The famously enthusiastic crowds of Pau in action. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

One of my most closely-held pet peeves is when I hear someone refer to Pau, the south of France’s late-autumn offering, as a ‘soft’ five-star. That’s usually an assessment that comes from people who’ve not been to the event; it’s one of those annoying little bits of mythology that spreads by hearsay, and perhaps leads the wider eventing world – at the very least, the fans of the sport — to underestimate what can happen here.

Pau is very different to the world’s other five-stars, that much is true: dimensionally, it’s not a patch on Burghley, and its terrain is very flat, but for some cleverly-utilised manmade mounds scattered around the course. But if Burghley exists on one end of a spectrum, Pau sits at the far opposite end. It’s intensely technical; glances off of extraordinarily skinny skinnies and deviously angled brushes and corners are the bread and butter of the thing, and the time’s no walk in the park, either.

And so everyone who tuned in to Pau’s livestream today, perhaps for the first time, might have found themselves a touch surprised at the influence Pierre Michelet’s course exerted throughout the day. From start to finish, there was not much in the way of respite: pathfinder Jesse Campbell went for a swim with Cooley Lafitte after finding himself on a half stride at the third water question at 20AB and 21, and second out of the box Ros Canter and her Badminton placer Pencos Crown Jewel had a driveby in the same complex. As fourth to go, Tim Price looked like he was going to get the job done — as Tom Rowland had, steadily, as third out with KND Steel Pulse — with his nine-year-old debutant Viscount Viktor, a horse he hails as his star of the future, but just a handful of fences from home, they suffered two run-outs at the skinny at 28B before finally clearing it and finishing the course. Then Kirsty Chabert fell from Opposition Heraldik Girl at the second pass through the first water complex; just behind her, Jonelle Price, too, hit the deck while navigating the final water complex at 24AB with her World Championships team medallist McClaren. Ten horses into the start list, we’d seen just two clears — and as one of those, Kylie Roddy and SRS Kan Do, proved, that created a colossal open door. Their clear, which saw them cross the finish line with 8 time penalties, rocketed them up the leaderboard from 16th to seventh going into the final day’s competition.

In all, 37 of our 54 starters (Tim Price opted to withdraw his former Boekelo winner Happy Boy) made it across the finish line, creating a 68.5% completion rate; just 21 would do so without picking up jumping penalties, putting the clear rate at a scant 39%. The problems, where they came, were well scattered: 9ABC, the second pass through the first water, which featured a brush spread to an up bank, followed by an angled hedge that was only visible at the last moment, caused the most headaches, with ten competitors picking up penalties here; similarly, fence 13AB, an oxer to an open corner on a blind left-handed turn, caught plenty by surprise, and we saw seven competitors run into grief here. Otherwise, the first pass through the water at 7AB saw just four, the tough third water at 20AB, at which most competitors ultimately opted to go the long route, saw another four, and — surprisingly, perhaps — just three picked up penalties at 28ABCD, the fearsome penultimate combination that helter-skeltered competitors down a mound and over a skinny and an angled brush.

And that optimum time of 11:06? Just about impossible to catch – and those who did get close by and large did so after mid-round holds on course. One rider throughout the day did catch the time, though not without jumping penalties: that was Boyd Martin, who, after a long hold, was deemed to have crossed the finish line six seconds inside, but activated a MIM-clip at 13B, that open corner on a blind turn.

Ros Canter and Izilot DHI take the lead at Pau in the gelding’s first five-star. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

With capacious, raucous crowds, tight, often blind turns, and some pretty extra fence decorations scattered around the course, Pau wouldn’t necessarily be a playground that you’d expect to suit Ros Canter‘s sharp, spooky ten-year-old debutant, Izilot DHI — particularly after his big fright prior to an excellent dressage test yesterday, when he took dramatic offence to a cameraman at B and wouldn’t go near him while preparing to enter at A.

But this isn’t Ros’s first rodeo, and ‘Isaac’, a horse she says has taught her more than any horse she’s ever sat on, is a puzzle she’s been making an extraordinary effort at figuring out. They began their round, which came very late in the day, on super form; by fence 18, though, just before the tough racecourse water complex, they were held — something that Isaac has never experienced before. When they were restarted, roughly fifteen minutes later, they had to get straight back into the swing of the tough track in something close to cold blood — but Isaac never faltered.

