2004 Olympic Games - Eventing

The Cross Country Course

This was the first time this new revised format would take place at an Olympic Games and is a format still being tested. Because of this the course designer was taking great care with the 5.7 kilometer course. He pointed out particular strategies. For instance fence #20 was designed as a preparation for fence #21 which was a bounce jump into the water. He wanted riders to think and not get galloping too fast into the bounce. Here’s where the color difference with the wood was also shown, as well as the space below the fence.

Before the very last fence was included an arch structure which was not part of the last fence but the course designer explained that very often the horses don’t pay attention to the last fence and so this was put there to get their attention before heading to the final and 34th fence of the course.

He did note that he prefers the traditional eventing course but also realizes that the cost of running eventing was burdensome and for the benefit of the sport he is in favor of doing whatever will keep eventing in the Olympics.

At the press conference following the first day of dressage with the early leaders – Hoy on Ringwood Cockatoo, Heelan Tompkins (NZL) on Glengarrick and Hinrich Romeke (GER) on Marius that sentiment was repeated. In general they all felt the fences were beautifully presented, there were enough questions and the format was still not tested enough to know all the answers. And if everyone gets around then it’ll only be good for the visibility of the sport.