Jersey Fresh CCI3* Cross Country Course Preview

Fence 23 ABC on the CCI3* course. Photo by Sally Spickard.

There’s plenty of action coming down the pipe tomorrow on the cross country course at Jersey Fresh. While there is also a CCI2* and both CIC2* and CIC3* running as well, I was only able to grab full course photos of the CCI3*. John Williams has done a marvelous job utilizing the terrain at this facility, and it’s definitely safe to say (and perhaps even an understatement) that the course will test horse and rider fitness across all levels.

There is plenty to do for the entirety of the CCI3* course, and the technical questions really never stop coming. John has ensured that there are plenty of breather-type fences scattered about to give the riders time to catch their breath, but before you know it there’s another combination coming your way.

I was also able to walk the portions of the CIC3* course that are shared with the CCI3* with Dom and Jimmie Schramm, so you might find their commentary on various combinations helpful. The videos are slowly but surely uploading, so check back on this post for those.

Particularly interesting to me is fence 23ABC, which is a quite frightening (to me) drop down to two angled rolltops. While Dom and Jimmie didn’t seem nearly as concerned on our course walk as I was about this question, there is no doubt that this will require 110% accuracy, especially if the rain comes down as hard as it’s supposed to tonight which will cause the footing on the approach to deteriorate. Be sure to check out my video of Dom and Jimmie’s commentary on this question, which will almost certainly ride differently between the CCI and CIC divisions. The combination comes near the end of the course on the CCI and at the beginning in the CIC, so it will be very interesting to see how differently it rides throughout the day.

Many, many thanks to Lisa Mackintosh, the press officer here at Jersey, who has been a complete angel all weekend and even volunteered to drive both myself and the Chronicle of the Horse reporters around the course to save us from the physical exertion today. I must admit, though, I did not feel quite as bad about the sad state of my fitness after talking to Lauren Kieffer and hearing her remark that the big hill on course had her practically on her hands and knees!

Dom and Jimmie’s commentary on the first water question:

Dom and Jimmie at Fence 12:

Side note: I apologize for not grabbing a photo of the first fence. I was too busy enthralling myself with my terrible videography skills to notice that we’d already started.