“I wasn’t sure what I was going to do at that water – I’d thought that if he was getting tired, I’d go long [as most competitors through the day had], but then I had no excuse,” she laughs. “I was umming and ahhing in that hold, thinking, ‘god, I’ve only got the triple bar and then that water, what do I do?!’ And I rode him really badly at the triple bar. So I was like, ‘come on, girl, get your act together,’ and then he was amazing at the direct route at the water.”

And so they tackled every single combination via the direct route, en route to a finish that would put them atop the leaderboard going into the final day — but the drama wasn’t done yet. As they made their approach to 28ABCD, that exceptionally tough penultimate combination, a crossing point on course hadn’t been closed on time, and Ros was pulled up again, suddenly, by a steward as the course, and the ropes, were cleared. And so back she went from whence she came, before turning around, picking up an attacking canter, and putting her horse exactly where he needed to be to sail through that combination, the next single fence, and into the arena, where they were welcomed home over the final three fences to enormous cheers. At first, that extra time was added to their tally, putting them on a two-phase score of 31.1 — the same as first-phase leaders Tom McEwen and JL Dublin, who’d added 8 time penalties, though they still edged the lead for being closer to the optimum time. But then, after an appeal, it was taken off; now, at the close of play, she sits in first place on 27.5, having added just 3.2 time penalties.

“Isaac was absolutely fantastic. He’s really matured and grown up this year, so I was really delighted with him,” says Ros. “He’s got a real spooky streak, and quite a big flight instinct, but god, he was absolutely amazing. Now he’s learned his job, he’s such an honest, genuine horse. I was really happy with how he set off at the start, because he was a bit anxious about the car next to him [filming alongside the competitors down the first stretch]. Once the car left, and he’d had a bit of a spook at the cameraman after fence two, he really settled down. I think he’s always a little bit shocked by what’s going on, but he was super — he’s a really polite horse to ride, as long as he’s not being flighty, he’s actually really easy.”

Though the hold itself might seem like something that could set Isaac off, Ros wasn’t worried about maintaining his sterling headspace — instead, she was mostly caught by surprise by its occurrence in the first place, which came after Tom Rowland and MGH Maybe A Mission suffered a horse fall in the final water (a fall from which, we’re told by the event, the horse has been checked over and released from the local veterinary clinic).

“I knew he’d be good in that kind of situation; I was confident about that,” says Ros. “I think it was a bit of a panic stop, though — it definitely wasn’t a stopping point, and they were shouting at me as I was jumping a jump, so I wasn’t really sure what was going on. So that wasn’t ideal, but I guess they did what they had to do.”

The making of Isaac, who’s always been brimming with talent but has had some frustrating blips while the pair have figured one another out, has been a depth of learned trust that’s a testament to Ros’s ability to put mind over matter — or, perhaps, matter over mind.

“I’ve tried to, perhaps, dominate him a bit more in the past and tell him not to spook but it doesn’t work — you just have to trust him and drop the reins and let it happen, and just assume he’ll choose to go over the fence, which goes against all my instincts, but I’m always learning with him,” she says.

Tom McEwen and JL Dublin execute a clean jump over the corner at 23. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Tom McEwen and JL Dublin will now go into showjumping 3.6 penalties — or less than a rail — behind Ros and Isaac, having swapped leaderboard positions with them when picking up 8 time penalties. But, Tom explains, he’s just delighted to have had a total non-event of a round, executing all his plans and enjoying his spin around the track on the former Nicola Wilson ride, particularly after a year that’s had more than its fair share of blows.

“It’s been a bit of a weird year, because nothing’s really gone wrong, but a lot of things have gone badly wrong — at Burghley the horses were amazing, but it all went wrong, and the same at Aachen, Dubs was amazing but it went wrong,” he muses. “So it’s nice to come here and have a day like this; when we were first suggesting this trip, we did think, ‘when you’re having a bad year, is it better to call it quits?’ But actually, I’ve felt great on him all year, and he was amazing in his final run at Little Downham, so I was very much looking forward to coming here.”

