the.com/steeplechase

means A race run over a set course of hurdles and obstacles — including, in its signature form, a water jump — rather than on an open flat track.

from From real steeple-chasing: 18th-century Irish and English horsemen racing cross-country from one village's church steeple to the next, since the tall spire was the one landmark you could actually see from miles off across the fields. The straight line from steeple to steeple meant plowing through hedges, ditches, fences, and streams instead of riding around them — and that literal obstacle-strewn dash is what later got formalized into a set track with hurdles and a water jump, for horses and then for runners.