This year’s cross-county course starts out over several old friends. They’re all of maximum height and massive construction, but they’re extremely inviting.

The start is in the same location as it has been, just above the Lexington Bank. Fence No. 1, the Flower Box, leads the horses downhill, across the race course and into the infield, quite a long gallop that takes them to No. 2, the Woodsman’s cottage. Then they make a long, steady climb up to the top the racecourse, where the riders will have to slow down for the first time, turn right, and face the first of Mike Etherington-Smith’s cleverly placed and slightly narrow Hayracks at No. 3 and 4. The distance here should allow four galloping strides, and horses at this level should make nothing of it.

But a repeated theme throughout this course will be that the riders have to slow their horses slightly to jump the hayracks well. This means they must gallop down the hill, toward the middle of the infield, considerably faster than the required speed of 570 mpm.  If we had a radar gun, we’d probably clock some of the faster horses at nearly 20 mph as they approach No. 5, the Picnic Table. Fortunately, there’s a mild, left-hand turn to the table, which will help balance the horse. And, again, an obstacle nearly 4 feet high and 6’6” wide at the top will be treated with disdain by all.

The course continues in front of the race course grandstand, and a high-speed, downhill left turn brings us to No. 6, the Trakehner. This has an imposing spread, with running water underneath it, but if your horse is so inexperienced that he looks down, then now would be a good time to pull up.  The riders will jump the Trakehner as fast as they think they safely can jump, and then comes the first serious question on the course.
   
The pond at 7ABC is a rolltop placed at the edge of the water and constructed so as to produce a maximum drop. What will that feels like? Park your SUV next to swimming pool, take a running jump, and let fly. You’ll have some idea of the sensation horses and riders will get as they jump this rolltop going in to the pond. That’s why the riders must have already planned their route before they get here. They can either jump the drop on the right side of the pond and make a right bend to another similar rolltop on the left side of the mound. Or they can carefully maneuver to jump that first rolltop and go almost straight for four forward strides to the rolltop on the right side of the mound.

Mike E.-S. loves to test accuracy and flexibility. With his usual ingenuity, the course designer has constructed a third route, which involves bending back and forth over slightly smaller, slightly easier jumps and approaches, but I think it’s effort wasted here. Some 99 percent of the field will tackle one of the straight options, and most of them will succeed. 

Mike is going to examine the horse and riders’ ability to turn equally well in both directions. The fast route out of the pond involves a right-handed bending line on four strides, but it’s only a few seconds faster than the left-hand side. I wouldn’t be surprised to see quite   a few riders elect to tackle the slightly longer option on the left-hand side of No. 7.
   
Regardless of the line they choose, the horses will land at about 400 mpm. Flexibility doesn’t just mean turning right and left. It also means going forward and coming back. I’m often asked what makes the difference between good four-star riders and really good four-star riders. My answer is that the really good riders land preparing for the next jump. The really clever competitors here will accelerate to at least 600 mpm within two or three strides.

The track of the course now takes them due north through infield for about 200 meters, to another turn to another narrow jump at No. 8, Uncle Frannie’s Birch. No. 8 is a birch rail, slightly narrow, and slightly airy, with a sizeable drop. You take off from the level, but you land on a slope. You should take one stride, jump a ditch, and two forward strides to come out over the very narrow left-hand side of No. 9.

Any obstacle that’s placed here always rides a little bit harder than it walks. The effect of seeing the ditch behind No. 8 puts a hitch in some horses’ step, and, if that happens, things will probably come unraveled quickly here. The correct line between 8 and 9 is straight, but the opening at 9 is barely width of a horses’ body. Any deviation from that line is going to cost the rider 20 penalties.

Again the flexibility of the horse is tested because there are only five or six strides before the track turns up the hill for about 300 meters, away from the race course grandstand, and leaves the infield. Mike E.-S. persists in referring to jumps like No. 10, the Hammock, as “a breather fence.” If you think an obstacle 3’11” high by 6’6” wide is a breather fence, then why aren’t you riding here?