That commitment to finishing the year on a high paid dividends, and — crucially — helped Tom avoid a rinsing from the assorted on-site members of his bachelor party, which will commence post-Pau but has, he laughs “kind of already started!” And — finally — they had a bit of luck, too: though they jumped cleanly over the corner at 23AB, as they jumped it, the MIM clip on the front rail simply fell off, but as the rail stayed upright and balanced, somehow, they didn’t incur any penalties.

“I was delighted with him; he flew through as one of the fastest of the day without being stopped. It shows the intensity of the track: people could have been up on the clock, but they couldn’t get close to it, and then the three fastest of the day were the ones that were stopped,” he says. And though there wasn’t much inspiration to take from watching the action unfold on the live stream through the day before his own start time, Tom did use what he saw to help him fine-tune his plan of action on course, a tactic that helped him cross the finish line with plenty of horse left.

“It wasn’t the viewing that I was after, to begin with! I did make a couple of different choices, in places where, perhaps, I’d planned on going on three strides, but he was so keen and bold and fresh that I thought, ‘if you start doing that, you start taking risks later on and eating up distances’. So I actually added a couple of times early on.”

Now, he says, after taking the runner-up spot at Boekelo last year and Kentucky this year, he’s got one big job to do tomorrow: “I’ve got to make sure I jump clear tomorrow and get rid of this bout of seconditis that I’ve got!”

Kirsty Chabert and Classic VI. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

The fastest clear round of the day went the way of Kirsty Chabert and Classic VI, a horse who’s been as frustrating as she has been rewarding through her career. Today, she added to a tally of high points that includes second place at Luhmühlen last year, having motored around the tricky, twisty track to add just 0.8 time penalties — or two seconds — to her first-phase score of 32.6 and leap up from 22nd to third.

“She’s as fast around a bend as she is on the straight, so this suits her so well — I can’t take a pull or we’ll risk a stop, but she’s so quick and on the ball,” says Kirsty. “So for me, the twists and turns are very much in my favour — I can go as fast around a corner as I can when we’re going straight, and as she doesn’t have a particularly big stride, I’m never going to gain time on long galloping straights. There weren’t many of those: the first ten fences felt like a short-format, because you were constantly twisting and turning with lots of combinations, but that benefits me, because the big, rangy horses have to slow down going around the corners.”

Kirsty, like Ros, was held on course after Tom Rowland’s fall, but her hold was much earlier on: just before fence 9ABC, the tricky second pass through the first water complex, which was, incidentally, where she’d fallen with her first ride, Opposition Heraldik Girl.

“It wasn’t the best place to be held, right in front of the fence I’d just fallen off at!” she laughs. “So it was quite a good thing to let my adrenaline come down, and then pick it back up again, and the crowd got behind me, so that was great.”

Though the 14-year-old mare’s last FEI run, in the CCI4*-L at Blenheim that was won, incidentally, by Ros and Isaac, finished with a frustrating-on-paper 15 penalties for a flag that was deemed to have been missed, it was, Kirsty explains, a huge milestone moment that helped lead to her success today.

“Blenheim was a turning point for her. When I looked back at the video of the flag, you could see her contorting her body in the air to get herself over the fence. That was such a huge moment for me — in the past, she’d have looked for the way out the side door, and then, I felt her really become a cross country horse.”

Oliver Townend and Tregilder. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Oliver Townend and Tregilder stepped up one place to fourth, adding 7.2 time penalties after narrowly avoiding a dunking at the racecourse water complex when the gelding stumbled on landing from the drop in, while Piggy March and the former Nicola Wilson ride Coolparks Sarco step up from seventh to fifth with 8.4 time penalties.

Pippa Funnell and MCS Maverick. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Pippa Funnell had a day of two halves; her first ride, the seasoned, though not always straightforward, five-star gelding Billy Walk On picked up 20 penalties at that racecourse water — “the good thing is, though, he took me and jumped it the second time; actually, apart from that, he was very, very good” — while her second, the ten-year-old debutant and surprise Bramham CCI4*-L winner, MCS Maverick, came out at the tail end of the day and became a man on course, adding 13.2 time penalties to slip from third to sixth and stay well in the hunt for a placing. That squeaks them just ahead of Kylie Roddy and SRS Kan Do, that early hope-giving pair, who are a tenth of a penalty behind in seventh place; in eighth, Jonelle Price redeemed a roundly rubbish day for the Price clan by cruising her own debutant, Hiarado, to 12 time penalties.

