DeRosa Daily Equestrian Olympic News
Horsesdaily Veteran Olympic Reporter Diana DeRosa Brings Us Into Her World

Course Designer Michael Etherington Smith Meets the Hong Kong Challenge

Course Designer Michael Etherington Smith (who annually designs the courses for Rolex and is the course designer for WEG 2010) had special challenges he had to deal with when building the cross country course in Hong Kong. 

The Beas River venue “was a golf course before and will be a golf course after,” explained Smith.  The difficult tasks he faced were three-fold.  To begin with Hong Kong often has a lot of rain in August and is also known for its typhoons. 

When it’s not raining it is extremely hot and humid creating just the opposite problem for the horses and riders.  Since no one can really predict what Mother Nature will decide leading up to and on the day of the event, Mike had to ensure that the course would be safe no matter what the weather.

The rain was dealt with by installing an incredible irrigation system, allowing the event to go on even within a short time after a major downpour.  For the humid conditions Mike added loops in the course that can be taken out if on the day of the event the heat index is just too high.  The third problem that Mike faced was the fact that the course is very undulating.  What Mike came up with to deal with the terrain is a course that Olympic Gold Medalist Karen O’Connor referred to as one with a repetitive theme of angles and narrows, but one with lots of options for the less capable riders.

Olympic Eventing Riders Impressed With the Cross Country Course