Conquering Obstacles: The Thrill of Cross Country for Horses

Cross country horse riding is the boldest branch of equestrian sport: a horse and rider gallop across open country, over solid obstacles that do not fall down, against a clock. It is the phase that decides most three-day events, and the one that separates a horse that jumps from a horse that genuinely goes. This guide covers what cross country is, every type of obstacle you will meet, the FEI and British Eventing rules that govern course design and scoring, how to condition and school a horse for it, and how to ride it properly.

What Is Cross Country Horse Riding?

Cross country asks a horse to cover a set distance over fixed obstacles built into natural terrain, inside an optimum time. Unlike show jumping, nothing falls if the horse hits it, and unlike dressage, nobody is marking style. You are scored purely on penalties, and the lowest score wins. That combination — solid fences, uneven ground, a clock, and no marks for elegance — is what makes it the most honest test in the sport.

The obstacles are deliberately varied. A course might take you over a log on a downhill slope, into shade at the edge of a wood, through a water complex, off a drop and straight into a narrow fence three strides later. The ground itself is part of the question.

Cross Country's Place in Eventing

Cross country is best known as the middle phase of eventing, which British Equestrian describes as a combination of three tests: dressage, cross country over fixed fences, and show jumping. The same horse and rider must do all three, which is why an event horse is such a specific animal. In three-day eventing, the cross country runs on the second day and carries by far the most influence on the result.

Cross Country, Hunter Trials and XC Schooling

Not all cross country is affiliated eventing, and for most riders it never will be. Three things are worth telling apart:

• Affiliated eventing — a British Eventing or FEI competition where cross country is one scored phase of three.
• Hunter trials — unaffiliated, usually run by a hunt or riding club, where you ride the cross country course only. The friendliest way into the sport, and often the best fun.
• A hunter pace — a longer ride over natural country judged against a pace set earlier by an experienced pair, so finishing first is not the aim. Closer to a hunt than a competition.
• XC schooling — hiring a cross country course by the hour to practise. Nothing is timed, nothing is scored, and you can jump the same fence until it goes well. This is where cross country confidence is actually built.

If you are new to the sport, start with XC schooling, then a hunter trial, then a BE80 or BE90. Almost nobody regrets going up the levels slowly, and a great many riders regret the opposite.

A Sport with Cavalry Roots

The discipline grew out of nineteenth-century cavalry training and the hunting field, where horses had to cross unpredictable country at speed and be fit enough to work again the next day. Those military trials measured exactly what a soldier needed: stamina, boldness and recovery. Eventing appeared at the Olympic Games in 1912, and the first Badminton Horse Trials were run in 1949 — the event that turned British eventing into a spectator sport and still sets the standard.

Cross Country Obstacles Explained

Every obstacle on a cross country course is called a “question”, because it asks something specific of the pair. The FEI Eventing Rules define an obstacle precisely: it counts as one only if its extremities are marked with a red flag and a white flag and it is numbered or lettered accordingly. Everything below is flagged and numbered in that way.

Fences You Jump Over

These are the galloping fences — the ones a course designer uses to establish rhythm and let a horse travel.

• Log — a solid tree trunk, usually inviting, and very often the first fence on a course.
• Roll-top — a rounded, barrel-shaped fence with a sloping profile that encourages a good shape.
• Table — a wide, solid-topped fence. Because the top is solid, the FEI measures its spread from the highest point to the highest point, so tables ride bigger than they look.
• Brush fence — a solid base with flexible brush on top that the horse brushes through rather than clearing. The FEI requires at least 20cm of brush above the solid part, which is why brush fences are permitted to be taller than fixed ones.
• Bullfinch — a thin, high hedge that a horse is expected to jump through. Rare, and always a test of trust.
• Gate, oxer and triple bar — upright or spread fences borrowed from show jumping, built solid.

Accuracy Fences: Skinnies, Corners and Arrowheads

Modern course design tests steering as much as scope. Accuracy fences are usually small, and they cause a disproportionate share of run-outs.

• Skinny — a fence with a very narrow face, sometimes barely wider than the horse. Nothing about it is big; everything about it is about the line.
• Arrowhead — a triangular fence, narrow at the point the horse jumps, which invites a horse to slide past the edge.
• Corner — a wedge-shaped spread jumped at the narrow end. The FEI requires that spread fences, including corners, must not have an upright leading edge; the front must be rounded or sloped.

Corners and open oxers are also the fences most likely to carry frangible technology, which is covered below.