Boyd Martin and Fedarman B jump into the crowds at Pau. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Boyd Martin is the best-placed US rider after that clear round inside the time, which he completed aboard the Goodwin family’s Fedarman B after a lengthy hold on course. Though the pair did activate that safety device at 13B, they still executed a healthy climb from 16th to ninth place in ‘Bruno’s’ second five-star start.

“I was thrilled with him — he’s such a great horse,” says Boyd. “To have a break like that and then restart… he really fought for me. Unfortunately, we popped out one of the pins and got eleven penalties, but safety’s important, and to Bruno’s credit, I thought, ‘oh, god, I hope that didn’t rattle him’, but he flew the next jump and was fantastic all the way.”

Hold notwithstanding, Boyd and Bruno were able to stick to plan A very nearly the whole way ’round — except for one moment of true five-star quick-thinking.

“He slipped quite badly turning into the water in the race track, and in that split second, as we got into the water, I went the long way,” he says. “But I think it only added a couple of seconds, and because he’d freshened up so much, I felt like I had plenty of horse at the end.”

No shoe, no martingale, no problem: Maxime Livio’s Carouzo Bois Marotin works a miracle at Pau. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Maxime Livio climbed to tenth place, and best of the home nation, with the excellent Carouzo Bois Marotin, who’s been placed in all his five-star starts and leapt up from 31st with his 12.4 time penalties today — but their round probably takes the prize for triumphing over a real series of unfortunate events.

“I’ve had quite a cross-country day,” he says with a wry grin. “My breastplate broke at fence three, and then we lost a shoe at six, and then every time I asked for a halt halt, I just couldn’t get it because we didn’t have the martingale. And then later on the course, my girth got caught on a fence and then it all slid back — but he’s amazing, really. 50% of horses would have run out somewhere with all that going on, and he’s still a young horse, so when he wants to go forward he really goes, but he’s incredible.”

Allie Knowles and Morswood. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Both Allie Knowles and Morswood and debutant Cosby Green and the former Buck Davidson ride Copper Beach climbed into the top twenty after excellent, bold rides: Allie goes into showjumping in 14th place, up from 28th, after adding 24 time penalties, while Cosby sits fifteenth, up from 35th, after adding 13.2 time penalties and an 11 for knocking a MIM clip at fence 23, an open corner after a downhill approach. But nothing could wipe the grin from her face as she attacked the influential water in the racecourse, and as she cleared the final skinny element, even the loud cheers of ‘allez! Allez!’ from the crowd were drowned out by her own cheer: “THAT’S MY BOY!”

Cosby Green and Copper Beach drop neatly into the influential racecourse water complex. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Phillip Dutton and Z ran into a spot of bad luck at the tail end of the course: they were clear until the penultimate combination at 28ABCD, where they ran out to the side of the skinny B element on the downhill, and ultimately added a further 20 time penalties, too, pushing them from 12th to 22nd place going into the final day.

Phillip Dutton and Z. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Of the two incidents on course that led to the day’s significant holds, we do have a brief update from Pau:

“Lea [Siegl, who fell at 13B] was mobile in all directions and did not lose consciousness when she’s been transported to the hospital. Her horse is ok. Tom [Rowland]’s horse [MGH Maybe A Mission, who fell at the final water complex at 24B] has been transported to the vet clinic and came back to the show’s stables before the end of the XC test.”

While those two incidents were the most notable of the day, there were a number of other horse falls throughout the day; Jesse Campbell and Diachello, who had been fourth after dressage, fell at the corner at 23; Jesse also fell with his first ride, Cooley Lafitte, at the racecourse water at 20AB and 21. Gaspard Maksud and Zaragoza, with whom he was sixth at the World Championships last year, fell at 24B, the final water, and Kirsty Chabert and Opposition Heraldik Girl fell at the second pass through the first water, making a total of six horse falls through the 54 starters — a number that puts a dampener on a day of otherwise exciting sport.

