So Ian, obviously you're returning as the course designer this year. Track looks wonderful. So can you just give us a quick overview of what your vision was with it being the first four-star first FEI of the year? How you approached your design?
We've tweaked it a bit. We kept the same flow to the course. When I was asked to come here originally, the brief was -- and my thoughts have always been -- that it's to give the horses a good run before Kentucky. There's plenty of opportunities in different events. When I was competing, I always liked to have a good, tough, attacking course for a horse before a big five-star, so that's kind of what my aim has been here: to make it educational but make it a challenge, and have the riders riding their horses and the horses jumping big fences. I don't go for a lot of twists and turns, it's still challenging and they're meeting fences off turns, but there's not a lot of pulling horses around in the middle of them. I'm not a great fan of that. And, if you're going to do that, then do that when it's Championship or the five-star or the final run of the season, the big game for the horse for the season. I want it to be a good competition here. I want horses and riders to go away ready for the next one, is what I'm always thinking.
Is there anything that you changed significantly or not? Are there any questions that you kind of redesigned? I know the big water is always a big challenge and a big draw. And there's lots to do up there. So maybe we can talk a little bit about that question.
Yeah, I've always put fences in the Montrose water. I decided this year not to have a big drop in, but I wanted more of a question coming out. And you know, the angled brush at the top of the mound, the trakehner, and then two short strides. There's one or two riders that have asked, 'do you want us to go across there in one?' And I said, 'No, I don't.' I'm expecting them to jump up and round over the first one, land, and then kind of press them into the base, get the two strides, and it's a big drop. If there weren't another one there, they would probably crumble and fall over on landings. I'm kind of looking for them to be quick with their footwork and reacting, and they don't get to see the second brush till they're taking off for the first one. The riders have got to make the plan and the horse has got to just respond. Last year, we had the same trakehner to the drop to the skinny, but the skinny last year was tiny, and I felt they were almost tripping over it. I only put it there again -- this year I put a slightly bigger fence and put brush on the top of that final element to get the horses eye up -- because it's right at the end of the course, it's the third to last fence, and they come off that drop into the landing a little bit dead, and then they were on their forehand. What I want to do is have a big enough fence so they could land, and the horse and rider had a reason to sit up and pick up for the next element. It's not a difficult fence, but it's just to make the recovery better, so that they go to the last few fences and they're not galloping on their head.
But it's quite an intense field. We've got a long gallop from the normandy bank to the big ditch brush. The big ditch brush I love, but this year, I asked if we could trim off the bottom of the trees and all around the trees, so it's much brighter and it's easier to see. But if there's a horse with a ditch issue, they might see the ditch a bit more. There's a long gallop and then that, and then from there until they get out of the Montrose field and over the gate, you know, it's all Bum Bum Bum Bum Bum -- it's happening quite quickly. So I think our riders have to be careful that they haven't tried to do the time and get to the Montrose field on a horse that's feeling a little bit 'wow, you know, I've worked quite hard here.' They need to save a bit of energy so that the horses are still jumping. The second to last fence is is a gate, and it's frangible. It was interesting, we had some of the five-star course designers, Mark Phillips has what we call his Amsterdam meeting every January-- it used to be in Amsterdam, but not now, it's at Heathrow but we still call it the Amsterdam meeting -- and there were comments from riders and from Dickie Waygood, who helps Chris Bartle with the British riders. A lot of them were saying that they actually would quite like us to use the frangible fences near the end to make sure the horses are still jumping. What the riders hate is a frangible fence going into a coffin. I mean, they all hate that, because, -- and I don't blame them -- they're frightened that the hind legs are gonna give them 11 penalties. So they were saying, 'give us a question to slow us down and make sure the horses are still jumping at the end.' That's why I moved the gates there. And then the last fence is, provided you're not being a complete yahoo, is just a bit of a gimme.
And historically, I think I saw a stat that only 11% of people have made the time here, historically speaking. So are there places on course where you feel the time will be able to get up a little bit? Obviously, the middle is very intense, pretty much through the end.
Because of what it is, and we're in the infield, it's tempting for riders to go, 'right, we need to make up the time here.' But that's what I'm saying, if they do that, and the horses are running out of puff, then it's asking a big question, and then in the Montrose water, and then the gate could be a telling issue. So it's knowing your horses. I put the question out there. I quite like having it... The Event Riders Masters, when they did the cross country last, I hated that because it put pressure on everybody to go fast. There was a lot of people galloping the legs off their horses, and I saw one or two falls at the end of the courses. So I made the one I did at Chatsworth, I made it combination-heavy at the end, so the riders had to save the energy. And actually, it meant them getting home better, because the questions were at the end, so they had to save the energy and they had to ride at the end, they weren't just trying to push for the clock. And so I'm letting my head get into a bit more of that, I think it's quite a good idea. And also at the three-day events, you haven't got the phase B at the steeplechase now, so I like to let the riders have a bit of a gallop at the beginning, a bit of a kick on, and get the horses thinking forward, and then bring in the big questions. So the beginning of the course is kind of like the steeplechase and it's kind of encouraging, and galloping, and opening up and jumping, and then ask the questions. It's kind of how my thought process has been evolving over the years, as well. He says 'evolving,' next year is my last year. I'm retired after next year, so I don't have to worry about it after that. But I've still got a lot of work to do in the meantime.
Has anybody asked you to cut that keyhole open more?
It's got a tiny little bit bigger. There's a guideline -- I think the guideline is too generous. So I'm about that much shorter than the guideline both that way and that way. I think here it's 160 by 180, and I think you'd find that that's 150 -- nearly 155 -- by 170 something. So it's very close.
Have to make this one smaller because it's next to the three-star one right?
I've only been there with the boys about 10 minutes ago, so we've only just finished it off. What they did, they re-brushed it but we left the old brush in, so it was the same size as last year. As I explained to them carefully, in a year, a lot of that brush can sag so it was definitely a little bit tighter. So we've just opened it and it just looks rounder and easier now. I try and help them, the riders sometimes. Not always. I lie in bed and think of how I can get them but -- no, no, I'm joking. I went to bed before seven o'clock last night with the idea of just lying in bed and watching the telly, and fell asleep and I woke up thinking that I'd forgotten to put a tree in the ditch in the trakehner or on the mound -- last year, I put a tree in the ditch to stop anybody drifting left and landing in the ditch -- and I woke up and I had no idea that the telly was on. It was dark outside, I have no idea what time it was. I sent, Tyson a message saying 'put the tree in, put the tree in in the morning!' I sent him a scree, I don't even remember doing it properly. In the morning, he said 'What were you on?' I kind of get excited. I know the riders think I can be a bit of a pain in the ass and ask me questions, but I spent a lot of time worrying about it as well. I don't care if the riders are frightened, but I want to get it right for the horses. That's my huge thing in my head, is if the horses can't read my questions, I need to give up. So I go through hell thinking about it.
For sure. Where will you be on Saturday?
Buzzing around like a blue-arse fly. Whatever that means. Yeah, now more and more -- especially the the long format -- the course designer is meant to be with the gound jury and in control the whole time, but I can't stand that. I need to get out, get away from everybody and sweat it out on my own further away. And I like to see horses live, I don't like to see them on the telly the whole time, because you get a much better feel for how the fences are riding when you see it live.