Horses will still be fresh as they cross the road and head out toward the Sunken Road at No. 11 and 12ABC. You’ve seen these wonderful brush squirrels before. They’re enormous, but they jump well. The best combinations will jump 11 on slight right-to-left angle, land, take one stride, drop down into the Sunken Road at 12A, take one stride across the Sunken Road, jump up a 3’9” bank at 12B, again take one stride and leave the Sunken Road over an almost identical squirrel, set this time on a left-to-right angle. 

If you look at a sketch of this combination from above, the jumps are crooked, but your line should be straight. Again flexibility is tested because the riders have to slow down for the precise approach needed at 11 and 12, so they’d better hustle around the left-hand turn to No. 13, the New Corner.

Mike predicts that this fence will cause trouble, but I’m not sure I completely agree. Most of the horses will tackle this fence right next to the red flag and make nothing of the yawning chasm underneath it. Four-star horses these days treat single corners like catnip. (In my days, they were kryptonite.)

There is along way here, but considering what lies before you, if you don’t attempt the fast route, you probably should retire now.
After they leap No. 14, the Ditch and Palisade, they’ll have quite e long run next, uphill, to an old friend here at Rolex, The Hollow, No. 15ABCD. The question here is to jump quite a big stone wall, land down a steep drop, then turn right-handed to bounce bank where each wall is 3’9”, followed one stride later by an angled cottage.

Horses tend to drift over their outside shoulder when you make a turn. This means horses will tend to jump slightly left as they go up the bounce steps, but the cabin is angled slightly over to the right. If the riders miss this subtle point in their strategy sessions, they’ll miss their stride at 12D and go skidding past it to the left.

You should take a moment to review in your mind the questions that Mike’s asked the horses and riders so far. There was a right-point corner coming out of the pond. If your horse is slightly ungenerous, he might glance off past the red flag. Two fences later, at 9B, the tendency will be for horses to drift to the left. The New Corner at 13 is red-flag corner—and this means the rider must control the right shoulder—yet the question at 15D involves controlling the left shoulder. So you can see that Mike’s questions are sometimes subtle, but they’re unrelenting. Each fence here in the middle of the course presents some problem in the training and riding of the horse.

Regardless of the outcome at the Hollow, riders will step on the gas as they turn back toward the middle of the course and the trade fair. The really skillful riders will make sure that their horses get a breather going down the mild slope that’s followed by an easy right-hand, downhill turn to the Shelter and Stumps at 16ABC. This question was here last year, but Mike didn’t think it caused enough trouble. So he’s moved the shelter farther down the hill. This means that you have less time to make a tight left-hand turn after the big drop to jump the two stumps at B and C.

These stumps are identical. They’re both 4’7” high, and they’re taller than they are wide. Add to this a medium-sized ditch at the base of each stump, and the question here becomes one of absolute precision at a high rate of speed. If your horse is distracted by either of the two ditches, he’ll slip past the stump so fast that you’ll wonder where he went. The three strides between the two stumps are set to encourage aggressive, forward riding.

Now riders must gallop straight ahead about 15 seconds, then make a sweeping, uphill left-hand turn toward the campground. At the top of the hill, they turn right, parallel to the gravel road, to approach the two triple brushes at No. 17 A and B. These are identical, triangular brushes, with the sharp end pointing toward you. The accuracy of your line was tested at No. 16, but here Mike is repeating the question over undulating ground. Having said all that, the distance is spot-on for a going four strides.

Landing on the second mound, riders will accelerate down the hill and make a mild right-hand turn to jump the Footbridge at 18. In the past, riders have come to grief over this basically large, simple fence because they didn’t take into account the stream that crosses under the footbridge at a slight angle. You should jump this at a high rate of speed, but you must continue to be accurate in your presentation to it.

