It’s cross-country day at Young Riders! Stay up to date with live scores here and hopefully the USEF Network will have some coverage as well. Shannon Lilley has generously offered to keep us posted on all things Area VI. As always, thanks for writing this Shannon and thank you for reading.
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From Shannon:
Hello EN readers!
Cross country day is upon us at NAJYRC. Things kick off with the Young Riders at 8am with the Juniors to follow. Having this competition at the Kentucky Horse Park is particularly special for the event riders as they get to run on the same footing and paths that are used for Rolex and the 2010 WEGs.
Luckily the rain gods have blessed the Park with some thunder storms over the past week bringing some much needed rain to help soften up the concrete-like footing that was just one week ago. Those thunder and lightening storms have made for some adventurous course walks but everyone has walked enough and is now ready to rock!
The course is designed by David O’Connor but, since he is a little busy with things like the Olympics right now, the accomplished Tremaine Cooper is standing in his place with the course prep. Both courses look fantastic from what I can see thanks to the wonderful pictures from our esteemed Area VI riders, Teresa Harcourt and Jordyn Horowitz. The two-star course is 8 min 36 seconds in length while the one-star course is 8 min and 3 seconds. These championships courses are very long especially combined with the heat and humidity that Kentucky can bring in July. Hopefully tomorrow will be as it was today with a little breeze and some overcast skies. Somehow, since the competition has been at KHP, we have always lucked out on cross-country day with the weather being cooler, which makes it better for the horses and riders.
The organizing committee does a great job making sure there are misting tents and ‘Big Ass Fans’ throughout the finish box. The fans help tremendously to bring down the horses temps as most often they come in extremely hot!
Talking with all of our Area VI riders, it seems as though the corner lines on both courses will require a lot of accurate riding. The riders felt as though there wasn’t anything on the courses that they had not done before, but it was just a matter of riding smart and getting the job done. It sounds like there are quite a few angled lines, which will require accurate but forward riding. That combined with the terrain and the length of course will make this anything BUT a dressage competition!
I hope all the riders and horses get around safely and soundly, but hope the Area VI combined teams prevail and put themselves in good position for Sunday!
Good luck to everyone!!
Go Area VI and NAJYRC!!!
Course photos via Teresa Harcourt and Jordyn Horowitz:
