For most of this decade, event riders, officials and course designers in the United States and abroad have debated the rise of the short format and the near demise of the classic format for three-day events. We’re now the only country in the world that still holds classic-format three-day events, and that’s just at the training and preliminary levels, a topic I discussed rather fully in my blog “A Triumph For The Classic Format and For Horsemanship” on July 31.
The removal of the two phases of roads and tracks and the steeplechase phase on the second day of a three-day event has put great pressure on the cross-country course designers for major events and championships to create courses that will decide the competition. And that pressure has unavoidably trickled down to the horse trials that are supposed to prepare horses for three-day events.
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