The Olympic stables at Greenwich Park Photo: Kit Houghton/FEI
Greenwich Park may not have been everyone’s choice for the equestrian events at London 2012 but now it is all about to kick off, LOCOG’s choice seems inspired.
Greenwich Park is London’s oldest Royal Park, dating back to 1433. It is part of the Greenwich World Heritage Site and home to the Prime Meridian Line and the National Maritime Museum. Covering 74 hectares and located just 20 minutes from central London, the park offers sweeping views across the River Thames to St Paul’s Cathedral and beyond and the photographs set against this backdrop are going to be stunning.
Chris and Lucinda oversee the decorations (don't fall off, Burto!) Photo: Kit Houghton/FEI
With the first group of horses in situ, including our own Australian eventing team happily settled in to their stables and facilities, and the sun streaming down (for the moment) the site is looking very good.
Andrew and Rutherglen getting checked out Photo: Kit Houghton/FEI
Lucinda's horse Flying Finish settles into his Olympic stable Photo: Kit Houghton/FEI
Team GB flex their muscles moving in Photo: Kit Houghton/FEI
Camp Team GB Photo: Kit Houghton/FEI
The 5.7km cross-country course features 28 jump complexes and, thanks to the special pull-out in the latest Horse& Hound magazine, we now have an idea of what a few of these fences will look like. You can view all of the fences online at Horse & Hound
CLICK HERE FOR PDF of COURSE MAP (please note that this is not the official course map)
Looking at the Greenwich venue map you can see the overall course, including the Start and Finish at the top of the Park, which is the highest point topographically. We’ve superimposed the Fences on the basic map, which is not exactly pretty but gives a reasonable idea. According to H&H, Fence 4, The Royal Herb Garden will be the biggest and widest fence on the course and as you can see comes off a wide turn.
Fence 8abc is The River Bank, a temporary water feature which will be removed after the Games. Inspired by The Wind in the Willows the jumps feature Ratty’s House and Toad’s Caravan (wonder how many riders will think it’s a ‘toad of a fence’ by the end of the day??!!)
Fences 15 and 16 are The Tower of London and are the feature fences within the actual arena which will no doubt be jam packed and full of atmosphere. The images in H&H show some significant structures designed to replicate the Tower of London which apparently travelled to Greenwich flat-packed and were assembled in situ. Earlier in the year I chatted with one of the London 2012 course builders, Tony Symonds, when he was course building at Wandin Park. Tony told me that most of the fences would be pre-built then moved into place at the last minute and it certainly seems that the designer Sue Benson and building team have done a great job to bring it all together under tight scheduling.
Fence 25 The Timeline Clocks is an interesting fence that incorporates working clocks; one for each nation competing that tells the time in their capital city which gives a whole new meaning to ‘making time’ on course!
