of Giuseppe’s new course, EN?
- Fence 2 — Tree Trunk
- Fence 3 — John Whitaker Keepers Brush
- Fence 4 — Little Badminton Double Rails
- Fence 5 — The Savills Escalator
- Fence 5 — The Savills Escalator
- Fences 6 and 7 — Team GBR Silver Birch
- Fence 9 — The Lake
- Fence 10 — KBIS Garden Table
- Fence 11 — Shogun Hollow
- Fence 12 — Shogun Hollow
- Fence 13 — Outlander Bank
- Fence 14 — Gatehouse New Pond
- Fence 15 — PHEV Vicarage Vee
- Fence 16 — Mirage Pond
- I mean, come on!
- Fence 18 — Swindon Designer Outlet Mound
- Fence 18 — Swindon Designer Outlet Mound
- Fence 20 — World Horse Welfare Garden Gates
- Fence 20 — World Horse Welfare Garden Gates
- Fence 21 — L200 Trailer
- Fence 22 — ISH Studbook Huntsmans Close
- Fence 22 — ISH Studbook Huntsmans Close
- Fence 24 — Horsequest Quarry
- Fence 25 — Horsequest Quarry
- Fences 27 and 28 — Countryside Hedges
- Fence 29 — Rolex Presentation Boxes
- Course map