2004 Olympic Games - Show Jumping

The Show Jumping Courses in Athens, Greece, at the 29th Olympic Games Are Unique

Text and Photos by Diana DeRosa

To help you appreciate just what types of fences these riders and horses have to negotiate I’ve pulled together this outline of their first course.

#1 –The first jump was on the opposite corner from where the horses entered and was a fairly straightforward vertical. However, the pillar standards were set out in front and it created a bit of an optical illusion.

#2 – To get to the second fence you had to turn right and do a bit of a u-turn. This fence had interesting wings on it but again fairly straightforward and plain.

#3 – You continued around to the right along the long side of the vertical in front of the spectatator stands. 3 a-b was an oxer combination, which was not very tricky and went straight down to.

#4 – Which was a jump with all these houses all over it.

#5 – A left hand turn took you to an elaborate looking jump of dark blue and orange under which was a Liverpool . This was a tall fence.