With cross-country day (5 September) looming for the top eventing combinations competing at the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials, many are turning their focus towards the challenging course ahead.
Horse & Hound talks to some riders following their dressage tests at this world-famous event to find out what they think of the new-look cross-country course, designed by Mark Phillips.
The reversal in direction of the cross-country course means that combinations face a completely new and totally different challenge to the one they have become accustomed to over the years at Burghley.
Walk the cross-country course at Burghley *PICTURES*
We take a look at what the cross-country course has in store for horses and riders this year
Watch Burghley 2015 cross-country course preview *VIDEO*
Watch the official course preview video for the 2015 Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials
This year the iconic Cottesmore Leap comes as riders approach the four-minute mark after the long uphill pull from the Anniversary Splash. There is then very little let-up for the horses all the way to the finish line, making it an intense course and one that riders have described it as “huge” and “one of the biggest four-stars we have seen for a very long time.”
Oliver Townend, here with a whopping three rides (Dromgurrihy Blue, Armada and Samuel Thomas II) said that he had “never seen a course quite like it,” while Louise Harwood described it as “tough all the way — there’s hardly a let up fence.” Pippa Funnell said that it is “one of the most dimensionally big tracks” she has seen for a very long time, if not ever.
The provisional total length of the course is 6,370m with a provisional optimum time of 11 minutes 10 secs.
You can keep up to date with all of the action at Burghley live as it happens courtesy of H&H Live while videos of each rider will be available on demand shortly after they perform on Burghley.tv.
Full report from Burghley in next week’s H&H, out Thursday, 10 September — 17 pages of photos and analysis, including columns from Ruth Edge, Lucy Wiegersma and Mark Phillips.