CD Kirsten Rodel: Anatomy of a Hunter Derby

On the eve of the Amy Brattebo Real Estate Hunter Derby at Thunderbird Show Park in Langley, BC, featuring sections for Open, Junior/Amateur and Pre-Green riders and horses at 3’6″, 3’3″, and 3’0, we spoke with Kirsten Rodel, who was tasked with designing the track for Saturday afternoon’s class.

Hailing from Maple Ridge, BC, Rodel has been course designing for over 10 years and feels very at home at Thunderbird Show Park. Find out what goes into designing Rodel’s optimal hunter derby course and what you may expect to see play out in the Grand Hunter Arena.

In your opinion, what makes an ideal hunter derby course?

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I really enjoy designing hunter derby tracks. They have to be a little bit more creative than hunter courses in general. There is a little more freedom for creativity, and it’s a lot of fun watching them be ridden, especially if people are doing something that you don’t expect them to do or if they ride the course really well. It’s a great feeling to see your course being ridden really well, and the way you intended it when you designed it.

With a hunter derby course, you’re trying to design a course that is more challenging than a regular hunter course. You want to create room for the horses to travel with a little bit more pace than they would on a normal hunter track. You also want to create opportunities for the horses to show off their athleticism and their handiness, so there are going to be options for tighter turns and high-performance options as far as the jumps are concerned, so you can accumulate more points by taking those options.

How have hunter derbies evolved over the past five to ten years?

In the last 10 years that I’ve been designing derbies, I would say they have evolved in that the horses — and the tests you can ask of them — have improved so much. That comes from experience doing the derbies. You get horses now that are specifically good derby horses. And that’s just because derbies have been around long enough that the horses are trying to figure out how to work. The tracks have gotten more challenging because the horses are more capable.

Are there particular elements or fences that are very challenging in a hunter derby?

Any high-performance option, especially off a turn or off a gallop. You always want to try to put a jump or two in the course to give the riders an opportunity to show off the horse’s jump out of a gallop or off the turn. I also like to challenge them in different areas of the ring where they wouldn’t be jumping in a regular hunter course. The horses have to be braver because the jumps can be a little bit spookier, just because you’re using different types of fill and different types of jumps sometimes than you would in a regular hunter course.

Are there tests you like to go back to when it comes to designing your courses?

I like to provide some variety. You try not to repeat your patterns or repeat what you have done too often. It’s more about being creative and changing it up. I always like to make sure that I’ve got a good jump that they can jump off the gallop. When I design my tracks, the turns that I try to do are not jerky. You want them to be able to stay on the gallop and stay on the pace through the turn — even if they’re tight turns they don’t have to be changing their pace to execute them.

Who have you learned from in the course design world?

I have mentored a lot with Peter Holmes. He’s more of a jumper course designer. He does some work with the hunters as well, but he’s definitely the person that I go to if I have a question or need a second opinion on something. He’s worked at Thunderbird for years. He was the first person I learned under and he does brilliant courses.

What is special about designing at Thunderbird specifically?

I really enjoy it here. It’s a very high-class facility. The rings and the footing are always immaculate and the equipment that I get to work with is beautiful, especially when it comes to designing hunter derbies. There are lots of options to work with as far as the jumps. Every year there are new jumps built that add the flavour. And the staff there are fantastic. It has a family feel. Everyone’s very supportive of one another there.