What do the riders think of Pierre Michelet's cross country course they will face tomorrow?
Tim Price
“I think he’s designed a strong but very safe course. He’s used the terrain very well but I do think it’s going to be difficult to be clear and inside the time which is essentially what you want. Run offs and little problems, technical problems will be the order of the day and time faults. If the time is enough of a pressure that puts pressure on the way people ride so I think that will create the problems”
“The heat will play its part but we’re not doing 13 minutes, we’re doing just over 10 minutes but you’ll still see horses coming home hot. But there are so many features in place nowadays to cool them down and most of them are super fit and they have been here for over a week so they are pretty much acclimatised by now”
Sam Griffiths
“The course is pretty tough. I think that a lot of the riders didn’t expect it to be quite that tough, there’s questions the entire way around the course and you’re going to have to bring your A game from beginning to end. You’re going to need an experienced jumping horse, which thankfully I’m on, to go well. There are about five or six real problems, especially fence six and the last water where horses may be tired”
Gemma Tattersall
“He’s built a 4* track – it wouldn’t be out of place at Badminton at Burghley which I don’t think any of us were expecting. It’s also hilly so we’re going to have to have our ‘brave pants’ on Monday, go out there and give it a good crack”
Sandra Auffarth
‘It’s tough enough and it’s technical from the beginning to the end. Going out first is a new thing for me and maybe it will be easier that way. Sometimes it’s good to see a few horses go first but I know my plan and what my horse can do so it might even be an advantage”
Boyd Martin
“It’s tough, tough, it’s very tricky. My guy, it wouldn’t suit him that much with all these twists and turns and angles, so I am really going to have to ride well to get him around clear and fast. There are a lot of angles and corners and narrows. The one thing I have, this horse has tremendous speed and endurance, so I think I can afford to take my time at some of the tricky fences and really get him to look at it and press him the galloping lanes and make up some time. I’m quite confident.
At the moment I am walking all of the direct routes, and I think going first David will come and talk to me if the first six rides bomb out at one particular jump I might get advised to go a different path. I am basically walking all routes at the moment.
I noticed a few of the other countries picked stronger show jumping and dressage horses and greener cross country horses, so it could be an exciting test. I think America has failed a bit in cross country in years past, so we decided to go with four stronger cross country riders and that could come into our favour”
William Fox-Pitt
“I’ve got my work cut out as it’s a really decent course. I think it’s the biggest Olympic Games course I’ve ever walked and I’ve seen a few. It’s got some questions and although Chilli is more than ready, I just hope I can do him justice and be on form for him”
“There is no rail-ditch-rail, there are no traditional English fences, it is a real Michelet course. It asks questions all the way on accuracy – he’s got four corners, four skinnies, offset rails, always encouraging you to go on a long, forward stride so if you are not quite right you will run out. He is not encouraging backward riding, he’s really encouraging you to get out there and attack it so I just hope that I can. It’s a positive course and it’s been built with that in mind, the distances are all on the long side. It’s the most difficult Olympic Games I’ve seen and I think that’s a good thing, it’s how it should be, we should be challenged at an Olympic Games and it will be a great feeling if I go clear, that’s for sure”
Michael Jung
“I would like to ride all three horses of my horses that qualified around this course! It’s a tough course with a lot of hills – for Sam, he’s in wonderful form but we will need to concentrate so we don’t make any mistakes.
It is a stronger course than London, in Greenwich Park there wasn’t as much space. Everything was small, lots of turns, a lot more up and down but here it is a more typical cross country. You can keep more rhythm which helps a bit more but the fences are a bit tougher. I’m hoping that yes, we can make the time
Normally the cross country for the Olympic Games is a bit easier because of the lower level of the qualified riders from the different nations. I’ve only done two Olympic Games and this one is definitely tougher than the first but I think that the course designer and builders are intelligent people with a lot of experience and I think they know what they’re doing”
Pippa Funnell
“It’s a big ask – it’s a good track but in the ideal world I’d probably like to be sitting on a Redesigned or one of those old time campaigners because it’s a really meaty track. It’s a course we’re all going to have to ride with our heads and know all the routes because it will be a very tactical game tomorrow; how the heat affects them, how the course is riding and have an A,B, C and D plan, not just from a team point of view but also from the point of view of the horse that you’re sat on”
Stuart Tinney
“Sydney was the last time it was really tough. Then when we went to the new format in Athens that was the first time they softened the cross country course and they’ve been softer tracks ever since but now we’re back to a tougher course”
Ingrid Klimke
“I haven’t seen such a tough Olympic cross country course since Sydney. There are many questions so we need to be focussed and walk the course with all the options in mind but Bobby is a fast horse, he’s won at 4* level and he’s a very true, clever horse so I trust him to handle all the questions. I’m really looking forward to tomorrow, it will be fun”
