Yogi Breisner, the British team manager who masterminded the silver-medal successes in Sydney and Athens, is in confident mood about Britain’s medal chances in the Olympic three-day event - despite their fourth position after the dressage. “I had always reckoned that we would be about 20 marks behind Australia at this stage - now we can go out on the cross country and put the pressure on them. It’s for them to lose and us to win,” he said.

Few believe that the Olympic medals will be decided on the dressage. The cross-country course at Beas River is set to be the ultimate test of horsemanship with riders attempting to complete the 4,560-metre course - involving 39 jumping efforts over undulating, twisty ground in intense heat - in an optimum time of eight minutes. With the first four teams - Australia, Germany, the United States and Britain - separated by less than the cost of one mistake across country, the competition is wide open.

The British riders, who returned from their first look at the course with grave faces, had softened their views by the end of their fourth course walk. Sharon Hunt, whose calm, assured dressage test on Tankers Town earned them a score of 43.50, said: “The more I walk it the better it looks.” This is her first Olympic games and she has been buoyed by the team spirit. “It’s a great feeling and William and Mary have been very helpful telling me how to shave time off on the course,” she said.

King, whose superb test on Call Again Cavalier earned her a score of 38.10, “can’t wait” to get out on the course. At 47, her enthusiam for the sport remains undimmed, despite breaking her neck in a fall in 2001. “I love the cross country - it’s what the sport is all about. As long as I ride properly we should have an amazing round. It’s all down to me,” she said.

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Breisner had anticipated good dressage scores from King and Hunt but had been pleasantly surprised at the performance of Tina Cook and Miner’s Frolic the previous day, producing a personal-best score of 40.20. Cook, 37, also making her olympic debut, was ecstatic. “It’s the best test he’s done,” she said of her 2007 Blenheim runner-up. “He’s only 10 and he’s never seen an atmosphere like this before,” she added while waving at the dazzling floodlights and 18,000 spectators who thronged the Sha Tin arena.

Her performance went some way to compensating for the scores of William Fox-Pitt on Parkmore Ed and Daisy Dick on Springalong who had 50.20 and 51.70 respectively. Both riders excell at the cross-country phase - in which Dick is pathfinder for the team - and should make up ground.

The Australians, winners of three successive Olympic gold medals from 1992 to 2000, will not be easy to dislodge. Fredericks’ Headley Britannia is an exceptional mare who has won both Burghley and Badminton. “My horse is 100 per cent fit and should be suited to the course,” she said. “I just have to make sure I don’t stuff it up and take a wrong line.”

The heat is causing the team little consternation. Fredericks’ husband Clayton, in sixth on Ben Along Time, said: “We compete in the wet and we compete in the heat - we’ll just get on with it.” His team-mate Megan Jones, fourth on Irish Jester, ran round the course yesterday. “I wanted to get an idea of what it might be like for my horse - I felt fine,” she said.

With all the feverish speculation on the cross-country course - and warnings over the effects of the heat (25 penalties or disqualification is the penalty for pushing a horse too hard) - there is relief that the first onto the course will be the inimitable Mark Todd, the dual Olympic champion, who is 30th on Gandalf.

Although the New Zealander claims to be rusty after nearly seven years without jumping a fence - he resumed his career only last year - few doubt that his eye for a fence is impaired. Even the experienced King is relying on his skills as pathfinder.

“I’ll watch him and then copy his every move,” she said.