London 2012: Cross Country Course - Peter Pan Pirate Ships

PETER PAN

Did you know there's a Peter Pan statue in Hyde Park (or rather Kensington Gardens to be precise), and apparently there's quite a tie-up with Hyde Park in the origins of this novel. 'Legend' has it Peter Pan sailed on an old birds nest across the serpentine escaping the small island there.

This is such a lovely setting, and the perfect opportunity to have a "let's slow them up" fence before the first water and early on the course, that I thought it might be fun to introduce 2 corners in the form of some pirate ships, and I was given some external inspiration for which I'm very grateful.

Let's take a look at the fences....


Fence 7A&B: Peter Pan & The Pirate Ships:

The Peter Pan Pirate Ships | Fence 7A&B

Please use your imagine a little, after all it's Peter Pan, and I didn't have too much time to create the graphics for this one. 7A is a 'pirate' ship in dry dock, and horses will need to jump the bow of the ship as a corner. Now two things to bear in mind, first notice how this element is flagged, secondly imagine that the shape of the bow of the ship leaves a lot of air underneath the jumpable element. It could be described as a hanging corner, and whilst easy to set ground lines the 'airiness' of this fence is bound to make a few horses double take here.

7B is an upturned boat, again note how the fence is flagged, and bear in mind this shape of fence is one of the best for 'encouraging' runouts. Their relation to each other, the statue and some of the decoration means there is only one route option here and it's not my intention to give horses a nice simple route through here.

Both these fences are of decent size and spread, so not really something you'll be able to come into on a true showjumping stride. the will need attacking and will be on a related distance between them. 7A is alos approached from a blind corner.  I anticipate a few problems here as riders mis judge how horses will view both these fences and their surroundings.

This combination is set to test how "switched on" horse and rider are before we up the game, which is about to happen at Fence 8, and give me an opportunity to slow them down.

More fences to come.....

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