Reading the Course on Foot Before You Ride It

The walk before a cross-country run is where most of the work actually happens. In eventing, riders often spend more time on the ground than in the saddle during preparation week, tracing routes on foot, marking fences, and committing choices to memory long before the starter's bell rings. It is the phase of the discipline that quietly determines whether a clear round becomes a possibility or a gamble.

For three-day eventers like Dom and Jimmie Schramm, the walk is not a casual stroll. It is the moment when the course designer's puzzle begins to make sense. Pacing out approaches on a soggy morning at their West Grove base, or on dry footing at an interstate venue, all shapes how the run will feel ten minutes after the start.

What follows is a breakdown of how a thoughtful cross-country walk can transform the way a partnership sees the course, drawn from the kind of pre-ride planning that has shaped competitive three-day careers and the everyday schooling days in between.

Reading Terrain Before You Read the Fences

Most riders reach the course map and immediately focus on the solid obstacles. The seasoned campaigner starts further out. Camber of the land, slope of the approach, and the subtle dip just before a trakehner matter more than the colour of the flags in many cases. Climbing a slight rise, looking back toward the previous fence, and visualising how the horse will arrive at the new question is more valuable than staring at the brush from twenty metres away.

In Australian conditions, this kind of terrain reading matters even more. Courses like the Melbourne International Three Day Event at Werribee and the Adelaide Three Day Event on parkland edges offer dramatically different ground. A ribbed rye grass sward in New South Wales behaves nothing like the kikuyu-dominated footing of northern Victoria or the sandy loam of Western Australian venues. Walking early lets a rider feel whether the surface is holding, slipping, or carrying spring.

Footing also tells the rider where to slow down and where to keep moving. Hard ground asks for shorter, balanced efforts; deeper going rewards a higher cruising speed and bigger fences. Marking roots, holes, and drainage trenches on a mental map is routine for Australian riders who school year-round on unfenced pastoral land, where a forgotten wombat hole can change a line.

Decoding Combinations and Related Distances

Once the land has been absorbed, the real problem-solving begins. Combinations are the cross-country discipline's chess puzzle, and the walk is the only time a rider sees them from the standpoint the horse will. Standing at the exit of one element and looking toward the next reveals angles that vanish the moment you mount and move at speed.

Bending lines tighten themselves when viewed from the saddle. The walk shows whether three or four strides will actually fit between elements, or whether the only viable line is to land, balance, and pop straight. Related distances on the ground are usually measured with a wheel during the walk, but even without a wheel, a heel-to-toe count across even terrain gives a workable estimate. Over undulating ground, that count changes again, sometimes dramatically.

Australian courses are known for generous, flowing combinations, but they also include technical moments that demand real precision. The corners and skinnies dotted across the major eventing tracks, complex water complexes, and option fences built into modern short-format courses all reward riders who have walked the line and rewritten it at least twice in their head. Look for ground poles, alternative flags, and the spots where a confident forward line beats a careful, contained balance. Reading this from the ground reduces surprises mid-flight.

Planning Pace, Lines, and the Mental Rehearsal

Every step on the walk is also a measurement. Three-day eventers think in minutes and seconds, especially in long-format competitions such as Adelaide, where the cross-country phase still follows the classic two-day or three-day rhythm. Counting strides between elements helps a rider build a route map that matches the optimum time, while identifying places where a half-halt or a quick adjustment fits naturally. Planning to enter a water complex at a steadier pace, then opening up over the next two fences, becomes a written note rather than an in-the-moment decision.

Walking also invites riders to imagine the rhythm of the canter, the angle of the takeoff, and the landing stretch. Some prefer to close their eyes briefly and visualise the run. Others talk through each question with a coach or a partner. The Schramm pre-ride routine is known for being methodical, and the walk is where that method begins.

In the United States, courses are often built on tight, technical ground that demands precision. Australian three-dees, in contrast, frequently run across wider pastures with longer routes between fences. Adapting the mental rehearsal to the venue is essential. A rider trained on rolling Pennsylvania countryside has to recalibrate the eye for flatter, more open country, just as a rider schooled in South Australia has to adjust for the steeper gradients found in the Adelaide Hills.

Climate, Rules, and Local Realities Down Under

Aussie eventers plan around conditions that few Northern Hemisphere riders face head-on. Summer heat in states like South Australia and Victoria can push thermometer readings past thirty-eight degrees, and Equestrian Australia mandates heat policies at affiliated events, mandatory veterinary checks in extreme weather, and adjusted optimum times to protect horse welfare. Riders walk in the early morning to avoid the worst of the sun, and many keep umbrellas handy for their ground crew.

Regulatory realities also shape how the walk is done. Equestrian Australia enforces strict cross-country frangible technology standards, headgear rules, body protector requirements, and medical armband protocols at higher levels. Long-format competitions like Adelaide still follow classic format, while most modern Australian events run short format with a steeplechase and cross-country day combined. Understanding where your chosen event sits in that framework changes everything about pace planning on foot.

Travel adds another layer. Crossing state borders means dealing with biosecurity rules around horse health declarations, with New South Wales, Victoria, and Western Australia each enforcing their own entry paperwork. Riders shipping from Werribee across state lines quickly learn that planning the walk starts with planning the float trip. Bringing the right gear, the right feed for unfamiliar grass types, and a copy of every required document is as much a part of the cross-country walk as a measuring wheel.

Bringing It All Together On Course Day

Walk with intent, walk twice, walk tired. By the time the rider mounts, every stride should already feel familiar, every terrain question already answered, every combination solved in the head. Australian conditions reward this work because the ground can change quickly between morning and afternoon, and because courses are built to challenge both bravery and technical accuracy.

Dom and Jimmie Schramm invite riders, owners, and collaborators to talk through their own cross-country preparation, training plans, and event schedules through contact Schramm Equestrian.