Date: 15th October 2017
Running order of Divisions: CCI2*, CCI3*
Arena: 300ft x 250ft. All weather
Starters/Clear Rounds:
CCI2* – 53/21 (40%)
CCI3* – 26/8 plus 6 with time faults (54%)
It is worth reading the Course Designer’s extensive comments on the Evaluation Sheet attached to this report. It comprehensibly sums up how the courses rode.
I would agree that the ‘U’ turns from fence 1 and 2, in the Two Star and 2 to 3 in the Three Star, are a little too abrupt. This does not help the horses to get into a good rhythm at the beginning of the course. I did see a video of a competitor riding the Three Star course and this sharp turn was apparent. I think this also helped to contribute to 50% of the competitors getting time faults in this Division.
The Three Star course, with the exception of the first two fences, was the Two Star reversed. Although the distances were not changed, the lines would have ridden very different and it would have been very interesting to have watched how competitors who rode in both Divisions coped with this.
Reversing the direction of all the fences could have taken some time, but nowadays with the metric cup system, only the flags need reversing on the verticals as there are no ‘pin type’ cups to change direction. In addition, the All-weather arena would need watering and dragging between Divisions and therefore the jumps would need opening up to do this. This allows the ring crew to exchange the cups, on the oxers, over to the other wing, while the dragging is taking place, so not a lot of time would have been wasted.
The only comment I would make is that all the related lines were on five forward strides of 75ft, which is a little repetitive, but again would be interesting to watch when ridden in the opposite direction.
Richard Jeffery
USEF Eventing Show Jumping Course Advisor
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