Course design often appears to be primarily a series of
technical choices, as the obstacles are carefully placed with exact measurements and angles to provide a specific degree of difficulty. Linda acknowledges this aspect of the profes- sion in her CD, as she discusses some of the tools of the trade for building and designing a show jumping course, whether for Pony Club or Grand Prix, from paper and pencil to working with whatever materials are available at the show ground. The art, she says, is using those tools to create a co- hesive course that flows for horse and rider to successfully negotiate. In the end, she says, the work is actually more art than science. “There are a lot of factors to take into account. Successful course design involves dealing with the horse- manship end of it - always endeavoring to have appropriate courses and appropriate tests for different kinds of competi- tion,” she explains. Anthony D’Ambrosio, now a licensed USEF and FEI course
designer, became interested in this work as his riding career waned. “(Riding) gave me the best experience and a chance to experience a lot of different course styles,” he says. He has the distinction of holding the world record in Puissance twice (1973 on Sympatico and again in 1983 on Sweet and Low) and the current indoor record of 7’ 7½”. Today he oper- ates Wild Horse Ranch in Red Hook, New York with his wife, Michael. The ranch specializes in developing Grand Prix show jumpers.
Anthony D’Ambrosio during an interview with a Chinese television reporter.
“Course designing always interested me,” Anthony ex-
plains, “the science and the art of it. And I appreciated cer- tain course designers very much throughout my career and felt even as a younger rider I might evolve into doing some course design. So I did as I got a bit older. As I started to look at the end of my riding career, I made a transition toward course designing and did both for a time. Then finally I made a shift completely to course designing and have done some teaching as well.”
Striving for Suitability Anthony enjoys the challenges his
career offers. Various classes are “different in different way,” he says. “The jumper Derby, for example, is a step up from Grand Prix in terms of sheer size and spread, with natu- ral obstacles, intimidating natural obstacles, which you will not see in a Grand Prix. The Grand Prix asks different questions.” Linda Allen agrees that differ-
ent course types and sizes demand different skills from their design- ers. “You have to work to scale and make sure everything fits. The jumps come up quickly indoors, for example, and you don’t have as much area to work in, so it adds its own level of difficulty that you have to take into account,” she ex- plains.
“I think most course design-
ers like to be known for building suitable courses for a particular
An example of a Grand Prix course design at Spruce Meadows created by Anthony D’Ambrosio.
22 September/October 2014
Courtesy Anthony D’Ambrosio
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68