Bromont CCI3* Cross Country Preview and Thoughts

“Big,” “galloping,” “bold” and “fair” are the adjectives that keep surfacing when I ask riders what they think about this year’s CCI3* Bromont track. There’s a lot to do out there but the questions all invite answers.

This year’s track, designed by Derek di Grazia, is very similar to last year’s with a few shake-ups here and there. This year’s coffin has been a topic of discussion — you jump up over #7, down the slope over the ditch (#8A), then a bending two strides out in either direction over a skinny brush (#8B) followed by a bending two strides back in to a skinny table (#8C). (The photo in the gallery below is worth 1,000 words confusing explanation.) Riders will need a plan going in and they’ll need to stick to it come hell or high water because the combination could easily catch out a horse that favors straight lines and looks for flags.

The course is challenging enough, but heaped on top of that is distance and terrain. Optimum time is 10:06 and with Bromont’s rolling hills, even the fittest horses will start feeling the burn along the way. I had the opportunity to tag along with some riders on a course walk, among them British Olympic gold medalist Leslie Law. Leslie brought up the example of the #22-#23 fences at Badminton this year, the Huntsman’s Close, which was the end of the road for several riders. Standing alone, the two massive corners are a standard four-star jump du jour, but plop it down on the homestretch of a epic course when your horse is tired and losing rideability and you’ve got, well, you’ve got Badminton 2014.

Leslie’s point was that when you’re late in a long course and you’ve got a tough question in front of you, you’ve got to get scrappy if you want to get the job done. Kick, pull, do something… because your horse isn’t going to do it himself. The ones who made it past the Huntsman’s Close, he said, were the ones who didn’t give up. Tomorrow’s field is peppered with new-to-the-level horses and riders who haven’t had the experience of being at the eight- or nine-minute marker of a 3* course, and success will come to those who are both mentally and physically prepared to fight all the way to the finish.

Heavy rain earlier in the week left the course pretty wet but we’ve gotten some sun the past couple days and by late afternoon Friday the turf was just spongy enough. It’s still a bit boggy in places, though, and especially heading uphill riders may find that they need to take their foot off the gas pedal and let their horses feel their way up.

Enough words. Here’s the course!

Cross-country kicks off at 8 a.m. and we’ll be bringing you reports and analysis throughout the day. We also encourage you to tune into the PRO Tour Series Live Eventing Radio Broadcast — that going to be your best bet for getting up-to-the-minute updates. Alléz Concours Complet!

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