Terrain Questions: Banks, Steps, Drops and Ditches

This is where cross country stops resembling any other jumping sport.

• Bank — a raised mound of earth the horse jumps onto, along and off. Banks reward a horse that thinks about where its feet go.
• Steps — a flight of banks ridden up or down. Up-steps need engine; down-steps need the rider to stay back and leave the reins alone.
• Drop fence — a fence with a significantly lower landing than take-off. The FEI limits drops to 160cm at two-star, and at three-, four- and five-star permits no more than two drops with a flat landing above that height.
• Ditch — a spread-only obstacle. A guard rail or hedge in front is allowed to help the horse read it, but may not exceed 50cm and counts towards the spread.
• Coffin and sunken road — combinations built around a ditch or a drop-and-step, ridden in a short, bouncy canter rather than a gallop.

Water Complexes

Water is compulsory. The FEI rules require every cross country course to include at least one obstacle or effort related to water, and then regulate it tightly, because water is where speed and physics stop cooperating:

• Water depth from entry to exit must not exceed 35 centimetres.
• A water crossing must be at least 6 metres between entry and exit, or 9 metres where a step or fence is jumped directly out of the water.
• A fence must be no less than two strides before a step out of water, and no less than three strides after a drop into water.
• A drop from water into water is not a permitted question at any level.

Those numbers exist because water grabs a horse's legs on landing. Ride water forward and upright, and let the horse's head and neck go.

Flags, Numbers and Lines

Red flags go on the right, white on the left, and you must keep the red flag on your right. Fences are numbered, and elements within one obstacle are lettered A, B, C and must be jumped in order. Where a fence offers an easier alternative route, the options are marked with black flags, and you may switch between black-flagged routes without penalty provided you have not already presented at the next element of the original line. That alternative usually costs time but no penalties, and taking it is a perfectly respectable decision.

Course Design, Distance and Speed

A cross country course is not an arbitrary length. The FEI publishes the distance, speed and jumping-effort range for every level, and the optimum time falls straight out of the two: the chosen distance ridden at the chosen speed gives the optimum time.

Distance, Speed and Jumping Efforts

Level (CCI-L, long format)	Distance	Jumping efforts	Speed
Two-star	3,640–4,680m	25–30	520 m/min
Three-star	4,400–5,500m	30–35	550 m/min
Four-star	5,700–6,270m	35–40	570 m/min
Five-star	6,270–6,840m	40–45	570 m/min
Olympic Games / World Championships	5,600–5,800m	38–42	570 m/min

Two details from the same rulebook are worth knowing before you ride: the start is an enclosure of approximately 5x5 metres, and you may move around inside it but must not take a flying start; and the time limit is twice the optimum time, with elimination beyond it. The last fence sits between 20 and 50 metres from the finish line, which is why courses so often finish with one more effort when you think you are done.

Maximum Fence Dimensions by Level

Dimension	1*	2*	3*	4*	5*
Fixed height	1.05m	1.10m	1.15m	1.20m	1.20m
Brush height	1.25m	1.30m	1.35m	1.40m	1.45m
Top spread	1.20m	1.40m	1.60m	1.80m	2.00m
Base spread	1.80m	2.10m	2.40m	2.70m	3.00m
Spread without height	2.40m	2.80m	3.20m	3.60m	4.00m
Maximum drop	1.40m	1.60m	1.80m	2.00m	2.00m

Note how modest the fixed heights are. A five-star fence is capped at 1.20m — lower than an Intermediate show jumping track. What makes five-star five-star is spread, terrain, drop and the line between fences, not height.

Frangible Devices and Course Safety

The single biggest safety change in modern cross country is frangible technology: devices that let part of a fence collapse under heavy impact, reducing the chance of a rotational fall. This is no longer optional. Under the FEI rules, at all levels, every open oxer, open corner, vertical or near-vertical with open rails, top rail on a triple bar, and gate whose rail dimensions and weight fit the parameters of an approved device must be fitted with one.

Course construction rules pull in the same direction: obstacles where a falling horse could be trapped must be built so they can be quickly dismantled and rebuilt, ground lines are compulsory at every level, and no fence other than brush may have sharp or square edges.

UK Competition Levels: BE80 to Five-Star

British riders have an unusually well-graded ladder to climb. British Eventing's competition levels run from 80cm to Advanced, and the cross country height is always a little lower than the show jumping height at the same level.