Lea Siegl and DSP Fighting Line. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Of the day’s competition, designer Pierre Michelet says, “I didn’t think we’d have quite so many surprises today; it was, perhaps, a little more difficult than last year, but largely used the same obstacles. I think that what probably happened is that the first part of the course was, perhaps, more twisty than in previous years, and so the horses didn’t quite get into their galloping rhythm as much as they would have in previous years. That made them a little more timid as they came out into the race course, which is a more galloping section. The ground was also a little bit sticky [after heavy rain on Thursday], which also made for some surprises. If you don’t make the course twisty when it’s this flat, though, you’ll get too many quick clear rounds.”

Tomorrow’s finale here at Pau will begin at 11.45 a.m. local time/10.45 a.m. British time/6.45 a.m. EST with the final horse inspection (and yes, those time conversions are correct – the clocks turn back an hour tonight both here and in the UK, but not in the US, which is definitely not confusing even one little bit), and the remaining competitors will head to the showjumping ring from 2.30 p.m. local time/1.30 p.m. British time/9.30 a.m. EST. As always, you can catch all the action on Horse&Country TV, and tune back in to EN for live updates and full reports from all the day’s activities.

Until then: Go Eventing.

The top ten after a topsy-turvy day of cross-country at Pau.

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Tom McEwen and JL Dublin, maybe, sort of, if you can excuse the cloud of lens fog this was shot through. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Today, in stark contrast to yesterday at Pau, the sun shone sweetly: over the main arena, over the swiftly-filling grandstands, over my camera, which was so waterlogged from yesterday that my photos of the first ten tests or so look like I drew them with Blo-Pens, and over one Tom McEwen, a former winner of the French five-star in his own right, and one of our first riders in the ring today.

He didn’t just get to relish the day-at-the-beach feel of the palm-lined arena; he also swiftly took ahold of the top of the leaderboard, delivering a very smart 23.1 with Nicola Wilson’s 2021 European Champion, JL Dublin, deposing day one leaders Tim Price and Viscount Viktor and setting a standard that couldn’t be bettered for the rest of the day.

“What a perfect way to start the day! It’s very nice,” says Tom, who’ll be heading straight to Benidorm after the event finishes for his stag do, and would, no doubt, love to bring the impeccable vibes of a second five-star victory along in his carry-on.

Those impeccable vibes, for the moment, though, were ever so slightly dampened by what Tom felt to be a touch of harsh marking, particularly as the pair had put a 22.6 on the board at Kentucky this spring, where they finished second:  “I think this is probably one of our best tests we’ve done together and actually, for me personally, I was quite disappointed with the mark — I thought he was going to be a lot lower. I was delighted with him.”

He’s not a rider who’s prone to dwelling on such things, though: instead, he’s happy to focus on the progression that’s come since he made his FEI debut with the Holsteiner just over a year ago.

“I think knowing that you can nearly ride him like a pure dressage horse in there, you can ride in balance, you’ve got the cadence, and you can really show expression between   movements, and between the mediums and extended,” he says. “For me, he showed the difference between a medium trot, which was excellent, to an extended trot, which was incredible, and that’s what they’re looking for, but they weren’t really marking up. But no, I’m delighted with it, and to be honest, this is now history. He’s put himself in a great spot — and now we have to focus on tomorrow!”

Ros Canter and Izilot DHI. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Some tests are beautiful to watch, and some tests are true masterclasses – and often, the detail that differentiates them is what happens outside the ring, and what the rider has to overcome to make them happen. That was very much the story for Ros Canter‘s test today with her five-star debutant, the Blenheim CCI4*-L winner Izilot DHI. As infamous for his sharpness as he is famous for his exceptional talent, ‘Isaac’ looked flashy and expressive on his way down the chute to the main arena – but almost the instant he got inside, he clocked the cameraman, who decided to pick that moment to strip off a layer, and shied violently. Ros steadied him, attempted to settle him, and turned him back towards the ‘monster’ at the ringside – but Isaac once again darted backwards. She tried again; he shied again. Then, the bell rang, and with just 45 seconds to make a plan and get her horse back on terra firma, she gave it one more college try, felt her horse shrink away beneath her again, and then did what she had to do: she got herself to A, got into the ring, and rode like her life depended on it.

And in the end? There wasn’t a visible spook to be seen, and Ros and Isaac were awarded a final score of 24.3, good enough for overnight second place.

