1 August 2019 Horse & Hound
23NEXT Irish event rider Ciaran Glynn
WEEK“Youhavetodesigninthealternative
options,sothatwhethertheytakethemore
directlineora lesser,moretime-consuming
alternative,youdogivethemthatabilityto
jumpthecourse,”saysDerek.“That’shappened
moreandmoreovertheyears.”
Climatewillalsobea factorinTokyo.
“Japanesesummersarehot[uptolow30s]
andit couldbehumid,”saysDerek,whose
trackoffersoptionsforshortening,shouldthe
conditionsrequirethis.T
OKYOis a one-offjob—a testevent
thissummer,thenanOlympics,then
it’sover—whiledesigners’breadand
butteris devisingnewtestsatthesamevenue
yearafteryear.
Derek’smosthigh-profileregularjobis the
five-staratKentucky,a rolehehasheldsince
2011 after assisting previous course-designer
Mike Etherington-Smith, including for the
2010 World Equestrian Games.
“Coming up with new ideas is the great part
of the job,” he says. “At Kentucky, I have to go
away, come back in June or July, and basically
wipe out what I did last year and come up with
something quite diff erent.
“This year’s course was 90% diff erent to
last year’s. We obviously have some of the same
jumps, but they are in diff erent places and
doing diff erent things, so the course itself is
quite diff erent.”
A man who plays his cards quite close to his
chest, Derek is reluctant to be drawn on the
current controversy surrounding eventing’s
fl ag rule, saying that “if you have to talk about a
rule too much, it might not be a good rule”.
Like many other course-designers, he has
ridden at top level; he won Kentucky in 1985
on Sasquatch.
He was “curious” about design and helped
out at various venues, including at the event
run by his wife Bea’s family in Vermont. His
fi rst FEI design job was at Essex Horse Trials
in New Jersey in the early 1990s.
Many leading course-designers retire from
competing, but Derek continues his career in
the saddle, riding at four-star this spring.
“For me it’s a good thing — you’re seeing
how horses gallop up and down hills and‘IfI thinkthecourseis
fairandisaskingthe
rightquestions,it’sup
totheriderstogoout
anddothejob’
therelationshipofonejumptoanother.To
me,it makesa differencethatyouhavethat
understandingandfeelfresh,”hesays.“AndI
enjoydoingit,I hopeI candoit fora longtime.
“Course-designis interestingbecauseif you
havetrainedhorsesyourselfforyears,asI have,
youunderstandthedevelopmentofhorsesand
the exercises you use. That spills over into the
course-design. There are a lot of levels to reach
the top; we’re always training our horses and
so, through the courses we produce, we need to
give them a positive experience.
“It’s a big buzz as well. You’re given a piece
of ground and you have to fi gure out how
you’re going to use it, how you’re going to make
it right for the level and produce something
that fl ows well and is educational for horses.”
Oliver Townend, who has twice won
Kentucky over Derek’s courses, describes
himself as a “huge fan” of the tracks, which
riders say are big and bold, with lines that
horses can read clearly.
Derek says course-design grandees Mark
Phillips and Mike Etherington-Smith have
both been a “great help” to him, but adds,
“I like to see what everybody’s doing.” He
visits as many international events as he can.
“I love Burghley. I love the ground — it’s
quite a special place to me,” he says, adding he
had success as a rider at Luhmühlen, but has
yet to visit Pau. “I’d be interested to see it.”
Meanwhile, it’s all eyes on Tokyo — and we
can’t wait to see Derek’s masterpiece. H&HDerek is still competing at the age of 63,
riding at four-star level this spring
Tokyo Olympics course-designer
Derek di Grazia in front of
one of the eye-catching
fences at the Kentucky
Horse Park in LexingtonDerek heads for win on Ringwood Justice; competing helps him see how horses cope with
hills and related fences: ‘It makes a difference to have that understanding and feel fresh’