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Aug 29, 2014
World Games Course Preview: “It’s All About the Combinations – Some of Them Are Beasts!”
Sam Watson of Team IRE gave USEventing.com reporter Darlene Ricker an exclusive, fence-by-fence analysis of tomorrow’s cross-country course. For reference, check out Horse & Hound's virtual course walk or the course map here!
Editor's Note: Fences 20 (an apple cart) and 23 (the owl hole) have been removed from the course.
We’ve got a nice start. Fences 1, 2 and 3 are all nice fences to get going. But you are straight away experiencing the up-and-down terrain, and actually quite a lot of downhill in that first minute, down to the third fence, and that’s quite hard to get a rhythm. And little undulations; you walk along and suddenly there’s a little bit of a hump down and the horses have to balance, so I think while the first three fences are nice to get going, those undulations mean we’ll really have to settle our horses into a rhythm and nurse them through it a little bit.
There’s a really tough combination at 4 and 5. There are options, as there are with all the tough combinations, but I think you’ll see most countries take a straight-through four strides. We’ll see how it goes, but it’s nice and early. A little let-up fence after that at fence 6. There’s just a gate but not much of a ground line or anything like that, so riders have to respect it still.
An interesting fence at fence 7. We’ve got these two houses on a bit of an angle, with a very tight turn into it. I think on this going, we don’t know how our horses are going to turn and how they’re going to corner. Are they going to lose their footing? Is it going to be a bit sticky? There is a long route that sends you along the top, and I think you’ll see people take it early on because it’s not a huge time-waster and you keep the flow, you keep going in the same direction. A lot of the long routes, like with the corners that we saw two fences previously, you have to change direction; you have to jump and turn back on yourself. That’s really tiring on a horse when you keep doing that. So you could take the long route here, but the tall houses, when you get in close to them, they really are up high, and they’re on a bit of a downhill. There’s a big angle on the second one off a tight turn. It will definitely take some prisoners. So between fences 4 and 5, and now 7, we’ve had two big questions in the first two minutes.
We’ve got a nice table here at fence 8. It’s a big table of proper dimensions. And then the first water at fence 9. We’ve got a big drop here – not dissimilar to the leaf pit at Burghley. It’s a proper drop down, then a skinny fence into the water with a bit of a drop on a curving line to another skinny in the water. So, welcome to a 4* championship! It’s a proper question. I think this group should ride well, and it will be kind of fun, a bit of a roller coaster down a big drop through the water. I think it will look good on [television], and I think the riders will enjoy it.
Next is a straightforward table as a bit of a let-up, and then there’s an interesting fence he’s got here at 11. He’s built a really narrow but quite wide ditch, and it’s all on a curving line. We jump a nice little rolltop down a hill on a sort of curving three strides to a very narrow, wide ditch, and it’s white as well. I think this could capture some really unlikely prisoners. It doesn’t look like much, but it’s a bit different, and I think that could make a couple of horses look. It’s not often with a ditch that you could run out. They’re usually big and wide, not narrow like this. But here a horse might stop and really run out. This is a right little question here at 11. It will be interesting to see how that rides.
There’s a nice let-up fence at 12, a bit of an open, ditchy-type fence, then at 13 a proper open ditch. It’s quite big. They’ve called it “Le Burghley.” It’s got that feel, sort of like the Cottesmore Leap at Burghley, maybe not as big, but it’s that sort of big fence. Again, [Michelet] has got just a hay feeder after that at 14. It’s a gallop-on fence, except that he’s positioned it after a little dip in the ground, so you’re not going to be able to get your stride exactly. It’s all about having the horse balanced and then letting him come up through and move on to the rolltop and be efficient.
Fences 15, 16, 17 and 18 are a lot of jumping at this second water. A nice inviting rolltop in and then two really angled hedges in the middle of it. So a bit of everything is going to happen there, and the distance to the hedges is a very committed three- or a bit of a waiting four-stride, and then quite a committed one-stride in the middle. I think if people lose their line or get a bit of a sticky jump in, they’re going to be getting into trouble there. So that’s a fence some people will make look really easy and some people will get a bit of a tough time through.
