Are you ready for the Mitsubishi Motors Cup cross-country course at Badminton?

The pinnacle of many amateur event riders’ careers is just around the corner. The Mitsubishi Motors Cup, held at the highly prestigious Badminton Horse Trials, is nearly here (3-4 May 2016) and the preview of the BE90 and BE100 championship cross-country courses has been released.

Walk the 2016 BE90 cross-country course

Walk the 2016 BE100 cross-country course

The Mitsubishi Grassroots Championships were renamed earlier this year to the Mitsubishi Motors Cup and there are some fantastic prizes on offer, including a new Mitsubishi Shogun to drive for a year, so it’s worth riders jumping a good clear cross-country round on the Wednesday of the event.

The full-to-bursting prize pot comes thanks to Mitsubishi Motors who celebrate their 25th anniversary of sponsoring Badminton Horse Trials this year.

You can expect beefy, technical fences on both Mitsubishi Motors Cup cross-country courses, up to respective maximum heights of 90cm and 100cm.

BE100

In 2015 the BE100 course caused plenty of problems at various fences, with 48% of starters jumping clear. 21% of cross-country starters jumped clear inside the time around the 3100m course with an optimum time of 6 minutes 34 seconds.

Last year there were four refusals at the jump into The Lake.

The Lake

There were 22 refusals and one fall at the World Horse Welfare Brushes which make a comeback at this year’s championships in a very similar format.

World Horse Welfare Brushes

There were also eight refusals at the corner of the Woodhouse Combination, which again is also in the course this year.

Woodhouse Combination

The fence that caught the most people out was the Shogun Hollow, a rail, ditch, rail combination. Here there were 30 faulters including three falls. Once again it’s back this year!

Shogun Hollow

BE90

In 2015 the BE90 course saw a clear cross-country completion rate of 63% with 79% of those finishing the course inside the time of 6 minutes 53 seconds (3100m in total length).

The fences on the course that caused the most problems were the jump into The Lake (seven refusals), the World Horse Welfare Brushes (14 refusals), the Woodhouse Combination corner (eight faulters including one faller) and the Shogun Hollow (11 refusals and one fall). And yes, all of these fences are back in their various forms this year.

The jump into The Lake

The World Horse Welfare Brushes

The Woodhouse Combination corner

The Shogun Hollow

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Course walks

There are several course walks available for competitors to join in with. These will provide fantastic insight on how to tackle the course from industry experts. They are as follows:

Monday 2 May
3pm Yogi Breisner

Tuesday 3 May
12pm Nick Gauntlett
2pm Harry Meade
3pm Nicky Roncoroni

All walks will begin at the cross-country start box.

Don’t miss our Badminton preview issue, out on the 28 April 2016

Gemma Redrup

H&H features, racing and point-to-point editor

Gemma is an experienced journalist, having been part of the H&H team since 2014, who is passionate about all equestrian sports, including racing and point-to-pointing. She has enjoyed riding out for top trainers Nicky Henderson and Charlie Appleby and took part in a charity Flat race at in August 2018. Gemma’s reporting talents have taken her to numerous five-star events around Britain and Europe, as well as European championships.