“I wanted to show him the camera, but I knew I needed to get a straight approach the first time — but as I was coming down on my approach, the cameraman decided to take his coat, which wasn’t very helpful!” laughs Ros. “Hence why I shouted at him [very politely, might we add! – ed.]. I don’t think he understood a word of English, but anyway, he carried on doing it. Isaac was already a bit spooky in the arena familiarisation at that, but I think the coat coming off… and Isaac doesn’t like men at the best of times, let alone one on a stand taking a coat off right in front of him!”

The work she coaxed out of him in the ring, though, left her “delighted! I always say this: there’s more to come. Certainly at the beginning, I was a little safe because he definitely had his eyes all over the place. I was really pleased with him on his eight metre circle, because I thought that’s when he might have a whip off [at the camera], but no. He’s an amazing horse, isn’t he? He’s only ten, and he’s a weak ten-year-old, so there’s definitely more to come.”

That eight metre circle left all of us holding our breath ringside, too: it was the earliest movement that took Isaac face-to-face with the cameraman, who was situated next to the judge’s hut at B.

“I was like, ‘try and breath, try and let go of the reins’ — the moment you tense with him, he goes funny,” says Ros. “He’s definitely got demons, this horse, and he’s not going to change who he is. He’s definitely a flighty animal by instinct. So to go to his flight instinct and then settle back down was a real achievement, I think.”

Though Isaac’s faith in Ros no doubt contributed to the pair’s ability to claw back a great result, Ros explains that it’s not as simple as that when you’ve got a horse with as suspicious a mind as this one.

“There are times when Isaac doesn’t believe me, despite us trying to tell him it’s all okay,” she laughs. “But it is getting better and better, and I’ve learned so, so much from this horse. It’s been a real learning process for me, and I think in the last six months, I’ve learned a huge amount about how to deal with those episodes: to actually drop the reins. He’s almost got to be allowed to spook — if you try and block the spook from happening, it makes it worse for Isaac, so it’s trying to relax with it. I think I try and channel my inner Tim Price, because every time I watch him on a sharp horse, he just looks like he’s flopping around, and I think that’s what I’ve got to try and keep doing too, so that I can keep putting my trust in him as much as he has to put his trust in me.”

Now, she says, she’s got something of an unknown quantity ahead of her tomorrow, and although she knows her horse can be competitive on his day, he also has a long career ahead of him — so if the net positive takeaway is simply an education, then that, too, is a victory.

“It very much depends on the day with Isaac a little bit, how much that [spookiness] comes out in him or doesn’t. I have 100% faith in him jumping a 5* track in terms of the scope, the carefulness, the bravery — he’s got all of that, it’s about trying to give him a good experience. Will I be going for gold? I’m not sure yet; I’m very much going to let him tell me what he’s thinking. Equally, there’s not a huge amount of Thoroughbred in him, and I don’t want to knock him in that sense, either. So I’ll very much go out there trying to be competitive, but with his confidence in mind at the same time.”

Pippa Funnell and MCS Maverick. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Pippa Funnell has had two very different dressage days: after the frustration of yesterday, when she was sent up to the ring too early and then had to deal with spookiness from the experienced Billy Walk On, who now sits equal tenth on a 29.6, she returned today with her Bramham CCI4*-L winner and five-star first-timer, MCS Maverick, who merrily delivered the best test of his entire career to earn himself a 26.4 and overnight third place.

“I’m very, very pleased,” beams Pippa, who took the ride on the British-bred gelding just this year, and is still figuring out how to tap into his best work on every outing they undertake. That’s a process that’s complicated, slightly, by the fact that he’s a hot, sharp, sensitive little horse – so much so that he nearly turned tail right back into the ring after wandering out into the chute after his test and spotting a flapping flag.

The key, she’s discovering, is fighting the urge to work him on the flat and instead, giving him plenty to do that requires little mental exertion.

“I jumped him this morning, and  then he’s just done loads of quiet trotting on the lunge,” she explains. “He’s been out for three lots of 20 minutes, so not long, because A, I don’t want to make him sore and B, for the longevity of a nice horse, you don’t want to have to work them so hard to get the brain. So I’m thrilled I got the brain without drilling him today. I only got on him 15 minutes before, which makes you think, ‘oh my god, is that the right thing for one that’s a bit hot?!’ But I knew that if you pick him up, he’s still at a stage where he doesn’t find it difficult but he tries, and then it gets a bit tight, and once he gets tight it’s difficult to relax him. So ten to fifteen minutes of warm-up is brave, but that’s the thing that works for him!”

