‘I hope horses come out better for going round’ – Blenheim’s new cross-country course-designer on what to expect
Jay Hambly, the Canadian responsible for this year’s Blenheim cross-country course, talks about his background and designing at this iconic venue
Next week’s Agria Blenheim Horse Trials (17-20 September) will showcase the work of a course-designer who is leading on a major track in the UK for the first time, with Jay Hambly responsible for the course.
Canadian Jay, 52, says he is “super thrilled” to have the job at the Oxfordshire event, which hosts a CCI4*-L and an eight- and nine-year-old CCI4*-S.
“I have many friends in the UK and they’re super excited about it. I wouldn’t never downplay it – to come to Blenheim, to design in the UK, doesn’t happens for a lot of people outside of the UK,” he says, referencing US designer Derek di Grazia at Defender Burghley Horse Trials as one of the few other instances.
Jay says he isn’t one who’s good at pushing himself forward. His involvement at Blenheim has grown out of longstanding friendships with British designers and course-builders who have been, and still are, associated with Blenheim.
Like most course-designers, Jay rode up to advanced level.
“I went through Pony Club, got my A test and then I lived at a place called Checkmate, which in North America was a famous eventing facility in the late 80s and early 90s – before we really had star levels, there was Checkmate, Kentucky and Fair Hill,” he says.
“As a kid, to pay for riding horses and being a working student, I would work for Checkmate and help David Evans build. The designer was Mark Phillips and the technical delegate was always Mike Etherington-Smith. So that’s the group who taught me – David, Mike, Mark, and then also Mike Tucker, and later, Ian Stark and Derek.”
Never miss out on the latest happenings in the equestrian world
Looking for ways to pay for “his hobby and habit of riding”, Jay became a course-builder and then a designer. These days, he still competes but not at the top-level – typically his business is in producing ex-racehorses through the lower levels and selling them ono.
On the course side, he was on the build team for the Olympics in 2008 and 2020. He is the designer at events such as Bromont, Rebecca Farm, the grand prix eventing showcase at Bruce’s Field and the American Eventing Championships at Kentucky, as well as assisting Derek at the Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event.
Jay has been responsible for the track at several Central American and Caribbean Games and is lined up to do next year’s Pan American Games in Peru.
Blenheim cross-country course: a similar route to 2025
Jay assisted Mark Phillips in designing last year’s European Championships track at Blenheim and then – strongly encouraged by previous Blenheim designer David Evans, who is still the event’s course-builder – he went through the process of applying to take over as designer, with confirmation he had the job in the late spring of this year.
He says the permanent features of the site at Blenheim – the lake, the stabling, the arena and the tradestands – mean that the route is fairly constrained and for this year at least, people should not expect major changes to that, although he will look to make some more alterations in the future.
“In the four-star short for the eight- and nine-year-olds, you want to keep the jumps out in front of those horses so it’s not too complicated for them to pick up the lines – you’re trying to encourage those horses to get more confident, finish better than they started and become team horses in the future,” he says.
France’s Benjamin Massie and Figaro Fonroy at the Dew Pond combination at the 2025 European Championships at Blenheim
The Blenheim cross-country course for the CCI4*-L will be somewhat softened from the European Championships last year.
Jay explains: “I have added a combination earlier, because last year the Dew Pond was the first combination, so this year they have something to do before they get there. And I tried to spread the efforts out a little bit more, to have it feel a bit more balanced, as last year it was very intense from the ditch and wall at the start of the trade fair through to the rollercoaster piece of ground.”
Apart from the first and last fences, the two courses use pretty much completely different fences in order to ensure the best possible ground for the horses.
Jay says the organising team at Blenheim have been “amazing” and he’s actually done much of the work remotely rather than by being on-site.
He explains: “Because I know the venue and the fences, I did a lot of it on a computer. I would go back and forth with David – nobody knows the ground better or obstacles available better David.
“Yes, you have to go to the venues to finalise layouts, put the jumps in place, to see how the ground works and where the lumps and the bumps are. But you can get your distance, your track, your concept finished before you ever get there, when it’s a place you’ve been to before.”
When we spoke in late August, Jay had an onsite course walk with Mark Phillips planned, with enough time for tweaks to be made after that as necessary.
The two long water crossings are major features of Blenheim’s course – Piggy March and Halo are pictured jumping into the lake at the 2025 Europeans
And what does Jay hope people will say about his Blenheim cross-country tracks?
He doesn’t want it to be a memory test, where riders end up eliminated by jumping the wrong fence because of the number of options, and he says he doesn’t have a particular trademark style.
“But I would hope that when it is all said and done, people feel it’s hard enough because it needs to be a competition,” he says.
“I think you can really reward people with time, so I hope the time is difficult and if you ride flawlessly, you get rewarded without time-penalties and then I hope that trickle down happens so people are appropriately rewarded with less time-penalties for riding well.
“And I would hope people feel like their horses are better for having done it at the end, that things were clear to them and their horse, and any mistake was what happens on cross-country.”
- To stay up to date with the latest equestrian news, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website
Pippa is a true eventing geek and has been H&H’s eventing editor since 2005. She has first-hand experience of competing up to British Eventing intermediate and international CCI2*-L level, and has worked in the industry on a top event yard. Pippa enjoys nothing more than immersing herself in the sport at the highest level, reporting from the five-stars and international championships, including the Olympics.