Cross country courses in Europe
There are plenty of interesting competition places I’ve been so far ...
Hamm CIC - The green belt and the farm land
The first thing I was impressed about was the footing. We often run cross country on a green belt, which if we were in Australia you would think you were running across a turf farm.
Also we ran across the maize farm. The ground had probably been prepared for another purpose by the farmers, but this non-slippery soft ground was just too perfect for us to plough through!
Osteveren National event - In the forest
This was an event which had the whole cross country course in the forest. The track was as narrow as and as bendy as a bush walking track, one minute you are galloping and then next second you are hitting this a hairpin turn.
And there were signs everywhere with arrows to tell you where to go. This was seriously confusing and it was just like a maze and that’s probably why I managed to run 1 minute over time when I thought I had just made the optimum time.
Stroehen CIC - In the Zoo
One competition was held in within the property of the Zoo. I could see the elephants from the dressage arena and we had to show jump next to the buffalos!! The organiser told me that one year, every single competitor had lots of time faults in the cross country. They wondered what the reason was because the course wasn’t too tough, but then they discovered that all the horses had problem with going past the giraffes!
I wonder what venues I’ll visit next year …