BE level	Cross country max height	Show jumping max height
BE80	80cm	85cm
BE90	90cm	95cm
BE100	100cm	105cm
BE105	105cm	110cm
Novice (N)	110cm	115cm
Intermediate (I)	115cm	125cm
Advanced (A)	1.20m	1.30m

Below all of that sit two entry routes that need no membership at all: Anyone Can Event classes run from 60cm to 1m and are open from age 10, and Arena Eventing runs from 80cm to 1m from age 12. Internationally, classes are written as CCI followed by a star rating and then S or L — short or long — which refers to the length of the cross country course, not the difficulty of the fences.

How Cross Country Is Scored

Cross country is scored in penalties added to the dressage score, and the lowest total wins. The penalty structure is worth learning properly, because it changes how you ride a problem.

Fault	Penalty
First refusal, run-out or circle	20 penalties
Second refusal, run-out or circle at the same obstacle	40 penalties
Third refusal, run-out or circle anywhere on the course	Elimination
Fall of horse or rider	Elimination
Activating a frangible device where the fence dimension is modified	11 penalties
Missing a flag	9 penalties
Dangerous riding	25 penalties
Exceeding the optimum time	0.4 penalties per commenced second
Exceeding the time limit	Elimination

Two points riders regularly get wrong. First, a fall of the horse and a fall of the rider are treated the same way on cross country: both are elimination, not retirement. Second, at obstacles higher than 30 centimetres a horse that stops in front of the fence has refused; at obstacles of 30 centimetres or less, a stop followed immediately by a standing jump is not penalised, but a sustained halt or a step backwards is.

Time is the quiet scorer. At 0.4 penalties a second, twenty-five seconds over the optimum time costs ten penalties — the same as half a run-out, and far more common. Riders who finish on their dressage score are usually the ones who understand pace, not the ones who gallop hardest.

Training and Conditioning for Cross Country

Cross country asks for endurance and jumping skill at once, so conditioning matters as much as schooling. A horse that is jumping well but is not fit will jump badly by the end of the course, and that is when horses get hurt.

Building Fitness Without Breaking the Horse

Fitness is built from a base of slow, steady distance work in walk and trot before any fast work begins. Without that base the soft tissues are simply not ready, and tendon injuries are the injury that ends most event horses' seasons. Once the foundation is laid, riders add canter and gallop sets, often as interval work — raise the heart rate, allow a short recovery, raise it again.

Our own advice, offered as ours rather than as anyone’s standard: when you step the work up, increase either the distance or the speed, not both at the same time. It is deliberately conservative and it costs nothing but patience. A structured fitness plan makes the progression easier to hold yourself to.

Hill work is the most useful tool available to a rider without a gallop track, because the horse works hard while taking less concussion than a long gallop on the flat. Be honest about the going in both directions: hard ground is a fast route to splints and jarred joints, while deep, holding ground strains tendons. And finish properly — cooling down properly after fast work matters more the fitter the horse gets.

Schooling for Boldness, Not Obedience

The most useful cross country schooling advice in the British press comes from Harry Meade, writing in Horse & Rider: introduce your horse to steps and drops in walk, and allow him to think about where he has to put his feet. Walk through the water. Step up and step down. Let the horse solve it.

The reason this works is that a horse punished by a tight contact at a new question learns to stop or run out, while a horse allowed to work it out learns that the question is answerable. Boldness across country is not obedience; it is a horse that has been proved right often enough to back its own judgement.

Cross country schooling tips from Horse & Hound make a related point about how to use a session: decide what you want to achieve and pick a venue that offers it — somewhere with plenty of small ditches if you are rebuilding confidence, or somewhere with flagged narrow fences if you are working on skinnies. Book the ground you need, not the ground that is nearest.

Between outings, a lot of the groundwork is arena work. Gear changes within the canter, riding accurate lines to narrow fences, and holding one rhythm over undulating ground will do more for a cross country round than jumping big fences will. If you have space at home, you can build your own schooling fences to practise lines and skinnies without needing a course at all.

Protecting Legs and Feet on Varied Going

Cross country punishes feet. Fitting studs gives grip on grass that is either slick or baked, and most riders competing on turf use them — but studs change how the foot lands, so fit them for the conditions on the day and take them out afterwards. A stud guard worn under the girth protects the horse's belly from its own studs, which is not an optional refinement once a horse is jumping in studs.

Brushing and overreach injuries are common at speed over uneven ground, which is why cross country boots are built heavier than schooling boots and why bell boots are so widely used.

