Eventing Nation’s coverage of the 2021 USEA American Eventing Championships is brought to you by Kentucky Performance Products. We want to share the joy of eventing this week, so we invite you to nominate an AEC rider for our “Kentucky Performance of the Week” contest, happening now in partnership with Kentucky Performance Products. Learn more here.
It’s just Wednesday but cross country for some levels is already underway at the 2021 American Eventing Championships presented by Nutrena. The Intermediate and Preliminary divisions, which kicked off this six-day event-of-epic-proportions with their dressage tests on Tuesday, will take on cross country today on the Kentucky Horse Park’s hallowed grounds. Advanced, Modified and Training go cross country on Thursday and Novice takes to the bluegrass on Friday, followed by a full day of Beginner Novice cross country on Saturday.
Prelim through Advanced divisions have their warmup and start box on the far left side of the course, if you’re looking out at it from stabling, with courses that run from there through the infield and across Mark’s Lane then loop back into the infield. Beginner Novice through Modified divisions begin to the right of the infield and head past the polo fields before making a pass through the Head of the Lake and finishing up Mark’s Lane from Rolex Stadium.
All courses are designed by Derek di Grazia and built by a team headed up by Mick Costello and Tobiah Bingham, including Dave Leonard, James Rauch, Tyson Rementer, Levi Ryckewaert and Graham Schick. Sheila Woerth and Rachel Henson are responsible for the beautiful course decor. It’s always a joy to tackle cross country on the Park’s flowing, gently rolling terrain and the ground should drain well from Tuesday’s rain. The forecast is only looking up from here, with a chance of showers today followed by sunny to partly cloudy forecasts for the remainder of the week — accompanied by highs in the upper 70s, a real treat considering the relentless heat we’ve been enduring this August!
A big thanks to Park Equine Kentucky Classique, Land Rover Kentucky Three-Day Event, Keeneland Pony Club and the Midsouth Pony Club Region and Hagyard Midsouth Team Challenge for allowing the AEC to use some of their jumps.
Optimum times:
- 5 minutes 35 seconds for Beginner Novice
- 5 minutes 8 seconds for Novice
- 5 minutes 31 seconds for Training
- 5 minutes 35 seconds Modified
- 5 minutes 39 seconds Prelim
- 6 min 27 second Intermediate
- 6 minutes 24 seconds for Advanced
CrossCountry App has kindly consolidated all seven courses into a dedicated event page. If you’ve got the app you can download your course, or view it here!