It’s 50 days until riders jump the World Championships cross-country course, on Saturday 15 August. The showground at Aachen will be alive with the bustle of spectators waving flags and in the stables, the nerves will be buzzing.

What can riders expect from the track? And what has it been like putting it together? We caught up with the course-designer, Italy’s Giuseppe della Chiesa, to find out.

The numbers tell a large part of the story in terms of the specific challenges of designing championship track. Those who take every direct route will tackle 42 jumping efforts, but there are 74 fences in the course.

“That tells you something about how many alternatives there are,” says Giuseppe. “When you come to a championship, you have even more variety of expertise and experience than at other events.

“We have minimum eligibility requirements – people call them qualifications, but that is the wrong name for them because if you pass one, you are not qualified. They happen all over the world and some are probably not really the right level, but in the end, we want to have everybody there.

“So you have established five-star horses and riders and pairs that maybe never saw a real four-star in their life. The challenge is to produce a course that allows the best to be sorted out and the others to finish. Not everybody will do so, but I start with the idea that everybody should have a way to come home, if they use their brain.

“Anybody can design for good riders because if you make a mistake, they will solve it. Designing for average riders is more difficult.”

Are there any particular themes or pointers riders must keep in mind on the course?

“If they ride well and they engage their brain, they will be fine – and, as I say, there is a route for everybody,” says Giuseppe. “The rules say the cross-country at the World Championships is four-star with a special distance of 10 minutes. I think 42 efforts over 10 minutes is a good balance, it creates a good competition.

“If you go all the direct routes, you will have jumped a ‘four-star plus’, but you can also find a ‘three-and-a-half-star’ to get around.”

That optimum time, of approximately 10 minutes, will be tight, Giuseppe predicts.

“I tried, without stressing them too much, to keep control of the horses’ speed so that we can have some interest with the time,” he says. “And then they need to pay attention because it’s easy to have a glance-off, especially if you’re going for the time.”

World Championships cross-country: Aachen’s history

Giuseppe says a huge plus of working at at Aachen is the “fantastic” organising committee.

“They are completely dedicated, they followed me on anything I asked of them,” he said, citing the fact the site is very flat as something of a challenge compared to Pratoni del Vivaro, where he designed the course for the 2022 World Championships.

Eventing first came to Aachen in 2005, in a test event for the 2006 World Equestrian Games (WEG). Giuseppe explains that there was no intention for eventing to be part of the programme at the venue after that WEG.

“They prepared all the footing for the track, spending a huge amount of money because it’s very difficult to prepare there; because it’s very wet, the soil is not good,” he says.

After WEG, the organisers wanted to keep eventing as part of their showcase summer event every year, but designer Rüdiger Schwarz was left with the challenge of creating a four-star short using parts of the track that had been designed for the WEG.

“He had to be really creative,” says Giuseppe, explaining that in putting together the route for this year’s World Championships cross-country course and going to the expense of preparing new areas of ground, he has also tried to leave a site where it will be easier to produce different types of track in the future.

The alternatives required at a championship also need space and careful thought so that they are not too twisty and don’t require too much turning back.

In some places, Giuseppe has given riders choices that are only two to seven seconds more time-consuming, so they are not true direct and long routes, but genuine alternatives where riders will have to make a decision.

A team effort

Giuseppe says the course-designer should never work alone. Poland’s Marcin Konarski was the technical delegate at the Pratoni worlds and Giuseppe found he worked well with him, so when Rüdiger decided, for health reasons, to step back from Aachen and ask Giuseppe to design the worlds, Giuseppe asked Marcin to be his assistant.

“And I told Rüdiger, ‘I will accept to take over from you, but you mustn’t disappear’, so Marcin, Rüdiger and I have worked as a team, and the course-builder James Willis is part of the team too,” he says, adding that he worked with the Willis brothers as course-designer at Badminton Horse Trials from 2014 to 2016.

The technical delegate, Britain’s Philip Surl, has already visited Aachen too.

