The topography of this course was tough for the horse and a lot of the horses were tired at the half way point. The first part of the course was uphill with a 1/10 climb and the fences were massive and the ground was hard under foot with a slippery muddy top surface. Then the downhill part had a lot of rails, hence so any spills. I was watching at the the Snowy River Leap fence and I would say it was the most scary of any with a shear drop into nowhere, although all the fences were unrelenting, best event and as tough as Badminton for size and difficulty. Only the fittest survived on fit brave horses. No warmbloods in sight!!
We can talk smack til the cows come home about how terrifying and dangerous XC was back then... But man, at LEAST they had FIT, CAPABLE horses!!! No big fat dressagey/show jumpery warmbloods trying to drag their fat butts around the courses... THOROUGHBREDS!! YES! THOROUGHBREDS ALL DAY LOOONG!
Comments below on how “messy” they looked. Cross Country then was a real test: There were no frangible pins, the fences didn’t come down, and a fall wasn’t an automatic elimination. Scrappy, scrambling, brave horses with less natural scope tended to do better. By the same token, riders who could stick tended to ride longer stirrups so they could BOTH take a seat and drive AND get off the horse’s back to gallop. If you watch carefully, you’ll notice the “looser” riders and their horses tended to stay up and together even during a stumble or a bad distance. I’m NOT condoning that approach. I’m just explaining it was necessary for cross country then.
The fei shortened the format in 2004 to accommodate the IOC & to keep eventing in the Olympics, it was nothing to do with safety. Doing away with roads & tracks and steeplechase reduced the cost of staging the Olympic three day event & made the sport more commercially viable. In 1986 when this event happened, deaths were very scarce. It wasn't until 1998/ 1999 & the introduction of skinny fences did the spate of deaths occur
It was 1986..a lot has changed since then...interval training had only just been introduced as a way of fittening..up till then it was weeks of trot and gallop!
I think doing away with roads and tracks was a really bad idea..the horse still has to get it's 'eye' in for the fences..plus warming up the muscles..and now 30 years later the riders still try and find places away from crowds to do canter and gallop work!!
this was eventing before they dummbed it down. we still had roads and tracks, steeplechase, and roads and tracks and THEN X country, the fences were a lot tougher, there was way more variety of obstacles, the courses were tougher, and it was a much bigger challenge for both horse and rider. water was deeper.