Jesse Campbell and Diachello. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

New Zealand Olympian Jesse Campbell and his Tokyo mount Diachello delivered one of the most pleasing tests of the day to be the best-place non-Brits, and will go into cross-country tomorrow in fourth place on their score of 26.9. It’s a remarkable upswing in performance for the gelding, who’s always been capable of very good scores but has, almost as frequently, boiled over in tests – but this, Jesse explains, is a milestone that comes after a serious effort to unpack what had been setting ‘Danny’ off.

“To be honest with you, I’m quite emotional about it, because when we first bought him and we took him and produced him all the way up to 4*, he was so generous and he was quiet and easy and everything like that,” he says. “Then we took him to Kentucky and he was okay — it was first 5*star, and then I sort of put the pressure on him to go to the Olympics, and he just didn’t feel very good. Then the next year, he came out, he didn’t feel very good — and he’s not the type of horse to show your typical ulcers, but we got him scoped then because we had sort of exhausted everything else: bone scans, the whole thing. He was riddled with ulcers, and so we went back to basics with him. I really thought I’d ruined him. But he’s just so generous, he’s let me train him back up. Every day he feels better and this week, he’s been feeling awesome, and really happy, and I’m pretty chuffed, actually! It was cool.”

The highlight for Jesse, other than feeling his horse back at his happy best, was the flying changes, he explains: “Where I think he probably would have been in pain in the past, they’d be quite conservative. Now he’s really throwing them and letting go. It’s just lovely that he’s happy, and that’s the main thing, right?”

Oliver Townend and Tregilder. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Oliver Townend piloted Tregilder to the gelding’s best-ever five-star score of 27.2 in his fifth effort at the level — an effort that sees them sit fifth overnight, which feels, actually, like quite a lot of ‘fives’ for this sentence, so sorry about that.

“He doesn’t find dressage easy; he’s 18hh, and a big, weak, blood horse, and he’s always found it very difficult — and he also finds it quite stressful,” says Oliver. “So he worries, and then he does silly things a lot of the time, but he’s done very well today.”

The key to getting a tune out of Tregilder without pushing him into a more fragile picture, Oliver says, is doing rather less than you might otherwise be inclined to.

“I feel like I’m going nowhere at times in there with him, just to try and give him time to breathe and relax into it, but he can’t work for too long — that was 25 minutes of work before he went in and most of that, or a lot of that, was walk,” he explains. “But as I said, he’s very sensitive, so it’s easy to have a spook or change where you don’t want when he’s not quite relaxed enough, so it’s a fine balance. But he knows me well, and I know him well, and he’s done as nearly as well as he could do today.”

Sam Lissington and Ricker Ridge Sooty GNZ. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Kiwi Sam Lissington made a great start to twelve-year-old Ricker Ridge Sooty GNZ‘s five-star debut, putting a 28.8 — a score better than most of his four-star efforts — on the board to sit ninth after the first phase, falling in step behind yesterday’s test-producers Tim Price and Viscount Viktor, Piggy March and Coolparks Sarco, and Ros Canter and Pencos Crown Jewel, who sit sixth, seventh, and eighth, respectively, after the second day.

“He was pretty cool,” says Sam of the diminutive gelding. “Sometimes the judges can think he’s a bit like a pony, so I try to show off a bit ’round the outside, to show that he’s a proper horse. He was very accurate, the changes were lovely, and he had a nice disposition about him — you can’t ask for much more than that!”

Lea Siegl and DSP Fighting Line. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Austria’s Lea Siegl joins Pippa in equal tenth place on a score of 29.6 with her Olympic ride, DSP Fighting Line: “I’m super pleased with my horse; he stayed very calm,” she says. “I was a bit afraid that he’s too excited with this atmosphere, because I did Luhmuhlen 5* this year and he got crazy in the dressage — he was so excited for the cross country, I think! But today, he really tried  to stay cool and it worked good. I’m very happy with him.”

