As if the calibre of riders on the teams wasn’t tempting enough, plus “hosts” Boyd Martin and Leslie Law, I can also spill the beans that the PRO Derby Cross will also have a rather special commentator. If you watched any of the 2010 WEG on FEI TV, then you may be familiar with John Kyle.
Luckily his schedule commentating on the Western European League of World Cup dressage will allow him to spend some time in Florida at the beginning of March, so after the PRO Derby Cross, he’ll be headed north to commentate at Red Hills, which might be slightly more within his comfort zone.
“I’d be a cross-country commentator before anything else,” although he did work the Cardiff Express Eventing as well as a number of other main arena events, (“If you’ve got the opportunity to be in a ring making a prat of yourself then that’s always quite good fun!”) and of course covered all eight FEI disciplines here in Kentucky last autumn.
Well known in England for his knowledge of all equestrian sports (I hope he won’t mind if I share that a friend of his joked that he reads the FEI rules book in bed at night!) and great sense of humour, along with that all important “gift of the gab,” we can look forward to a great night of Derby Cross, and a couple of excellent days cross-country commentating at Red Hills with a distinctly British flavour!
Fittingly, as eventing historically has military ties, the PRO Derby Cross will benefit Operation Homefront, a charity that provides assistance to the families of service members and wounded warriors.
Hugh Lochore, course designer for the second year running at Red Hills, thinks John, who was recently asked to submit an application for commentating for London 2012, will definitely be a perk for Red Hills. “To get John and his enthusiastic voice on the mic will be a massive boost from the public point of view; the people of Tallahassee won’t know what’s hit them!”
For competitors at Red Hills, the cross country course, which underwent massive changes last year in Hugh’s first year, is in the middle of a three year plan. This year there’s a new water jump, as well as some other adjustments.
“It’s a very undulating course, and there’s a heck of a lot of trees, so what I’ve tried to do is bring a lot more of the jumps out into the open. There’s a temptation to site them under these magnificent oak trees, but the truth is the footing under the oak trees isn’t very good, so I’ve brought them out into better, grassy take-offs and landings, and I think that’s proved to be quite popular.”
“I’ve already got next year’s course planned, I just wasn’t able to do everything I wanted to do in the first couple of years, but next year I have it all down on paper already, so it’s really beginning to look like a ‘Hugh course.’ In terms of the footing being firm or soft, we’ve had a great winter of rain, and it’s quite sandy soil, so it won’t be firm, it should be just right.”
The Red Hills cross country is also innovative, and a leader in safety: “We’ve got MIM clips, we’ve got Pro-logs, we’ve got reverse pinning and standard pinning, and I think we’re the first event to try all four frangible systems on the courses.”
If you’re thinking about entering and worried you might be too late, Hugh reckons they will still take a few more. “The way things are the last couple of years with internet entries everyone enters at the last minute, but we’re very pleased to have six out of the eight American WEG team members coming, as well as Canadians, a Brit (Leslieee!), an Argentinian (Go Jose!).
“We’ve got a very good entry and that just makes it quite pleasing from a standpoint of last year must have gone well if everyone’s coming back again.”
If you’re thinking about going to spectate, I absolutely encourage you to do that too. The Red Hills website has all the information you could possibly need, as well as some history on the area. I’m looking forward to going for the first time, and can’t wait to bring you news from Tallahassee. Thanks for reading.