And then you’re not finished when you jump your angled hedges. You’ve got a turn on a sweeping curve. As you come out of the water there’s a bounce there waiting for you, and the bounce is on a little bit of an angle. I quite like it. I think it’s quite inviting. But at the 4* level we talk about the cumulative effect of all these things. If you get a bit of a tough ride through the two angled hedges in the water, and now you’ve got two angled hedges as a bounce, your horse might be just feeling a bit careful and not wanting to go. So it’s a good question, but a lot of jumping. I think it will be a good spectator spot.
A nice big table again at fence 19 and at 20. That’s a loop on the course that really started to feel the rain, so we’ll see if that stays in or not. Being an Irishman, I’m quite happy for it to stay in, but we’ve got to think of everybody here.
Probably the [most challenging] combination here on the course will be 21 and 22. We’ve got a very big open ditch very much like the Burghley one at 13. But it’s as you go across a road crossing, so the horses can look a little bit and it can be a little bit difficult to get your stride, and then you’re heading down on four committed strides to the narrowest and longest skinnies you’ve ever seen. They’re brush, so they’re inviting, and all the horses here will be used to them. They know what they have to jump, but still, when you get in close to them, they’re a hell of a question.
And it’s not finished there. There’s a really committed four, maybe an outside five, down to a brush corner, all on a bit of a sweeping turn, and that corner just asking you to glance off. A lot of jumping, a serious effort, a real 4* question. It’s big and it’s really technical, and it’s really skinny.
Then it’s a long, long gallop up to the owl hole up at 23, and a real pull. We’re seven minutes into the course when we get up here, and we’ve done a lot of galloping and a lot of jumping. Twenty-three fences by the seventh minute is a lot; it’s intense. And that really is a long haul. It’s as long of a haul as you get at Burghley or any other big 4*. It’s the first time the horses may be feeling a little tired. Horses at this point could easily choose that sliding past the fence is a lot easier than jumping it. And the fences are tall, as well. They may be brushes, but they’re tall and you don’t brush through them that easily. It’s a serious question, quite a long two strides in there again. It’s a signature Pierre Michelet [design] – he loves those open distances; he loves you to gallop and think. So it’s a good question.
Fences 26 and 27 - another slightly open ditch type profile, a committed four strides to a corner. Very little option here, a bit like the corners at fences 4 and 5. You pick your line and you ride it, and you just hope you have a genuine horse. Again, you stand in to these corners and wow, they’re 4* all over. They’re really big. This stretch from 21 to here is a real meaty, intense part of the course, and every one of those fences are proper 4* questions. I don’t think anybody’s safe ‘til they’re home.
Twenty-eight is a let-up fence. It’s interesting with some of these smaller fences. This is one is probably only a meter 15 in height. For the 4* horses later on in the course [the riders have to make them] respect it. You can’t just see a small fence and keep galloping. You’ve got to say to them, ‘Hey, guys, c’mon (makes a clucking sound with his tongue), concentrate.’
Then 29 is a really inviting triple bar with an open ditch underneath. It should be a lovely fence to ride. Our final water at 30 and 31 is probably the last place on the course where you’re going to maybe see a medal-winning team or a medal-winning rider losing the dream at the last minute. We’ve got a nice fence in, and you go across the first pond, a big step up with a bounce to a narrow sort of fish with a bit of brush on it. The step up is big and requires a bit of jumping. Horses could be tired at this stage. If they are really tired, and particularly given the ground, you’re going to see riders going long here and wasting a lot of time. On the leader board that’s going to be influential. If they do go straight and they go up that big step, bounce up over the skinny, there’s another skinny waiting for them on an angle just three strides down into the next pond, and that could just catch out a tried horse. A very Michelet-like thing. If you’re going to have a penalty, you’re probably just going to glance off here and it’s going to be very frustrating. I think it’s really rider-friendly and it’s really horse-friendly, but it’s technical and it requires a lot of concentration.
From here there are four fences to get you home. They’re all single fences, all inviting, straightforward fences. But you’ve still got about two minutes of galloping, and it’s twisty and there’s a pull, particularly going between fence 32 and 33. But he’s allowed a tired horse to get home here. If you manage your animal well, you’ll get home. It’s a proper championship.
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