Friday 5 September 2008

Not another skinny triple brush!

Is it just me or are all the top courses becoming predictable and unimaginative in the types of fences that they are using?

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised as it's the same old faces designing the courses. The skinny triple brush fence to me seems a complete nonsense. Cross Country isn't about fabricating obscure looking fences that have no place in on an XC course. It should be about re-creating a sense of realism.

You've only got to look back at Eventing's heritage to get fresh inspiration! When was the last time we saw any fences with a military theme at a four star event.

OK - New London 2012 Campaign: A Military theme for the cross country course! Greenwich after all is steeped in military history.

They think its all over.............

Don't believe the hype! Tabloid fever has finally hit the British equestrian press, first we had a shake down of the frustrations in Hong Kong and now we have doom and gloom over the future of the "horse sports" in future Olympiads. Quite a few sports have passed through the games over the last century or so, but many more have stood the test of time, including the key equestrian disciplines.

Popularity (or rather lack of popularity) is being sighted as the reason for a potential drop of the horse events, but European, middle east and western nations are huge "horse lovers" (the French perhaps more than we'd like to admit!), and I'd be very surprised if any of the horse disciplines are dropped (even pure dressage).

Personally I'd like to see us get rid of the farce of the "team event" and just run the individual medals. - It just doesn't make any sense at all. Bring back Polo - a true equestrian team sport.

Anyway, we're host city now so let's get on with putting on a great show.

Now back to Burghley, Flint Curtis is currently leading (what a great horse).