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Date: 30th May 2017

Arena: 380ft x 320ft All Weather

Starters/Clear Rounds: 

39/4 plus 2 with time faults (15%)

4 faults or less, disregarding time faults 21 (54%)

Fence number/times faulted:

1 vertical - 8

2 oxer - 2

3 vertical (dark blue poles with 2 thin white stripes) - 8

4 maximum height and width oxer - 0

5 vertical - 1

6 vertical - 4

7 oxer - 1

8 vertical with solid dark green rails - 10

9 triple bar -0

10ab double of verticals with10ft long solid white poles – a) 8b) 6

11 liverpool oxer - 12

12a oxer - 2

12b oxer - 4

12c vertical - 1

13 oxer - 8

 

As the show jumping course designer at ‘Rolex’ I thought I would give you a little behind the scenes as to what goes into designing the course there, and my thoughts of how it jumped.

This was the 20th year of the Four Star Division and my 20th year of building it. The danger when designing the same class, in the same arena for that amount of time, is that you can become over creative just for the sake of change.  Fortunately, the arena has changed three times, the first year it was grass, then it became all weather retaining some of the trees that were in it, as grass islands.  In 2010, for the World Equestrian Games, the islands were removed and the arena re-configured. 

Designing the track has to be completed at least two weeks before the Event to be sent to the television company for them to produce the graphics and plot the positions of their cameras.  This is good as it prevents you from changing your mind once the plan has been sent in, although a little ‘tweeking’ can take place.

To vary the course from the past, I try to start and finish in different parts of the arena each year.  I also make sure that I do not use the same combinations as the previous year. Sometimes I come up with two variations of the same track.  Even if I only have one track in mind, I will still send the drawing to Marc Donavan, my assistant on the day, to cast a second pair of eyes over them, as it is so easy to be so focused that you do not always see the obvious error, and happily receive his comments.

While designing the track for the actual competition is first priority, I also take into consideration the 12,000 plus people sitting around the stadium and how it looks on television.  In 1984, I was privileged to act as course decorator at the LA Olympics under the direction of the late legacy course designer Bert DeNemethy.

He taught me a very good lesson which I still try to use at Rolex. He said people have paid to sit on those seats so the horses should pass them at least on two, if not three occasions.  In the large arena at Kentucky this is a little easier said than done, as to accomplish this, you can soon have a track in excess of 600 meters. 

Thirteen numbered jumps in this large arena can look very lost.  Fortunately, this year I had to find room for four Land Rover cars, three Rolex clocks and two Gazebos, one for us to sit in and the other either for photographers or jump crew. Photographer’s pens have also to be positioned around the perimeter of the ring once the jumps are in place with the positions selected by the Press Officer. 

I am also privileged to walk the cross-country course with the Jury on the Tuesday when they inspect it.  I am not only looking at Dereck’s fabulous course, and the construction of the jumps, but for any objects that I can ‘pinch’, like the fish this year, to act as a turning point in the arena and also to fill up an open space.

With the help of Bobby Murphy’s crew we have, in the recent years, formed a centre piece by constructing two ‘ponds’ each side of the Paddle Boat jump.  Each year this seems to get bigger and this year was no exception with one of the Gazebos positioned on one side and a Land Rover entering it on the other side. 

We will go over the jump material early in the week to ensure that we have everything and that they are in good order.  We are still using some of the ‘Kentucky’ jumps that were used for the World Equestrian Games, although some of these designs, like the Keenland pillars, Churchill Spires, Calumet Farm go back to the first year of the Four Star. 

All of the decorations come off the cross-country course to decorate the jumps and arena, which are so ably done by Shelia Worth and her crew. This is very much a last minute thing on Saturday afternoon/evening but we meet earlier in the week and plan what color is going where.

Sunday morning should be the quitter time, but it seems to never stop.  Firstly we have the Pony Club course walk. We have been doing this for a number of years and children from many clubs across the country join in.  My first experience of going to Badminton was with my Club here in England, travelling some 200 miles to get there.   I never, all those years ago, would have dreamt that I would now be the show jumping course designer at two four star events.  For this reason alone, I encourage this walk, in the hope that a future course designer can one day say the same.

While this is going on we are placing the pens for the photographer’s, helping Land Rover to place their cars so they have maximum exposure, while not being in the way of the course and finally agreeing to the positions of any television cameras in the ring. Because of this Marc Donavan takes the Pony Club on their course walk, but I try to catch up with them by the time they get to the end of the course.

Then comes the course walk with the Jury and Technical Delegate and finally the course is open to the competitors. I then have yet another course walk with the press. The ring is then closed and one last water and drag takes place before the Opening Ceremonies happen and then the show jumping phase begins.

Going back to the actual course, I list at the top of this report the number of times the fences came down.

I was very happy that half of the competitors had four jumping faults or less, as I always feel that is a good judge of how the course rode.  The time allowed was good, the early competitors are always going to ride the course slower as they are out of contention of the prizes, so they just want to ‘complete’ the competition.  22 did have time faults, but 7 of them were only one second over the time. Of the top five only one competitor had a single time fault.

Fence 11 the liverpool was the most faulted, due to some bad rides to it! The liverpool was dug into the ground and there was a lot going on around the fence with the landscaping.

The Grand Slam fence at 10 was the next most faulted.  This jump over the years has had its fair share of faults.  We have the same fence at Badminton and Burghley, but it never causes the same number of faults there. The poles are solid dark green with a wall and the names of the three Grand Slams Events printed on it at the base. At Kentucky, the jump is on a dirt arena, where at the other two Events it is on grass.  The stonework on the base of the wall at Kentucky is very authentically painted and quite shiny.  The stonework on the English jump is printed on wallpaper, glued to the wall, and duller.  Could this be the reason?

Fence 1 had eight knockdowns and this is not too unusual.  With so much atmosphere in the ring often the horse is not concentrating on the first jump.  It was interesting to see one rider go right up to the fence once they entered the ring and show the horse the fence.  While most turned inside fence 3 to get a more balanced approach, Zara Tindall took the longer approach from the top of the ring to ensure the horse got his eye on the fence.

The number of times the Land Rover fence (3) came down did slightly surprise me, while the Man O War (7) only fell once.  Both fences where jumping into the crowds, and I would expect that to be a bit of a factor, but the results were not consistent. However, the Land Rover poles were a dark solid blue with only two thin white stripes, which could have blended into the dark green walls of the stadium.

The triple bar was one of only two fences not to fall, but it was so placed to set the riders up for the double that followed it.  The poles at the double were solid white and only 10ft long, compared to 12ft for the rest of the course, and the triple bar did its job.  The triple combination did not cause too much trouble, which I was happy with, but again it had an influence on the last jump.

Not having to contend with all of the above, I was required right before the start of the competition to ride, with Brian O’Connor, one of the Pony Club horses as part of the course description, in front of the 12,000 crowd.  I am not sure what was the most nerve racking, designing the course, or having the thought I might get bucked off in front of that crowd!

 

Richard Jeffery

USEF Eventing Show Jumping Course Advisor

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