Mike Etherington-Smith in finer weather at Luhmuhlen
When two old friends meet during a walk in the park, what do they do?
They have a chat of course, even in the rain
Pour yourself a coffee (or whatever tipple you fancy depending on the time of day wherever you are in the world) and enjoy a friendly and insightful chat between Andrew Hoy and Mike Etherington-Smith
Australia’s Andrew Hoy has ridden around this CCI5* many, many times and Mike has been the course designer here since 2017
Andrew, who had a very successful competition at the Luhmuhlen CCI4*-S recently, talks about what makes the 5* course at Luhmuhlen so different to other courses, with its three water complexes including ‘a lot of jumping at the Messmer Pond’
A proposal before the Eventing Committee to not count steps and ditches as jumping efforts could make for some could help manage speed at 5* level, says Mike as ‘controlling pace in a fair way (without twisting the horse inside out) is not easy to do’
Mike also talks about the process of design “People think we’re mad because we just stand and stare at a piece of grass for 20 minutes but we’re just trying to imagine what the finished picture will look like”
And what a star Vassily De Lassos is, just standing there and taking it all in …..
