2004 Olympic Games - Eventing

The Cross Country Course

Text and Photos by Diana DeRosa

There’s mixed opinions about the cross country course in the three-day eventing at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens Greece. Some feel it is too easy while others feel it is a bit deceptive and harder than it appears. But “the most important thing is that we stay in the Olympics,” commented Bettina Hoy, who was riding for Germany, after she took the lead with a beautiful ride, and the best score of 32. She maintained that lead through the end of the first day of the two-day dressage phase. Coach Christopher Bartle was also pleased despite the small break in the medium trot because the rest of her ride went really well. “She had to ride a bit conservatively in the extended trot,” commented Bartle but otherwise he thought it was great.

While dressage was the focus, conversations also centered around the cross country. British rider Jeanette Brakewell noted that she felt the “whole course was horse friendly,” which the Italian course designer Albino Garbari at these Olympic Games would agree with. He had taken great pains to ensure this was the case giving long but easier options at every fence and taking care to help the horses out.

On a course walk on Sunday, August 15, he explained in detail how he was careful to help the horses and riders. On top of many of the fences were flowers so that if the horse hit the fence he wouldn’t get hurt. Very often there was also space so that the horse could get a sense of the height of the fences. In fences where there was more than one log jump they tried to use different types of wood in order for the horse to more clearly tell the different parts of the jump apart from one another.

He also made the second half of the course easier than initially anticipated taking the advice of shows like Punchestown and Rolex which had had time to test the new shortened format. There had been a huge controversy over the past year about eliminating the eventing from the Olympic Games all together instead they revised the format, excluding Roads & Tracks and Steeplechase, shortening the cross country but maintaining the number of fences and having both the Individual and Team scores count from one go round with the final tallies being scored by two show jumping rounds: one for team and the other for the individual finals.