‘You’ve got to be on it all the way’: riders predict how Pau five-star cross-country track will ride
(Image credit: Gemma Redrup)
Riders have been giving their reactions to the Pau Horse Trials cross-country course, designed by Pierre Michelet.
Cross-country day kicks off at 1pm (12pm British time) today (29 October).
“There’s a lot of similar-ish combinations going in different directions so if you don’t get one right, you might have to change your plan.”
Tom is in third and ninth place on Bob Chaplin and Braveheart B respectively after the first phase at Pau.
“I think the first water is quite nice to get us going because obviously we’re quite used to the waters being pretty hefty. I actually think fence four A and B [the Kiosque & pointe de la Ville de Pau] is a tough enough ask – Pierre Michelet always asks a very early decent question in the courses that he builds.”
“I imagine the time will be tight and it will be very easy for us to have an irritating 20 penalties for doing very little wrong,” explains Izzy. “You’ve got to be on it all the way. And, as we know, the fourth last combination always causes trouble, so you’re not home – as I demonstrated last year when I had a fall there – until you’re home.”
“Pierre Michelet is an extremely interesting course designer,“ he explains. “There’s a lot of questions. There’s a lot of places where you can have tricky little errors, but Pierre has given us choices between going on three or four strides on a repetitive basis throughout the course.
“There’s lots of places you can have a glance off and riders are going to have to concentrate the whole way. It’s obviously not the big, imposing, bold type of course like Burghley, but it’s technically difficult, and you can’t relax until you’ve landed over the last fence.”
“I haven’t walked it and felt sick like I have done in the past at Burghley or Badminton, which is nice, but there are so many places for really annoying things to happen – this is a rider accuracy course,” she explains. “If you ride your lines perfectly and your horse is genuine, you should be fine, and then it’ll just be about achieving the optimum time.”
“There’s plenty of places you can have a run out so riders definitely need to be concentrating the whole way around, but it’s a good track,” she says. “It should suit horses that riders have a really good partnership with.”
“There’s some challenging stuff and plenty of combinations, so riders will need to be on it. It’s going to be hard for our brains and the horses’ brains too.”
You might also be interested in:
Take a leap of faith: check out the 2022 Pau five-star cross-country course
Pau Horse Trials cross-country times: find out when your favourite riders will be tackling this five-star
‘I was quite nervous’: five-star winner overcomes atmosphere to sit pretty at the end of Pau five-star dressage
Variety proves the spice of life for British rider in top three after Pau five-star dressage
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