Olympic cross-country fences to reappear this autumn

The iconic cross-country fences that wowed at Greenwich Park will be reappearing at events up and down the country this autumn.

Burghley (30 August-2 September) and Blenheim (6-9 September) are among the first beneficiaries, while other advanced three- and four-star events have been allowed to bid to British Eventing (BE) for the fences.


Three obstacles – the Planet, which stood near the Observatory in Greenwich Park; the Sundials, which perched on the downward slope towards the main arena, and the final fence, the Olympic Games Horseshoes – have found a new home in Burghley’s main arena, which traditionally has a different theme every year.


Blenheim has secured two fences – the Altar (fence 21 at Greenwich) will now feature in the CIC course and the Saxon Village (fence 27ab at Greenwich) will be used in the training ground.

The fences, constructed by Olympic course-builders London Eventing, have been leaving Greenwich in batches on the back of a lorry.

They are being stored at BE’s Stoneleigh headquarters until the bids have been processed.

More fences can be seen at Allerton (15-16 September) – the Olympic chestnut logs and East End barrows – while the flowerboxes were on display at Wellington (25-27 August).

And the carved sheep by the log pile trailer will be installed in the children’s playground in Greenwich Park.

Dominic Lawrence, who worked with London Eventing, told H&H: “They all look exactly how they did at Greenwich – even down to the flags. It’s awesome for more people to be able to see them.”

Olympic eventing manager Alec Lochore added: “The aim is for all the props and equipment from the Olympics to be distributed as widely as possible and recycled as part of the Legacy programme.

“Riders will definitely be seeing more of the cross-country fences before the end of the season.”

This news story was first published in the current issue of H&H (30 August 2012)

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