A TOUGH TEST

RIDERS agreed that the Rio cross-country was the toughest at an Olympics for years.

Only three competitors — 4.7% of the field — finished the course clear and inside the time, compared to 12.2% in London 2012.

“It’s one of the most physically demanding courses for a rider I’ve tackled. I’ve never been that gassed after a cross-country round,” said American Boyd Martin, who finished on 3.2 time-faults.

Seventeen horses — 26.6% — were eliminated or retired, compared to 20.3% in 2012. William Fox-Pitt said he “didn’t see any horses not finish tired”, adding: “It’s a short course, but it’s still quite warm, it’s humid and the ground was firm. It’s demanding.”

Five horses fell: the Netherlands’ Zindane, ridden by Theo van de Vendel, Tim Price’s Ringwood Sky Boy, who slipped between fences, American Lauren Kieffer’s Veronica, Irish rider Padraig McCarthy’s Simon Porloe and Polish rider Pawel Spisak’s Banderas. Belgian individual Karin Donckers had a rider fall, from Fletcha Van’t Verahof. All the horses walked away. Theo broke three ribs and Lauren sprained her thumb.

“The fences come at you thick and fast; there’s no room for error,” said Mark Todd. “The horses have to stay really focused on us as riders. We said it’s a real riders’ course and it proved that. I also said if you wanted to win a medal you had to go straight and fast and that’s pretty much how it panned out. But there were alternatives everywhere and if you didn’t want to go straight there were perfectly jumpable options.”

Ireland’s Jonty Evans agreed the course had tired the horses, but added: “We haven’t seen many ugly pictures. I think the designer got the balance about right. We don’t want to see a dressage competition; the strong cross-country horses moved up.”