No Unicorns Were Harmed in the Making of this Pau 4* Course Preview

What is that groundline, seriously?

When it comes to cross-country, course design is paramount, of course — but I also appreciate some first-class artistic direction.

As opposed to the-week-before-last’s Boekelo CCIO3* course, which I think I described as “straight-up cross-country — no frills, no cutesy distractions, nothing except you and your horse and 28 questions you’re going to need to answer in timed-quiz fashion,” Pau has some vision, a thought-out theme. It took me a hot moment to put it together, though.

Like, what is that stuff, seriously? Did somebody pull a unicorn’s mane and think, “Hey, wouldn’t this leftover mane be great jump filler”? This question plagued me from the first jump, where it debuted as a sort of weird surface decor…

…to #25, featuring a unicorn-mane groundline.

#25

Eventually, of course, it occurred to me that the unicorn-mane was actually meant to represent snow, as the course has something of an international theme. Like maybe “milk-jug-in-the-snow” fence represents, I don’t know, Switzerland? Where there’s Swiss cheese, there’s probably Swiss milk, I’m guessing.

This one, though, I’ve got: random red phone booth with a crown on it next to fence #4 on the CIC2* course… Great Britain! Ding, ding, ding.

Photo by Leslie Wylie.

And then there’s this thing with the funny symbols on it that I thought were Chinese until John Kyle explained to me that they actually have something to do with William the Conqueror, or the Normandy Coat of Arms, or “Game of Thrones,” or something.

I’m just a clueless product of America’s failed public education system, John. Take your fancy European history facts somewhere else and leave me alone.

#26

Moreover, the real question looming on everyone’s minds is “How will it ride?” French designer Pierre Michelet and his courses have been an object of curiosity for some time, since he landed the two most coveted course design gigs on the planet: the 2014 World Equestrian Games and the 2016 Olympics.

As one of a handful of people on earth who have seen what he is up to in Brazil, having covered the Olympic Test Event in Rio, I understand why he’s the perfect fit for Pau. Pierre is brilliant at making the most of a compact space, be it the venue of the 2016 Olympic Games or a fairly confined plot of turf in France. When it comes to land, he can make an aspiring New York City actor’s studio loft feel like a Brownstone, and right now everyone is itching to get a feel for how their horse will handle Pierre’s feng shui.

Beyond that it’s a bit of a twisty, turn-y bender with a solid mix of galloping fences and technical questions throughout. The water combinations (which weren’t yet filled when I took photos of the course, see below) will likely prove troublesome, and there are lots of angles and skinnies set off a forward step.

The land is flat as a crepe, so there are plenty of man-made mounds on course to ensure that horses can stomach terrain, beginning with fence #6. Paul Tapner explains his strategy for that obstacle for FEI TV:

FEI TV also has videos of Mary King walking the first of the water complexes at fence 8, Emily King walking the final water test at fence 24, and Jonelle Price walking the ski jump brush to corner combination that comes late on the course at fence 27.

The couple riders I talked to today after their dressage tests — Canada’s Rebecca Howard and the U.S.’s Lillian Heard (we recapped their dressage rides here) — both had sound reasons for not taking Pierre’s Pau course lightly.

“It feels a little bit just inconsistent, really,” Rebecca said. “There are small or simple exercises and then you have something quite substantial like the waters, which are quite difficult. And then it’s inconsistent in the way you’ll be galloping around and then they throw in a short turn or something like that, so there are a few things that shake up your rhythm for sure. It will be interesting to see how that feels — I can see getting caught out on things that seem to be relatively straightforward.”

Check it out (note: where there were options I photographed the direct route only):