The Jersey Fresh International Organizing Committee announced Aug. 4 that they have added 800 meters of land to the cross-country course for the Jersey Fresh International Three-Day Event. This entails approximately 1 1/2 minutes of galloping on the course.
“Provisional course designs for next year’s event [held May 10-14] currently indicate a ‘loop’ in that area, although this could be subject to change as we get further into the planning process,” said several members of the JFI Organizing Committee, including Dan Wunderlich, committee chair, and Jane Cory, event organizer, in a written statement.
This new land will be maintained and managed by the Horse Park of New Jersey, but its use will be limited to the Jersey Fresh International Three-Day Event, which runs a CCI** and CCI***, and the Garden State Combined Driving Event.
As well as providing additions to JFI cross country course, this new acreage will also offer a cones course and dressage area for the CDE competition.
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“Efforts to establish and maintain top-notch footing on the prospective cross-country tracks are already underway in order to ensure that they will be ready and in optimal condition for next May’s JFI,” wrote the JFI Organizing Committee. “Outside of the aforementioned usage, the area will be further enhanced—under state and local agency guidance—to become prime grassland bird habitat.”
This new acreage is part of the JFI Organizing Committee’s long-term plans to continually expand and further enhance both the competitor and spectator experience at the event.
“By increasing the area available for our cross-country tracks, competition courses can be more fully refreshed one season to the next, incorporating new and different elements, and providing for greater flexibility in routing/challenge elements from year-to-year,” wrote the Organizing Committee. “As an example, it is anticipated that the cultivation of grassland bird vegetation within the newly acquired acreage will provide unique ecological and design opportunities that should greatly contribute to annual modifications in course routes, look and feel, in that area. The spirit of that creativity and flexibility is intended to be carried to other, more established sectors of the property, as well.”