How to Ride Cross Country Well

Good cross country riding is about being effective with as little interference as possible. Your stirrups should feel short, your weight should be off the horse's back between fences, and quiet aids beat loud ones every time.

Engine, Line and Balance

Six-time Badminton winner Lucinda Green teaches cross country through three rider responsibilities she calls ELBOW. As she puts it to Petplan Equine, they “make up the word ‘elbow’, which stands for ‘engine’, ‘line’ and ‘balance’” — and the “ow” is for “ouch” if you forget one of them.

1. Engine. A positive, forward canter in which the horse is taking you to the fence. Green's test is simple: “You want to feel like your horse is taking you.” The horse's head should be up slightly on approach so he can see the fence in plenty of time.
2. Line. Decide the line when you walk the course and then hold it. Green's image is of attaching “an invisible wire from your calf to his eyes” — you steer with the leg and the horse's focus, not by hauling on a rein.
3. Balance. “Your shoulders should stay above your hips.” The lower leg does the work: it should feel like the leg is cuddling the saddle rather than gripping it.

Her broader argument, developed at length in Horse & Hound, is that once the rider has done those three jobs the horse should be left to jump the fence from wherever it judges best. That is a philosophy, not a technique, and it is the reason her pupils tend to produce horses that get themselves out of trouble.

Walking the Course

Walk the course more than once, and if you can, walk it at different times of day — light changes at the edge of a wood are a real question, not a poetic one. On each walk, look at four things: the line you want into every fence, the terrain on the approach and the landing, the state of the going, and the striding between elements of a combination. Decide your direct and alternative routes before you start, not while you are galloping.

Riding the Clock

Most riders lose time in the corners and the turns, not on the straight. A hand gallop that eats ground economically will make the time more reliably than repeatedly sprinting and rebalancing, and it tires the horse far less. Softening your fingers on landing lets the horse stretch his head and neck — his fifth leg — to recover from an awkward jump, and a horse allowed to do that stays on his feet.

Choosing a Cross Country Horse

Cross country is open to any breed, and at BE80 and hunter-trial level the horse's attitude matters far more than its passport. What the job rewards is a genuine, careful, brave horse with enough blood to gallop and enough sense to look after itself.

At the top of the sport, Thoroughbred blood dominates, because it supplies the stamina and the speed to make the time over a five-star distance. The Irish Sport Horse — Thoroughbred crossed with Irish Draught — is the classic eventing cross, valued for bone, temperament and an instinct for awkward ground. Connemara can be outstanding value at the lower levels, and are famously hard to frighten. retrained racehorses frequently make excellent event horses once they have been given time to learn a new job.

Whatever the breeding, look for a horse that is honest to a ditch, sound on hard ground, and easy to rebalance between fences. Scope is the last thing you need and the first thing most buyers look at.

Cross Country Kit and Safety Equipment

Cross country has almost no dress code and a great deal of safety regulation. Riders commonly wear their own colours for this phase, and nobody minds what they look like — but the protective equipment is not negotiable.

• Certified hat and body protector to current standards, plus a medical armband carrying your details.
• Air jacket — increasingly common, and worn over a conventional body protector rather than instead of one.
• Cross country boots and bell boots — heavier than schooling boots, and designed to shed water rather than hold it.
• Studs, with a stud guard — chosen for the going on the day.
• Breastplate — genuinely useful on undulating terrain, where a saddle can slip back on a long climb.
• A bit and bridle you can stop in — a horse that is strong in company across country is a safety question, not a schooling opinion.

The British Horse Society publishes general riding safety guidance worth reading alongside your national federation's rules, particularly if you ride cross country outside affiliated competition where nobody is checking your kit for you.

Cross Country Racing Is a Different Sport

A note on a persistent confusion, because two different sports share the phrase. Everything above describes eventing cross country, in which one horse and rider ride the course alone against an optimum time.

Cross country racing is something else: a field of horses racing each other over natural obstacles, banks and ditches. In Britain and Ireland that mostly means point-to-point racing — amateur steeplechasing under Rules, traditionally for hunting horses, with a full fixture list published each season — along with the cross-country chases run over the banks course at Cheltenham. The horses, the training and the rules are completely separate from eventing.

If you searched for cross country horse racing and landed here, point-to-point fixtures is the page you want. If you want to jump solid fences without racing anybody, everything above applies.

Frequently Asked Questions