And how will Giuseppe know he has done a good job? Giuseppe was pleased that in Pratoni, there were no horse falls, something he aims for again, but knows is partly down to luck. However, he says the acid test is to watch horses jumping, both on screen for an overall view and on the ground at the fences.

“Live gives you more the feeling of what is actually happening in a horse that is moving at 570 meters per minute or more – how they are working on the terrain, the strength they’re putting in, how they understand the fence, how they are turning, how quick things happen. Everything on video is always a bit more slow motion, it all always looks nicer on video than in reality, so you must go and see the real thing,” he says.

“Looking at horses jumping is the most important thing that a course-designer should do because they tell you everything. You must be on your own, not chatting.

“The big satisfaction is when I see that horses jump well, produce a good picture. Maybe sometimes they have a mistake, but the mistake is understandable. Maybe the riding was not so accurate. But when the riding is good they must produce a nice job – if everything is good and they don’t produce a nice picture, there is something that is not working.”

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The eventing World Championships cross-country course at Pratoni del Vivaro, Italy, for this week’s event (15-18 September) has been designed by Giuseppe della Chiesa.

It is 5,600m long and the optimum time is 9min 50sec.

Check out our pictures of all the fences on the the eventing World Championships cross-country course.

Fence 1: Longines Time To Start

Fence 2: Albino’s Water Trough

Fence 3: Hayrack

Fences 4 and 5: IGA Picnic Tables

This combination offers a choice of narrow picnic table at both the first and second element.

Fence 4 options

Fence 5 options

Fence 6: Strzegom Triplebar

Fence 7abc: KEP Italia Slide

The direct route involves jumping the log at fence 7a on the lip of the Slide, then the two arrowheads at the bottom of the slope (fences 7b and 7c).

Fence 7a direct route

Looking down to fences 7b and 7c on the direct route

Fences 7b and 7c on the direct route

Fence 7c on the direct route

The long route involves jumping an easier log as fence 7a, then curving round the steep hill and either jumping two different arrowheads as fences 7b and 7c or making a loop back to jump one arrowhead, which is fence 7bc.

Fence 7a on the long route

Fence 7b on the long route

Fence 7c on the long route

Fence 7bc on the other long route

Fence 8: Fir Wood Oxer

Fence 9ab: Angled Brushes

Fence 9a

Fence 9b

Fence 10: Triple Bar

Fence 11abcd: Fischer Brush and Corners

The direct route consists of a shoulder brush (fence 11ab), then a turn to two right-handed corners (fence 11c and 11d)

Fence 11ab on the direct route

Fence 11c on the direct route

Fence 11d on the direct route

The long route consists of a shoulder brush situated away from the direction of travel (fence 11a), then a triple brush arrowhead (fence 11bc) and a final corner (fence 11d).

Fence 11a on the long route

Fence 11bc on the long route

Fence 11d on the long route

Fence 12: Arturo’s Kennel

Fence 13: Wilberry Wonder Pony Table

Fence 14: Intesa San Paolo Belvedere

Fence 15: Goldspan Farm

Fence 16abc: MIM Clip Complex

Fence 16

Fence 16bc on the direct route

Fence 16b on the long route

Fence 16c on the long route

Fence 17: Intesa San Paolo Oxer

Fences 18 and 19abcd: SAP Vertical and Sunken Road

There are three routes through this complex.

Fence 18a on the direct route

Fence 19abc on the direct route

Fence 19d on the direct route

The slightly longer route involves a wider line and an extra jumping effort.

Fence 18 on the slightly longer route

Fence 19a on the slightly longer route

Fence 19bc on the slightly longer route

Fence 19d on the slightly longer route

The longest route does not involve jumping a ditch at all, but it takes riders well off the fastest line at fence 18.

Fence 18 on the longest route

Fence 19ab on the longest route

Fence 19cd on the longest route

Fence 20: Intesa San Paolo Wall

Fence 21abcd: Longines Hydroconquest Combinations

The direct route consists of a skinny on an island (fence 21a) then two angled shoulder brushes after the water (fences 21bc and d)

Fence 21a on the direct route

Fence 21bc on the direct route

Looking over fence 21bc to fence 21d on the direct route

Fence 21d on the direct route

The longer route consists of a different arrowhead on the island (fence 21a), then a loop round to two shoulder brushes (fence 21b and 21cd) on an easier angle than on the direct route.

