Fence 16AB. Photo by Kate Samuels.
Hello from warm and sunny Pau! Kate and I arrived on the grounds at around 2:30 p.m., eager to checking out Pierre Michelet’s CCI4* course. This is a big weekend for Team USA, in part because we have seven American horses competing here — by far the most we’ve had at a major European competition in recent memory.
In addition, Pierre is also the course designer for the 2014 World Equestrian Games in Normandy, so it’s important for our American riders to get as much exposure to his courses as they can in the next year so we can be prepared to tackle the questions there.
After walking the course this afternoon, some of the jumps are smaller than what you’d expect to see at a CCI4*, but don’t think that will make it any less difficult. The course is is long — with 33 jumping efforts in all — but the terrain here is almost entirely flat. The course relies heavily on big galloping fences, and there are definitely some interesting questions.
Coach David O’Connor noted in the rider’s meeting at Plantation Field that Pierre is well-known for his use of three-stride combinations and angled brushes, so I expected to see a lot of those on the course. And, sure enough, we did see a three-stride combination with two big tables very early in the course at fence 4ab.
There are also plenty of angled brushes and skinnies, although they’re not always set in ways that require riders to ride a direct line through the combination. Think bending — or even sweeping lines — like at fence 20ab.
We also noticed that the course doesn’t use a single frangible pin, although there are really only two spots on course that could use pins: fence 19, an upright gate placed on top of a hill, and fence 30, another upright gate placed toward the very end of the course.
What do you think about the course, EN? The trot up starts in just a few minutes, so we’ll be back with photos and a full report on our American and Canadian pairs. Go Pau!
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