Olympic course designer Guilherme Jorge is designing the jumper courses at WIHS. A couple of the courses he has done so far were interesting in that there were lots of jumps at either end of the arena but lots of empty space in the middle. That’s quite different than what we often see.

I asked Guilherme why he created that design and he explained that the arena is very small – long and narrow, which creates difficulty for the course designer and the jumper riders. It’s a challenge and so Guilherme feels that by designing it this way he can give the riders some loops to jump and get them used to the tight turns. In addition, he noted that it’s a long course and so he has them jump first on one side before galloping over to the other side and negotiating that side and thus it allows the horse a short reprieve to catch his breath before having to continue more major jumping efforts.

In going over the course Guilherme noted that since this is the beginning of the week he starts the riders off with easier fences in the beginning of the course and easier courses in the beginning of the week and will build from there. This allows them time in the course to build up to the more difficult questions and more time in the week to build up to the more difficult courses.

Guilherme lives in Brazil but is seen in the U.S. quite a bit designing courses. Riders like his creations because he asks fair but tough questions (and he smiles a lot). Guilherme only knows me from seeing me at various major events like the Olympic Games and yet every time he sees me he always says hi.

We also spoke a bit about the comparison of courses and how he makes the junior jumpers more difficult than the amateurs and the open jumper courses more difficult than the juniors. For example in the amateurs he included an in & out combination whereas in the juniors there was a triple combination. It’s also little things like slight changes in height or distances between the fences that help to make a course easier or more difficult.

Overall, it was great to have an opportunity to not only photograph the courses but to talk about them with the man who built them.

So now is a perfect time to mention the winners in the various jumper classes. Markies with Spencer Smith aboard topped the class in the WIHS Children’s Jumper Championships, a class which started with 31 qualified riders. The WIHS Adult Jumper Championship was won by Grisset ridden by Alissa Kinsey. Amateur-Owner Jumper winner on Wednesday night was Carneval, ridden by Susan Knoblauch. Continuing on Thursday, the Amateur-Owner Jumpers was won by Lucky One with Lillian Hahn aboard. Junior Jumpers were topped by Drossana and Navona Gallegos riding. Open Jumper Time First Jump-Off victory was claimed by McLain Ward on Couletto K James, a horse he never competed on before. And the last jumper class so far was a Gambler’s Choice and that victory was claimed by Andres Rodriguez on Da Vinci. It was a costume class and what fun the costumes were.

The WIHS continues through Sunday with all the major competitions still to come.