Fence 21a on the long route

Fence 21b on the long route

Looking over fence 21b to 21cd on the long route

Fence 21cd on the long route

Fence 22: Vittorio’s Moles Tunnel

Fence 23: Trakehner

Fence 24abcd: Longines Hydroconquest Combinations

The direct route consists of a big log into the water (fence 24ab) and then a corner in the water (fence 24cd).

Fence 24ab on the direct route

Looking over fence 24ab to fence 24cd on the direct route

Fence 24cd on the direct route

Riders on the long route jump a rolltop (fence 24a), then go round the island to two boats (fences 24bc and fence 25d).

Fence 24a on the long route

Fences 24bc and 24d on the direct route

Fence 25: Thor’s Kennel

Fence 26ab: Intesa San Paolo Brush

Everyone jumps this fence 26a, then there are two options for fence 26b.

Fence 26b on the short route

Fence 26b on the long route

Fences 27 and 28: KEP Italia Open Oxers

Riders have a choice of two similar oxers at fence 27, with one offering a slightly tighter line.

Fence 28

Fence 29abcd: Pratoni Horses

There are three main routes through this final complex. The direct route consists of just two jumping efforts.

Fence 29abc on the direct route

Fence 29d on the direct route (this is also fence 29d on the slower routes)

This slightly slower route requires riders to jump two angled horses (fence 29a and 29bc) before 29d.

Fence 29a on the slightly slower route

Fence 29bc on the slightly slower route

The longest route involves jumping a horse at fence 29ab, then looping back left-handed to fence 29c, which is jumped on a line to the final element (fence 29d).

Fence 29ab on the slowest route

Fence 29c on the slowest route

Fence 30: Finish

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Keep up with all of the breaking news, behind the scenes insight and the best of the action throughout the World Eventing Championships with no limit on how much you can read from as little as £1 per week with a Horse & Hound unlimited website subscription. Sign up now. Check back tomorrow for the riders’ reaction to the eventing World Championships cross-country course. Plus enjoy our full 20-page magazine report (on sale 22 September) including opinion from Mark Phillips and ground jury president Christina Klingspor.

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This year has been a dramatic one, with the cross-country the dominant factor in determining the result at many of the four-stars. The old and bold would celebrate this return to the “good old days”.

Unfortunately times have changed and many of the pictures we saw this year are becoming increasingly unacceptable.

That produces a real dilemma for the four-star designer. How do you set a four-star test and still produce a picture that is acceptable in countries such as Germany, Holland and Sweden where animal rights activists are vociferous?

We have had the introduction of frangible fences with the British pin systems and the Swedish MIM Clip. Designers are using more brush fences as they, too, are forgiving if a rider makes a mistake. But some say the bigger effort required to jump so many brushes is making horses more tired.

There have been papers circulating among senior designers this autumn asking whether we are mentally asking too much of the horses, with so many combinations and skinny fences.

Badminton final scores

As ever, we seem to have more questions than answers.

Why horses are tiring more

One common factor this year was the ground conditions, which made the time unattainable at Badminton, Burghley — where one softer section meant riders could not make up time — and the World Equestrian Games. In all three cases we underestimated the conditions underfoot.

When the time is difficult, horses become more tired and the resulting pictures are less pretty. The shorter format doesn’t have the endurance element we had from a 5min 13sec steeplechase followed by a 14min cross-country. In those days, we settled into a rhythm like the long-distance runner in order to finish.

In the long format, we had a jumping effort every 175 or 180m — now it’s every 140 or 145m. The number of fences has not changed, nor has the speed at which water, a coffin, a sunken road and so on can be tackled. That means horses now go much faster between the jumps and they therefore get winded, more than tired, from the intensity of the effort.

