大象传媒

Today I was able to check out the cross country course located at Hong Kong's just a few miles from the old border with China.

I've been really looking forward to it as the cross-country phase is my favourite part of a three-day event.

I love the atmosphere on the course, the huge, solid obstacles and the speed and bravery required of the riders.

Before I got to see the course I caught up with Team GB's eventers who had just walked it themselves.

Mary King told me it was ''difficult'' and when I said: ''It'll sort out the men from the boys then?'' She answered: ''Yes and let's hope we're the men!''

My first impressions of the course were that it's very small.

The grassy course weaves and loops across fairways and round bunkers but it's not the vast open space you get at or .

We were lucky enough to be part of a media tour with the course designer Mike Etherington-Smith.

It was really interesting and yes, we did actually walk it, although not quite the full 5.7km.

Luckily the weather was kind to us, not too hot and no rain which was lucky as I have lost my waterproof.

Mike told me the actual track the horses will gallop on cost hundreds of thousands of pounds because they have put in drainage throughout the whole course.

So despite , the going was perfect and let's hope it stays that way for Monday's big test.

Unfortunately Beas River is a bit scary if you, like me, have a phobia of insects.

There was a constant, deafening buzz of crickets and, even scarier, thousands of dragonflies were constantly zooming overhead!

Surprisingly, the media course walk was very popular, there were more than one hundred of us, mostly local journalists. It made me realise how much of a big deal the Olympics is to people here.

I was trying to work out if there would be that much media interest in a cross-country course walk in London in 2012?

I reckon not. People in the UK often seem to think horsey sports are all about posh people with lots of money and therefore if you're not posh and rich, then why bother with it?

Many other countries, particularly Germany and Holland, just totally get how tough it is to compete with horses at this level.

They understand most riders are relatively hard-up and they definitely appreciate the sport as a spectacle.

John Murray, the Radio 5Live commentator, here with me in Hong Kong, told me yesterday how much he has got into show jumping for instance.

His words were ''it's a really exciting format.''

So come on everyone, give the horsey sports a watch on the 大象传媒 over the Olympics, we're likely to win a few medals and you never know, you might decide it's better than football!

P.S. It's actually not officially called three-day eventing any more, just eventing. But old habits are hard to break!