As English Cross Country Course designer Sue Benson states, Greenwich is a unique venue. The spectacular views and awesome history of the place aside, the steep undulations inherent in much of the terrain is what sets this Olympic venue aside from others that have come before it. As the Olympics are set as a CCIO3* the jumping test is supposed to be less demanding than that of the World Championships to accommodate emerging Nations. The difference in the eventing sport relative to the dressage and jumping equestrian disciplines is that the variation in a venue’s terrain and footing (when weather effected) can be significant and needs to be accounted for in the overall context of the demands the course places on horses. There is no doubt that the Greenwich course will be physically demanding on the horses - it has been described as a 5* test by both eventing legend, Lucinda Green and leading equine exercise physiologist, David Marlin. Lucinda then suggested that the fences were between 2* and 3*.
The course map clearly shows the twists and turns!
I believe, like Lucinda, that the balance at Greenwich has been as well achieved as possible i.e. as the terrain is 5*, the fences are 2*-3*. There are narrow fences to encourage the glance-off or run past when horses are either tired or not sufficiently balanced to hold their own body posture down the steep slopes rather than tall verticals or square oxers that can produce a less attractive picture when things go wrong. I predict that the time on course will not be achievable as was the case in Hong Kong at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. This then puts greater demand on riders to be as efficient as possible in their preparation for the fences, which increases the risk of minor but costly mistakes.
Angled rails at 3AB provide the first accuracy test
The course begins at the top of the venue over flat terrain but looping around tightly enough to not allow a significant build up of speed. Following the Moon at fence 7, the course descends steeply to the first water - the difficulty of which is again due to the approach not so much the fences.
The slope really runs away after the Observatory Moon at fence 7
The Silver Birch - this should be a beautiful rather than a difficult fence!
Although a friendly version of coffin rails, the steep slopes either side of the ditch adds difficulty
Again the terrain makes this combination challenging - a left turn to the narrow at 14B is made more difficult by the steep slope on landing over 14A
The faster right hand route into the water is very inviting and not technically difficult
The bank out of water at 17C is narrow and quite tall requiring an accurate ride. Without a related fence following though a mistake here can be recovered from without penalty
A steep landing off the bank at 20A precedes a narrow at 20B
Whilst definitely a narrow fence, again it is the steepness of the approach which makes this a greater challenge.
The steep pinch of land away from the drop to narrow related line at 20.
Much of the Cross Country Course’s demand will be in how much energy horse’s have sapped from them by the frequent short, steep pinches.
The line to the ‘fast option’ corner at the Rose Garden is cleverly compromised by the siting related to the trees...it is a fine line to quite the accuracy test at the corner!
The camber of the ground on the approach adds difficulty to fence 26 drawing the horse to the left down the face of the fence.
On walking the course, no single fence stands out as being the most difficult but the culmination of many of them make them all more difficult to a certain degree. Again, I believe it will actually be the fatigue that the terrain causes, more than the jumping efforts that will be of greater challenge to the horse both for the cross country test itself and the recovery achieved prior to the final jumping phases the next day.