In addition, many riders aspire to ride at four-star and indeed meet the minimum requirements. However, in life, experience is what you get just after you discovered you needed it. So my heart sank when I heard there were 18 first-timers at Burghley this year, because I knew there would be a percentage that were not up to it.

Where do we go now?

I go to Burghley this week to start the 2015 course. It’s been agreed that we can turn the track around so that the Lion Bridge, Lake Crossing, Capabilities Cutting and Cottesmore Leap will all come in the first 4min. The highest point on the course will come at 4min instead of 8min.

Will this be an improvement? I don’t know, as it will put the challenges of Discovery Valley, the Leaf Pit and the Arena in the last 3min.

It will be fascinating to see what Giuseppe de la Chiesa comes up with at Badminton. He’ll be praying for better weather.

Even more interesting will be Ian Stark’s Bramham after his wet one this time and how he deals with the mountain at Blair Castle for the Europeans in September.

Talking of Blair, Alec Lochore assures me that the dressage arena erected in the main ring this year to protect the virgin grass was in the wrong place and I’ve now seen pictures of it correctly sited. Happily, the boards looked laser-beam level.

I apologise for inferring otherwise (comment, 28 August) but I was not the only one scratching my head. Anyway, I’m excited about returning to Scotland next year for what should be a great European Championship.

It was disappointing to see so few runners at Pau last week. Was this because of the attrition at WEG, Badminton, Burghley or the lack of HSBC funding for the FEI Classics — or a combination? I don’t know, but it was a sad way for 2014 to peter out.

Let’s look forward to 2015. I’m hoping we can make it a golden year for the sport and leave the soggy memories of 2014 behind.

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A palpable sigh of relief went round my table as the starter was brought into lunch today, at the press preview day of the Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials. After a year’s break in 2013, baked eggs were back. None of us could quite remember what we had last year instead, but we knew it was DIFFERENT — that we had been denied the sublime cheesy, creamy, hard-boiled egginess — and we didn’t like it. Business as usual was a huge relief.

Except of course, it wasn’t business as usual today. The pre-lunch cross-country drive had had a new frisson, because we were viewing for the first time the creation of new designer Giuseppe Della Chiesa. Event director Hugh Thomas designed Badminton’s track for 25 years prior to stepping down last year and, while some members of the press are more “senior” than others, few present today would remember a Frank Weldon course. So viewing a Badminton created by someone other than Hugh was a whole exciting new world.

And what was it like? The press preview day is a fairly fleeting glance — we drive round in a fleet of Mitsubishis and get out at perhaps five fences — but on that acquaintance, it looks like a testing challenge.

The fences are generally sited in the same spots as previously, with the notable exception of the Gatehouse New Water (fence 14, above) near the Luckington Lane. Giuseppe was not present today, so Hugh was our guide, and explained that the fences are fairly soft here this year, while they test how the pond — made suitable for a jump at considerable effort and expense — works. But “the investment in this jump has got to last a long time” and we can expect to see more tricky things here in future.

As an aside, Hugh revealed that the use of silver birch here is deliberate, in the hope the uneven colour makes it easier to pick out the rails in what can be a confusing meddly of water, trees and shadow. It’s certainly a picturesque site, with a view down to the side of Badminton House.

Badminton final scores

My prediction for the most difficult complex is the Swindon Designer Outlet Mound (fence 18, right).

Here, riders run up a newly sculpted mound, over a narrow tree trunk and down the other side, making a fierce right-hand turn to another skinny trunk, then a sharp left to a further accuracy test. I’ll probably be wrong and everyone will sail through, but those twists look tough, especially if horses are tired after the Vicarage Ditch section.

Other themes? Truly long long routes — not that there are many of them — plus more fences which demand a break in the rhythm means it’s likely the time will be more difficult to get than in recent years (which should be applauded). Goodbye to some “staples” (the pick-ups at The Lake) and hello again to some old traditions (the PHEV Vicarage Vee, left, is back and even more fearsome when followed by a second skinny rails in the ditch).

Plenty more will be said about this course before and after the event. Hundreds of thousands will watch competitors tackle it live at the event, many more on television. People will judge “how it rode” and we stats geeks will crunch the stats.