After the Footbridge, the course crosses Marks Lane, turns left across Nina Bonnie Ave., across the dressage warm-up arenas, then slightly downhill toward what will surely be the most crowded section of the course at No. 19, 20ABC and 21, the Head of the Lake. No. 19 is a large brush fence carved in the shape of a fish that will cause no trouble, but it’s placed there to make sure the riders don’t approach No. 20 too fast. There is a maximum drop behind the rails at 20A, followed four strides later by the first of two identical, massive logs carved in the shape of ducks. Either one of these ducks would be difficult enough, but you must jump them one after another, with only one stride in between, and
Mike has placed them so that you must jump over the tail feathers of each duck.

The ducks are 25 feet long, but the place for you to jump is an invisible dotted line the width of your horse’s body. This line stretches from a maximum drop, through the two ducks, followed five or six strides later to an enormous white-flag corner two strides out of the water.
Because Mike’s used brush in this corner, he’s allowed to trim the brush at 4’7”. Looking up the slope as you come out of the lake at 4’7” of a narrow corner is sight few of us are ready to tackle. An enormous roar of appreciation or groans of disappointment will tell the outcome here, even if you’re not watching one of the giant TV screens set up around the Kentucky Horse Park.
 
Immediately after the corner at No. 21, there’s a sharp left-hand turn followed by an enormous oxer over the ditch. No. 22, the Creek Oxer, is built to maximum specifications. It’s a simple jump, but any rider who takes a mental vacation after negotiating the Head of the Lake can have a terrifying experience here. Within a few short strides after the lake, you must be back at the full gallop. If you are, your horse will jump the oxer as if it were nothing.

Crossing back over Nina Bonnie Ave., the horse now gallops uphill toward the infield for the final time to approach a new signature jump at 23AB, the Normandy Bank. This comprises a ditch with a 3’10” bank, followed by an immediate bounce over a log set at 3’8” with a slight drop behind it. This is an imposing obstacle, but I predict it will cause little trouble for this group.

The fitness of the horse will now become apparent, as they gallop downhill to No. 24, the Keeper’s Brush. This is one of the fast sections of the course. If you don’t have wind tears in your eyes on the approach to this enormous brush, you’re probably not going fast enough!

At this point, you’re about three-quarters of the way around. If you have a clean round to this point and are on your minute markers, you still need to step on the gas as you take a long gallop north through the infield, turn left through a gap in the railing and charge uphill to No. 25, the Dray.  This fence was more influential last year than it should have been, and this year Mike has moved it back uphill onto a level patch of ground. Riders will slow slightly for this, but they’ll make the majority of their compression in the approach to the new water complex that’s right afterward. This combination has been dug into the ground east of an old favorite, the Lexington Bank.

The question here at 26ABCD, the Banks and Splash, is 3’10” rail set at the edge of the water, followed five strides afterward by a narrow, semi-circular oxer with curve pointed toward you. If you’re slightly off your line after the maximum drop at AB, you’ll have a hard time re-establishing your straightness for 26C.

After this obstacle, which is in the middle of the pond, riders must turn slightly right-handed up the slope of Lexington Bank to 26D, a tall thatched cottage on top of the bank. Because of the angle that the cottage is placed on, your approach becomes critical.  The striding is far better on the right-hand side than anywhere else along the jump. Inattention to detail here will turn your learning curve vertical for a moment.

Galloping straight down of the bank, you enter the final section of the course, in the draft horse field. All of these obstacles are big, and the question is no longer so much on the precision of the line, but rather the ability of the rider to jump big fences in balance at a high speed.

The Park Log, at No. 27, is jumped slightly downhill, heading straight back toward the stables. No. 28, the Cross Question, has a ditch underneath it, but if you’ve gotten this far, your horse will ignore it and land running into a wide right-hand turn to No. 29, the Bourbon Bar.

There’s a long run (almost 400 meters) to the Bourbon Bar and the last fence, the Rolex Arch. You’ll see a few clever riders with fit horses make up a few seconds here, but the rail under the Rolex Arch is a little bigger than it has been, so all the riders must be sure to concentrate all of the way to the finish line.