Video of the Cross Country course at Beijing

oh thanks loads for posting that, hadnt seen any of the xc so had no idea!!! OMG tho think its number 24 the corner over a ditch???? mite be wrong, looks very tech and dont like the 1st water!!!! some nice let up fences tho and beautifully built!!
 
thank you so much for posting that!

the xc does look as though it will sort the men from the boys - that water jump with the offset houses in the water had me going oooh thats tricky
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it may walk harder than we see it though, and the weather could make all the difference
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haven't watched the vid yet, but having seen all the photos on the french team site, i think it's a true 3*++ test. with the undulations, heat, humidity, number of jumping efforts in shorter distance than ever before, and very tight time, i think it will have a huge effect. some of the short routes, e.g. the one with the red flowers on top and very skinny middle part, look like they're only for the very brave and confident! (of course, i'm sure everyone will probably go straight there with no problems now...)
i will be amazed if it is anything like as easy as Athens was, personally. M E-S knows his job better than that...
 
Well, an olympic XC test isn't supposed to be more than a 3*+ right ?
And given the weather conditions... Should still be influential.
Anxious to see how it rides though.
 
I suspect the offset brushes at the end will catch out tired horses and tired riders.
I also think the skinny brushes at the foot of a slope are going to be hard to hold a line to with the strategically placed bushes..........
 
Appears to be more straightforward that I expected though some of the skinnies look tight, and the Chopsticks fence gives me the horrors. The corner one with the big ditch looks terrifying. ALso we don't know the ground conditions after all the rain, the gradients involved or what the heat and humidity is going to do. Fingers crossed they all finish safely.
 
blackeventer, i think it's supposed to be 3*+, not more, because it was softened slightly to keep Eventing in the Olympics, to give the less experienced nations more of a chance (and less chance of annihilating them)
 
Of course you have to take the heat and humidty into account and I understand that it is a very undulating course, so it coudl be very tiring - we will soon see!

Great to see the course though, the whole thing terrifies me!!
 
Agreed, regarding the humidity and undulations having a big effect, and I also just want to say how glad I am that it is a 'pretty' course- Looks so much better on TV and attracts much more attention that just the average brown brush.
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I was just thinking how pretty it was!
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So much for my contribution to the 'how hard is it' debate
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Preparing yourself for more in-depth commentary tonight are you?
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Just got info from a rider's mouth..........course 8 mins, should be very tiring and will cause run-outs, corner in ditch not too bad, skinny brushes at foot of hill should be ok, but the second last a *******, and the weather forecast is poor.............
 
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LMAO!! yes indeed. I think it's very important to be able to comment on how the colours of each fence complement the horses and the riders' colours...
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I should think your favourite commentators will have feild day with the XC Course..


"And number 212 is coming up to fence XX......Not enough planter flowers for my taste, could have done with a splash of yellow and it isn't symmetrical....but that horse and rider just cleared it, I think.
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That looks seriously squishy going...in that heat it could take a lot out of the horses.
The ones I didn't much like were the dragons (spooky horses could do a double take) and that corner over the ditch.
The combinations weren't on the screen for long enough for me to decide about them.
I just hope no horse thinks those dragon flies at the finish are massive horse flies....
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QR - speaking of the XC course, I saw this in the report on the FEI website (about Megan Jones)
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And to prove to herself that the Hong Kong climate was not going to take a huge toll on her horse on Monday the 31 year old ran around the Olympic cross-country track earlier in the day today. "I sweated a lot" she said disarmingly, "but I had already walked it once so I wanted to see what it would be like going a little faster and it wasn't so bad" she added while her listeners stood gasping in amazement.

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She must be mad
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