Cross-County Day Underway at Red Hills [Video]

Bill Hoos and Ducati. Photo by Jenni Autry. Bill Hoos and Ducati. Photo by Jenni Autry.

Finally — #eventingsunnyflorida is living up to its name! After enduring rain and chilly temps for the past two days, the sun finally graced us with its presence for cross-country day at Red Hills, and the festivities are off to a wonderful start. There was a long line of spectators already waiting to park this morning when I drove in, and many people have already staked out their chairs around the water jumps in anticipation of the three-star cross-country action later this afternoon. They call Red Hills a “Mini Rolex” for a reason; it’s a great opportunity to expose horses to atmosphere.

Hugh Lochore and his team have worked tirelessly over the past two days to get the course dried and prepared for today. They drained water off the complex on the back of the course and reportedly made quite a few adjustments at The Shire to get the footing in better shape. All the riders I chatted with this morning said the footing looks much improved. Of course, the Preliminary and CIC* horses taking the course before the Advanced and CIC3*, so the  galloping lanes will be churned up a bit. We’ll already seen withdrawals from Phillip Dutton and Mighty Nice and Buck Davidson and Park Trader and Petite Flower. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see a few more before the CIC3* horses start running at 12:36 p.m.

The course rode well for the Preliminary and CIC* riders this morning, and I watched a number of horses come through Nature’s Dew Pool at fence 17. The early morning light cast a shadow on this fence for the Preliminary riders, and the horses were jumping in huge over the shadows. After the sun shifted for the CIC*, it rode smoother, though it still required riders to really sit down and commit to their line. Riders who took a slower approach in saw a sticky takeoff, which resulted in an awkward landing. Some horses took pretty impressive flyers over this fence (see Bill Hoos and Ducati above!).

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