I can’t wait. Bring on Saturday, 10 May.

Video preview of the course

Read Lucinda Green’s thoughts on the cross-country course in the first part of H&H’s preview, out Thursday, 1 May.

Full form guide for every competitor and more in a special 24-page pullout guide to Badminton, included in the issue out Thursday, 8 May. 

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The chairman of Horse Sport Ireland (HSI) has called for a “fundamental rethink” on course design, following the death of Tom Gadsby at Somerford Park.

Patrick Wall said Tom’s death in the CIC* again highlighted the danger of certain types of falls.

The 26-year-old New Zealander was killed when his horse rotated over fence 4B, a log pile with a filled-in top, and landed on him.

Last month, Laura Collett suffered a crashing rotational fall in an intermediate section at Tweseldown (8 July) when her mare chested a filled-in corner.

“Knockable elements, frangible pins and collapse-on-impact materials in fence construction are improvements, but more can be done,” said Mr Wall.

Badminton final scores

“It is not acceptable that people are killed participating in the sport they love when all preventative initiatives have not been exhausted.”

Mr Wall added that the addition of an “apron” or toeboard to give the horse a ground line — as seen on steeplechasing fences — was one “simple initiative” that could reduce the risk of rotational falls.

This suggestion was welcomed by four-star event rider Alice Dunsdon, who observed several horses hitting the same fence as Laura Collett’s at Tweseldown.

“It is so important to have a ground line, especially on the solid, boxy fences,” Alice told H&H.

“I think you can get away without a ground line at a rounded fence, whereas the one Laura fell at was a very upright corner.

“They [upright fences] have become more popular in the past 10 years and I don’t think they do the horse or rider any good,” she added.

British Eventing (BE) chief executive Mike Etherington-Smith agreed that it was “essential” to “continue to explore all avenues that could lead to a safer sport”.

He said BE would be pleased to welcome HSI to share its suggestions, “as we welcome ideas from all quarters”.

His words were echoed by Giuseppe Della Chiesa, chairman of the FEI eventing committee and the new course designer at Badminton. Mr Della Chiesa stressed that, while eventing could never be a “zero risk” sport, the FEI was committed to exploring ways of further improving safety.

The statistical risk of suffering death or serious injury had “decreased significantly” in the past 10 years, he added.

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Italy’s Giuseppe Della Chiesa (pictured), 48, marks his senior championship course-designing debut at the 2007 European Eventing Championships at Pratoni del Vivaro (13-16 September) by introducing a new look to one of the world’s most traditional cross-country tracks.

The cross-country course was established at Pratoni for the 1960 Rome Olympics. It features the famous downhill “slide” fence, which this time will appear on the course at around fence 12. The going is typically close to perfect, thanks to the local volcanic soil, on the undulating terrain around Rome’s Centro Equestre Federale.

“The course will be quite different to previous championships at Pratoni, but it wouldn’t be Pratoni without the famous slide fence,” explained Giuseppe. “In fact, it is now a double slide, because it will go on downhill towards the old steeplechase course, which is now incorporated into the cross-country.”

This is the first championship to take place without steeplechase at Pratoni, which allows a new route incorporating the now-defunct steeplechase area. Spectators can view several fences on the course from any one point, with up to 90% of the course on view from certain points.

The water complex has undergone considerable construction work and will be negotiated three times by riders and horses. The time allowed is expected to be about 10min 30sec and will not be easy to achieve as the terrain is hilly and there are several complexes to slow riders and horses down.

“It is inviting, galloping ground, but at the test event in April, when only one rider achieved the optimum time, I warned competitors that they would still need a very fit horse,” said Giuseppe.

“The top riders have all become so technically competent that big fences are no longer enough of a test, and riders have become good at dealing with the modern accuracy fences. However, for me, today’s cross-country test is all making riders and horses tackle accuracy fences in a forward way if they are to get near achieving the optimum time. That is where the designer can play with the optimum time and find ways of slowing riders.”

www.eueventingchampionship.com

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