THE cross-country course for this year's Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials was revealed this week, and despite the recent spate of equestrian event cancellations, organisers are hopeful that the grounds of the Duke of Beaufort's Badminton estate will have dried out in perfect time for one of the country's biggest sporting events, writes Jayne Bennett.

Event director Hugh Thomas said: “It's all building up very nicely.

“The team out there are doing a fantastic job.

“ I have seen the one forecast for the next week or two that I very much like and I'm relying on that! Actually the ground is not as bad as it was ten days ago – with a bit of sunshine it's incredible how quickly it does improve, so I'm full of confidence all will be well.

“It's so wonderful that both of the last two winners are taking part again on their same horses, and that they are in fact the oldest horses in the competition. One, of course, is Nereo, ridden by Andrew Nicholson after his much longed-for win last year, and then there is [La Biosthetique] Sam, ridden by Michael Jung, who is two-times Olympic champion and also World Champion. We shall certainly look forward to seeing these two rivals as well as plenty of others.”

This is Eric Winter's second year as course designer and, as is the tradition, this year he has reversed the direction of last year's course. He also has plans to allow spectators closer than ever to many of the fences.

Starting in the main arena over the familiar flower bed, riders head left to a choice of inviting Rolex Feeder roll top spreads before heading out on to the course proper, and a mound on the way through the car park where an impressive fallen tree has been placed on top - the HorseQuest Hump. This is designed to break up the natural flatness of the park on the way to the HorseQuest Quarry.

According to Eric, the first real challenge of the course comes at Huntsman's Close, which was once a dense, dark coppice but is now a lighter but more technical question consisting of three very chunky logs on a tight turn.

“Riders will have to angle the first log quite dramatically,” says Eric, “and I have tried to keep them a bit crowded.

“It has a compound factor to it which makes it really quite a difficult fence to jump.”

Eric is also excited about the new configuration around the lake.

“When you come to this it's quite intense,” says Eric.

“When you're sat watching from certain positions you'd actually be able to see six fences jumping here. This is going to be a real 'hot spot' for this course. I can envisage spectators getting here to secure a position at 6am when we don't even start the Cross Country until midday. You will be able to see every horse through quite a lot of the fences and quite a lot of crucial questions.

Heading up towards Luckington Lane, another popular spot for visitors, is sure to be the Hildon Water Pond, which this year consists of a log, a slope into the pond, a running water trough and a hedge up the incline.

“It's the guts of the course, right in the heart of one of the busiest areas,” says Eric.

“I had the idea for this because we can put the generator behind the trade stands and then, on the day, we will only be able to hear the water.

“ I think this proves that to be successful at Badminton you need a relationship between you and your horse, much more than at a lot of other events.”

More than 250,000 spectators are expected to flock to South Gloucestershire for the event, which attracts the equestrian elite from across the globe. This year, entries have been accepted from top international competitors including two-times Olympic and World Champion Michael Jung (Germany), last year's Badminton winner Andrew Nicholson (NZL), as well as Paul Tapner and Sam Griffiths (AUS), Mark Todd (NZL) and Philip Dutton (USA).

There is also a very strong British contingent, including Oliver Townend, another previous Badminton winner, Piggy French, Ros Canter, Gemma Tattersall and Tina Cook.