After writing the latest Horse Sports Highlights article about the 2012 London Olympics, I decided that the amazing Cross Country event didn’t get enough mention. Cross Country itself isn’t an equestrian sport, but rather one section of the Eventing competition. Eventing is a sport that takes three days: one for dressage, one for stadium jumping, and one for cross country.
This year, the Cross Country course was held in Greenwich Park. It was 3 ½ miles long and gave riders 10.3 minutes to complete the course (that means they only have to ride an entire mile in only three minutes, going 21 miles per hour! That’s over twice as fast as my mile time!) The course was so colossal that they had multiple riders competing at a time – all on the same course. This caused participants and viewers to get angry, because each time a rider fell off, the course was evacuated to keep other athletes safe. Some people thought this was an advantage because the horses that were still going at this time got a break to recover from thier ride until they were allowed back on the course.
The cross country trail’s minor flaws were made up for by the course’s artistic design. Each obstacle was as original as it was difficult. Many riders agreed that the steep bank, which caused an alarming amount of riders to tumble off, was the hardest element on the course. Other tough jumps included water skinnies, or narrow fences in shallow water, and unevenly spaced wooden logs. The ride started with a jump in the shape of a diamond to represent the Queen’s diamond jubilee. Horses then continued to leap over jumps designed to look like the moon, Saturn, a boat, a wave, a chess set, and a log cabin. The trail’s last jump was in the shape of a big horseshoe, and statues on either side were made out of real horseshoes, arranged into shapes of rearing stallions. (See picture, above.) Equestrian commentator Mark Edwards mentioned that the course had two ways of being ridden: a faster, more difficult way, and a slower, easier way. Not a single rider rode the course the easy way. They were all too worried that they wouldn’t make it less than 10.3 minutes.
As well as the usual British crowd, this cool course also got its share of not-very-well-known equestrian athletes from countries that usually don’t do well in horseback riding competitions. Yoshiaki Oiwa from Japan, for example, was competing well and causing spectators to look twice, until he fell off on the ride and was disqualified. His interesting style of riding that included leaning forward and urging the horse to go fast was definitely something new for the equestrian audience, as well as his nationality.
Mark Todd from New Zealand did well too. He approaches each fence strong and his 5-year-old horse, Campino, jumps like a kangaroo - high and springy. The pair finished with 0.4 penalties, good enough for third place.
Ingrid Klimke and Sara Algotsson Ostholt tied for first place on the cross country course. Sara and her steed, Wega, ended up finishing second overall in Eventing. Ingrid didn’t win a medal overall, but viewers will always remember her horse: Butts Abraxxas, nicknamed Butt by competing athletes.
This year, the Cross Country course was held in Greenwich Park. It was 3 ½ miles long and gave riders 10.3 minutes to complete the course (that means they only have to ride an entire mile in only three minutes, going 21 miles per hour! That’s over twice as fast as my mile time!) The course was so colossal that they had multiple riders competing at a time – all on the same course. This caused participants and viewers to get angry, because each time a rider fell off, the course was evacuated to keep other athletes safe. Some people thought this was an advantage because the horses that were still going at this time got a break to recover from thier ride until they were allowed back on the course.
The cross country trail’s minor flaws were made up for by the course’s artistic design. Each obstacle was as original as it was difficult. Many riders agreed that the steep bank, which caused an alarming amount of riders to tumble off, was the hardest element on the course. Other tough jumps included water skinnies, or narrow fences in shallow water, and unevenly spaced wooden logs. The ride started with a jump in the shape of a diamond to represent the Queen’s diamond jubilee. Horses then continued to leap over jumps designed to look like the moon, Saturn, a boat, a wave, a chess set, and a log cabin. The trail’s last jump was in the shape of a big horseshoe, and statues on either side were made out of real horseshoes, arranged into shapes of rearing stallions. (See picture, above.) Equestrian commentator Mark Edwards mentioned that the course had two ways of being ridden: a faster, more difficult way, and a slower, easier way. Not a single rider rode the course the easy way. They were all too worried that they wouldn’t make it less than 10.3 minutes.
As well as the usual British crowd, this cool course also got its share of not-very-well-known equestrian athletes from countries that usually don’t do well in horseback riding competitions. Yoshiaki Oiwa from Japan, for example, was competing well and causing spectators to look twice, until he fell off on the ride and was disqualified. His interesting style of riding that included leaning forward and urging the horse to go fast was definitely something new for the equestrian audience, as well as his nationality.
Mark Todd from New Zealand did well too. He approaches each fence strong and his 5-year-old horse, Campino, jumps like a kangaroo - high and springy. The pair finished with 0.4 penalties, good enough for third place.
Ingrid Klimke and Sara Algotsson Ostholt tied for first place on the cross country course. Sara and her steed, Wega, ended up finishing second overall in Eventing. Ingrid didn’t win a medal overall, but viewers will always remember her horse: Butts Abraxxas, nicknamed Butt by competing athletes.