Fence numero uno
Good morning Eventing Nation! My Friday turned into a game of survival and this time it wasn’t about avoiding being bored to death by the dressage. I owe a lot of thanks to the folks who helped me work through the day, including Joanie Morris, the USOC’s Dr. Peter, and Eduardo, the eventing venue press manager. Ultimately I’ll remember my inaugural day of Pan American dressage for all of the wrong reasons. It’s a new day and I can’t wait to get out to the Santa Sofia Golf Course for cross-country, although word is we might not have any internet access out there today.
When the Pan American Games transitioned from a CCI3* to a CCI2*, I think a lot of people felt that the cross-country aspect of the competition would be pretty straightforward. John Williams’ course is anything but that and we are going to see a true two-star test today, a test that some riders are I think accurately calling a two and a half star.
Cross-country starts at 11am local, 12pm ET.
Footing: The cross-country course is built literally on top of the golf course at the Santa Sofia Country Club. The horses will be galloping in and out of fairways, greens, over cart paths (protected with dirt), as well as over portions of sod put down specifically as galloping track. As a result, the footing is best described as inconsistent. The fairways are perfect but the sodded areas are lumpy and at times hard.
Terrain: Perhaps the most notable characteristic of the Santa Sofia course is that it winds up and down several steep hills. Fitness and efficient riding are going to be huge factors today. It reminds me of Bromont’s course this year with worse footing and more terrain.
The track: Making the time is made even more challenging by the windy nature of the track and narrow galloping lanes. From a course buildng and design standpoint, John Williams and course builder Eric Bull have done a great job. You can tell which jumps were built by Eric and which jumps were built by the local team, but the quality of the course building is very high overall. I wouldn’t consider the course overly big, but it is very technical and will likely cause some major issues for the more inexperienced horses and riders in the field.
The heat: Cue CBS breaking news music and find Dan Rather. It’s hot in Mexico. If the sun comes out in earnest today the heat is going to add to the already significant challenges to getting home within in the time.
Note: I don’t think there will be live feed of the Pan Am XC, but you can watch live feed of Le Lion in France here for the next few hours.
There’s one last fence that I didn’t photograph since we were running to catch a bus. Go eventing.
