The gate is above my pay grade as a rider. Well above. :lol:
But I have always wondered about it. For course-walking, it’s quite pretty … but to Maggie’s comments I always wondered if it isn’t a bit deceptive to the horses because of where it is located, and because they are almost certainly putting on speed because they are emerging into the open field.
The horse has just jumped the log-ditch-log under the trees and is going up a gentle grade, kind of bursting out of this woody lane into the big field … the horse-compass trajectory straight back to the barns, behind those trees along the horizon! (Actually the spring-event FEI horses are stabled a bit to the left, but the Greenwood perennial horses certainly know that the stabling is that-a-way (although not the path to it).)
After the gate they are on a huge bend to the right to the water, which is off the screen on the right, under the trees. The hump-back log in the background, just to the right of the gatepost, is the first element of the red course entrance to the water.
It’s a perverse kind of fun, as a spectator at the water, to watch the riders convincing some happy-footed horses to SLOW down and come around to the water. Training level is actually the most fun because (coming off a table instead of this gate) they have a less severe bend into their log-drop into water, many of the horses know the track of this last third of the course only too well, and whatever the rider is doing or saying (loudly), they are flying! :lol:
