I’m obsessed with that dragon jump.
The view and venue is incredibly beautiful. I feel very grateful we can watch this on a Saturday night. Going to be epic.
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Good LORD that Dragon jump!!
OK - went through the whole entire course now… I just have to say, it is beautiful. The aesthetics of their culture really pulls through. I loved the hanging lanterns, the temple, and the use of red and dragonflies around the course. Stunning.
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I can’t get over the gallops along the water…I’m so jealous of all the riders and people who get to be there! It looks beyond incredible!
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What confuses me about 8 is that there is brush on top of what is effectively a drop into water. Unless I am misreading the image. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that – most horses know to go through brush and jump a brush fence a bit flat - which you don’t want to do coming into a drop into water. I think that brush could potentially obscure what’s beneath the fence, which might take some pairings by surprise.
I love 12 - Harbour Turn - I think that set of jumps is just visually stunning.
Hell of a skinny fence (11) going into water. I expect quite a few knocked flags at that complex.
Don’t love 14AB.
The bullet train will be interesting. White airy poles are a problem on XC and yes, there are studies of it - but with this guy being a glorified pheasant feeder, we’ll see.
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I don’t think it is uncommon to use brush going into water, I think Badminton? had it not that long ago, but those were full brushes though. I think its nice they put the brush, the horses can skid over that log a bit easier.
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Brush is pretty common on solid fences going in and out of water, like this year’s Landrover - which featured several brush fences at/around HOL –
But I haven’t seen a lot of hanging log drops into water feature brush on top. This fence is specifically very similar to that jump at Rio Olympics.
Just something I noticed - I don’t remember Badminton’s water jump off of the top of my head though.
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I think the worry will now be the weather. Looks like rain for several days. I do think 8 looks huge. They mostly do look huge and end up riding fine.
It was more a bullfinch, might have been Burghley. I’m hoping eventing podcast will have course designer interviews.
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I’ll have to keep an eye out. So much goes into course design, it really is a whole 'nother world.
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There are a few that look like they might be hard for the horses to read, IMO.
The option for 8a is somewhat more forgiving. A skinny-ish log vertical (with decorative wings) on grass.
The part which confuses me about 8a is that you are giving the horse 3 signals to read: the angle, the air beneath the fence, the water on the other side.
However, from what I’ve seen in the UK, this type of fence style is not new (and other riders noted it’s been around since 2010).
I can’t imagine it will present problems for the more experienced horse and riders. But maybe for some first-timers it may be more of a rider thing. Also, it’s the “meteor” fence (issues that randomly happen at a certain fence due to design/track condititions/weather/etc. planning cannot predict) that can be hard to identify. I don’t think this one will be it.
Fingers crossed everyone has a great XC day!
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I think it will be much like Beijing where time is more of the deciding factor rather than jumping penalties
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Do we know what time jogs occur?
I just read they are at 9:30 am tokyo time which is 8:30PM tonight (I’m in Aiken)
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Is there any hope of seeing the jog live, somewhere?
I’m late gearing up the technology. What do I need to subscribe to for livestream - if that is a thing? Haven’t had time to read the whole thread yet.
Yay I calculated the same time difference. 7:30 pm Central Time. 
no live jog but I think EN is blogging. To get live stream, you must have cable, satellite, or Hulu. This is the main way if that doesn’t work look to the cut the cable thread. Sign in at NBCOlympics.com to equestrian and Bob’s your uncle!
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En is tweeting the jog
All Brits and Americans pass the vet
Pavarotti withdrawn
Live broadcasts of sports like equestrian are always this way with the Olympics - haphazard or non-existent. I don’t know how advertisers don’t get it across that a lot of advertising dollars are being missed.
