eventing questions from a noob

So, I've jumped some cross country jumps and done derbies out on a giant grass field but that's as far as my "eventing" (ha) knowledge goes! After watching the Olympics I have a few questions... And yes, they're total noob questions but we all have to start somewhere!

1) How high are the stadium jumps? (in the olympics) How high are the biggest cross country jumps? I Thought the announcer was saying something about "maximum height allowed" or something.

2) How long is that course??

3) Do they stay at that speed the entire time??

4) Do you do a course walk? Hopefully by golf cart??

5) What is the average number of adult beverages one must consume to be brave enough to gallop over these very very solid jumps??

Also, what is the scoring system? I know there's a time allowed.... (cross country)

1)By FEI rules, XC jumps at CCI**** can be maximum 1.20mx1.20m, and the Olympics are classified as a CCI***/* special event. The stadium first round is max 1.25m and second round max 1.30m. The cross country jumps are always slightly smaller, as they are solid - the combinations are what makes them difficult rather than purely the size. These are max heights though, and not all the jumps will be 1.20 in height.

2) 3.5 miles, 45 individual 'efforts' but classed as 28 jumps, to be done in 10 min 3 sec.

3) The ones who seemed to do best started at a fairly steady pace, and built it up - especially brining the pace up through the last, less twisty part of the course. The ones who gunned it form the start seemed to tire. But cross country pacing is part of the challenge.

4) Yes, they would do a course walk - they will have been calculating strides between fences and lines through combinations etc. Interetsingly, lots of the riders said that, whilst the stridings looked long when they walked the course, the horses seems to open up quite well through that course to the point that the stridings rode shorter than they had walked.

5) I personally would have to be blind drunk to even attempt it. ;)

Scoring for XC is :

Refusal, run-out, or circle:
At the same obstacle:
First: 20 penalties
Second: 40 penalties
In the round:
Third: elimination (E)
Fall of rider: elimination (E)
Fall of horse (shoulder and hind touch the ground): elimination (E)
Exceeding the time:
Optimum: 0.4 penalties per second
Limit (twice the optimum): elimination (E)

And scoring for SJ is;
Rail down 4 penalties (only if said rail decreases the size of the jump)
1st and 2nd refusal 4 penalties
3rd refusal elimination
Exceed time allowed; 1 penalty per second or part thereof
...I don't know if you can be eliminated for being excessively slow, I never have!
Fall of rider or horse; elimination

Dressage scoring is given a mark out of 10 per movement, which can be multiplied (it's called a coefficient) for things like circles where the quality of the gait and the correctness of the figure are both factors in the score. Then (in eventing) they take the total possible marks, and subtract the total marks achieved, to gain a penalty score. In pure dressage, they take the total marks achieved and the total possible marks, and calculate the percentage score according to the total possible marks. For example, if you score 9's for every single movement, and there are 10 movements, you have a score of 90 out of 100 - or 90% in other words!

Penalty Score = 1.5(Total Possible Marks - Average Marks Achieved) in the dressage phase.

FEI multiplies the final score by 1.5 to get penalties, to spread the marks out more - that way the dressage phase makes more of a difference to final scores. So 70% good marks in British Eventing would get 30 penalties, but 45 under FEI rules.

And wouldn't we all love 90% in dressage.... ;)

I knew I missed something.

...but that means my last test (eventing dressage test) wasn't quite as dreadful as I thought it was! 75.75 penalties out of idk how many possible marks. Still a bad test, I think it was in the rough vicinity of 42% -blushes- well and truly my fault, I was very nervous and thus had a tense and uptight horse that rushed most of his trot work and then wouldn't come back from the first canter.

Edit; and yes, I would be greatly pleased to even get a 70% the way my dressage has been going! (and my local PC say 70% is an average to ok mark... not sure I believe them as that essentially constitutes achieving a mark of [on average] 7 per movement)

Question #5 made me laugh out loud (people in my office were looking at me like I was nuts)! NERVES OF STEEL! Haha

Minstrel covered it pretty well.

As to your speed on course, that really depends on your horse and how they run XC best. The general consensus for most riders is to try and start out pretty quick and try to take the short routes while your horse still has gas in the tank. You tend to see the majority of technical and difficult combinations in the first 2/3 of the course. If there are some hard questions near the end you hopefully will be right on time (or early) and won't be as pressured to take the difficult option when your horse is more tired. However like I said, each horse is different and you have to know when you can push them.

And yes, you definitely do coursewalks. Usually by foot, especially at the upper levels and in FEI events so you can meter the course and get your minute markers figured out. Also at a lot of events they don't allow motorized vehicles on course, so you don't mess up the footing (though there are a number that do allow golf carts or motorized scooters). I actually found it a great work-out to get up early (if it was an overnight event) and run my course in the morning after walking it the night before. However I have become the queen of single course walks after doing multiple 1-day events on the east coast. There just isn't time to walk them more than once sometimes.