Morven Park International Horse Trials
Date: September 29th
Running order of Divisions: Friday: CIC 3 Star, CIC 2 Star. Sunday: CIC 1 Star
Arena: 2/3 Star: 300ft x 250ft I Star: 220ft x 120ft
Starters/Clear Rounds:
CIC 1 Star – 28/4 plus 3 with time faults (25%)
CIC 2 Star – 16/4 plus 1 with time faults (31%)
CIC 3 Star – 7/0 (0%)
The show jumping arena here, that holds the Two and Three Star Divisions is almost square, with the longest side just 300ft. I have found such square arenas can be the most difficult to design courses in as you seem to end up going around in circles just to enable to use all parts of the arena.
I feel this was the case here and it has resulted in many ‘roll-backs’. In the Three Star you get this from 3/4/5 and 7/8/9 then again from fence 10 to 11. However, competitors have to go around fence 2 to get to fence 11 so this does define the track and give a turning point. However, as the Course Designer admits in his refection of the course, this may have been one roll-back too many! As always hindsight is a great thing, but we do learn from this, and you gain more respect from competitors in admitting such things rather than making some lame excuse. We are only human and whilst we try to get it right every time, occasionally things do not always go as planned.
In the Two Star there is a large serpentine from 4b through to fence 10a with continuous changing of leads. The way the course is laid out on paper you get the feel that after fence 9 you should be continuing on the left lead and not turning back on yourself. This turn is not helped with that fence being an oxer which would have carried the competitors on after landing. However, the actual positing of the jumps in the arena may have not been as acute as drawn so this turn may have ridden better.
In contrast, I do like the course that was built in the second arena for the One Star. This arena is much smaller and the cleaver use to build fence 5 off the side of the area, to allow the competitors to go around it to get from fence 9 to fence 10, prevents the course from being just ‘up and down’ the arena. It also gives more room to approach fence 10 then had the approach been off a right angle turn.
Of the twenty eight competitors in the One Star, half acquired time faults. There is a rule that if the size of the arena is below 2300 square metres the maximum speed the competition can be run at has to be reduced to 325mpm. This arena is just over that size at 2450sq/m so the speed was left at 350mpm. This may have had a contributing factor, plus in a small arena like this everyone has to follow the same track and there is nowhere where you can save time without leaving out strides.
Richard Jeffery
USEF Eventing Show Jumping Course Advisor