We’re getting ready to watch some exciting cross country on Saturday in Florida as our final major event of the season continues at TerraNova in Myakka City. Alec Lochore is the cross country designer, having taken over from former designer Capt. Mark Phillips at the outset of this season. You can read more about Alec’s goals for this property and his design philosophy, which centers around providing a good preparation path for horses and riders, in our interview with him here.
The B&D Builders CCI4*-L is the headlining divisions this weekend, and the cross country course for this division is set at an optimum time of 10:33, with 25 numbered obstacles and 42 total jumping efforts. While the TerraNova property is not blessed with a ton of natural terrain, the hardworking crew here has gotten creative to include as much terrain change as possible, including the use of a new “Mount Myakka” drop complex set at the far corner of the course at fence 18.
The new “Mount Myakka” hill brings some new terrain change to the grounds at TerraNova. Photo via CrossCountryApp.
The track will also take competitors through the main, Lakeside arena for the first time this year as well, with an ABC combination of angled brushes creating an exciting showing for those in attendance under the Pavillon.
Mia Farley, who won the dressage in this division on Friday with Karen O’Connor’s Invictus on a score of 27.9, said she chose this event for this 8-year-old for its more forgiving terrain, given where he is in his career. “We thought it would be a good goal to run the four-Long here at the end of his eight-year-old year,” Mia said. “I was most comfortable with TerraNova because I know the terrain is a little more forgiving. That being said, I do think the flat ground makes it pretty hard to have rideability, actually.”
It is true – we see chatter often about the world’s statistically flatter courses at the 4* and 5* level, and while it’s easy to immediately think of “softer” when you think of flatter going, Mia brings up a good point in that many times these horses almost need terrain to help back them off and slow them down. To aid with this, Alec and his team have gotten creative, creating turns into questions that compel the competitors to rate their horses accordingly; though, of course a horse that tends to be more on the muscle may still struggle with this, especially earlier on in the course.
“I do think the time will be hard,” Mia said, again alluding to the idea that the flatter terrain may not allow some horses to catch the time as they work on rideability. “I’m personally impressed with the course because they have a lot of gallop stretches but then a lot of turning back to the combination so the turns will help — but you’ve got to slow down to make the turn. They have the coffin [at fence 6] that should, I would hope, slow people down. It’s really steep coming in; it’s so steep that they’ve just put a frangible pin at the A and C element because I think the question is really kind of the ‘cliff’ down to the ditch.”
Mia also noted the Corner, Gate, Corner question at 8ABC as a unique element on the course, involving a left-handed corner, up a mound to an innocuous-looking pinned vertical, then down a turn to a right-handed corner.
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- The Corner, Gate, Corner question at 8ABC. Photo via CrossCountryApp.
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- The Corner, Gate, Corner question at 8ABC. Photo via CrossCountryApp.
We’ll also see riders bouncing into the water at the first water question, at 11ABCD:
Photo via CrossCountryApp.
Mia’s thoughts are that the time might be harder to get up on in the first third of the course, with more turns and loops to complete at the outset before getting to more open galloping in the the middle of the course.
You can view the full course embedded below, and you can also view the other courses across levels on CrossCountryApp here.
Cross country for the B&D Builders CCI4*-L begins on Saturday, November 16 at 11:45 a.m. ET, following the CCI3*-L cross country which will lead off the day starting at 9:40 a.m. You can view the full schedule here. You’ll be able to view the free live feed from cross country all day at this link.
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