Back in the neigh-borhood

Ian Stark has a tried-and-true way of gathering reviews of his cross-country course design each year at The Event at Rebecca Farms.

“They vote by using their feet,” Stark said of the riders in the annual equestrian triathlon. “And they keep coming back (to The Event), so that tells you something.”

It tells Stark not to fix what’s not broken.

For the former Olympic equestrian, that meant minimal changes to the 4-mile cross-country course at The Event, the largest equestrian triathlon in the United States, in his seventh year as the course designer.

The biggest changes in 2017 come on the second half of the 4-mile course.

A new water feature was added to go along with an additional feature known as “Cavalry Camp,” which is made up of a wooden trailer drawn by a wooden horse with a wooden cannon nearby. Jumps for all levels of competition are scattered amongst them.

Cavalry Camp sits just a few hundred feet away from the wild western town — comprised of a saloon, church, bank and, of course, a jail — which serves as the last set of obstacles the competitors must clear before making a break for the finish line.

Each of the hundreds of jumps, obstacles and ornamental pieces scattered across the course was designed, built and carved with a chainsaw by the steady hand of Bert Wood, the course builder.

While Wood took care of the features to set atop the course, preparation of the grounds themselves proved to be a more challenging task.

Preparation was complicated by the shortage of rain in the Flathead Valley over the past six weeks, which forced the staff at Rebecca Farms to create makeshift irrigation systems to reach the parts of the cross-country course left untouched by the center pivot.

The extra work paid dividends, according to Stark, who said the course is in pristine condition as the riders and horses prepare for the second leg of the triathlon.

The beginning of the course remained largely untouched compared to previous years.

The first half-mile presents several manageable jumps, but nothing designed to be overly challenging. Stark prefers to allow space for the rider and horse to get into a groove before challenging them. Or, as he puts it, before “you ask them a tough question.”

The first tough question comes just past the half-mile mark and begins the first of many combinations of jumps littered around the course.

While the front end is forgiving, the second half of the course is demanding.

That, like all other aspects of the course, is by design, meant to test the stamina and focus of both the horse and rider.

“That’s what it’s all about,” Stark said in his thick Scottish accent. “It’s cross country.”

The Event at Rebecca Farm, which runs from today through Sunday, will feature all three legs of the equestrian triathlon — dressage, cross country and show jumping.

CCI1* will compete in dressage today from 9 a.m. to 3:45 p.m., while CCI2* and CCI3*, the other two top classifications, are set to do so on Friday.

All three classifications will conquer the cross-country course on Saturday and conclude with show jumping on Sunday.

At the conclusion of The Event, the rider with the lowest score (lowest number of penalties) in each division will be named the winner.

Spectators are welcome at The Event. Entry is free, but a $10 donation to Halt Cancer at X — an initiative to raise money for breast cancer research started in 2012 by Sarah Broussard in honor of The Event’s founder and Sarah’s mother, Rebecca Broussard — is required to park.

With a wide smile stretched across his face, Stark offered just one piece of friendly advice to those observing the cross-country races.

“Be safely far away,” he said, “and ready to run.”