Phillip Dutton and Z. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Though Phillip Dutton‘s Tokyo Olympic partner Z is one of the most experienced horses in this year’s field, with six five-stars (and five top ten finishes) and two Championships under his belt already, he’s actually only ever previously come under the 30 barrier once in a test at this level. That was at the World Equestrian Games in Tryon in 2018, where he posted a 27.6; today, though, he repeated the feat, putting a 29.9 on the board to take twelfth place going into tomorrow’s cross-country.

“Actually, that’s the fun thing about it — the more you do, the more you realise you don’t know as much as you thought,” says Phillip with a laugh, reflecting on the the fifteen-year-old gelding’s ongoing improvement even at this latter stage of his career.

But, he continues, even on a good day in the office, there’s always something that can be improved upon.

“I let him down a little at the end — I was a bit quick to bring him up, and then he switched leads and I left the marker a little early to get the last change. But apart from that, it was good as he could go,” he says.

Boyd Martin and Fedarman B. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Just one rather spectacularly fluffed flying change – it scored a 1 from the judge at C — precluded a top-ten test from Boyd Martin and the Goodwin family’s Fedarman B, but such was the quality of the rest of their work that the pair find themselves well in the hunt on a 31.7. That puts them in a three-way tie for overnight sixteenth, and just 1.1 penalties away from the top ten, thanks to those extraordinarily slim margins after two days of competition.

“He’s been working well all week,” says Boyd. “He was pretty fresh when I arrived here in France — in the first two days he was jumping out of his skin. So I had to spend a fair bit of time getting him back to how he was going in America. By yesterday, I thought we had our horse back, and then I probably overdid it a bit, actually — he was brilliant this morning, but he was a tiny little bit empty when I went into the ring, and I screwed up one change, which I’m thinking was really, really expensive! It’s a shame, because that hadn’t happened all week.”

Boyd, like several of his fellow competitors, comes to Pau straight off the back of a run at Maryland, and he credits the team around him – and further afield, too, in the case of wife Silva, who’s stayed home with new baby Koa, as well as slightly older, slightly more feral Nox and Leo – with helping make it all happen in spite of the lightning-fast turnaround.

“Poor old Silva isn’t getting much sleep, so I’m getting phone calls here in the morning, which is midnight, one o’clock, while she’s feeding the baby,” grins Boyd. “Shout out to Silva — I wish she was here! Bettina [Hoy] has stepped in as my German coach, and hopefully next time, we’ll be able to leave the baby with the babysitter and get the bride Silva back here.”

Allie Knowles and Morswood. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Though Allie Knowles and the former Susie Berry ride Morswood trended in the 20s for much of the early part of their test, they had to settle for a still very respectable 33.3 and overnight 28th after losing some marks in the canter work – but Allie was still delighted with how her 15-year-old Irish-bred gelding went in his fifth-ever five-star test, particularly with some tricky external factors to contend with.

“He was a good boy,” she says with a smile. “He was getting quite nervous; he hates a big screen, so I was like, ‘look away, look away!’ It felt like the storm was definitely just coming — all of a sudden it  got very windy, but he did a good job.”

Allie’s decision to take risks in her test today paid off in some respects, such as that trot work, which looked up there with his very best, but in other instances, it proved expensive: “I went for it — I tried to be a bit braver about the mediums. That cost me, because he swapped his lead in the medium canter, but you don’t know if you don’t try,” she says. “The mistakes we had were big mistakes. But he did exactly what I told him to do — quite literally. I kicked too hard, he answered by kicking out at my leg. But his halts are probably our weakest movement, and I felt like our final halt was good. It felt less on the forehand. He did a good rein back — at least for him that’s a good rein back! So I’m not disappointed, even if you always want it better.”

This is Morswood’s first trip to Pau, but not Allie’s — she came here in 2017 with her former top horse, the ex-racehorse Sound Prospect, with whom she finished 21st. That course form and experience is something she’ll take into tomorrow’s cross-country challenge.

“He’s a similar type of horse as Sounder was, and he’s little; compact,” she says. “And he’s deadly honest — so touch wood, I haven’t had a refusal at 5* with him. I’ve had a fall at 5*,  but not a refusal! So I’m just banking on if I point him at the flags, he’ll sort it out — he generally adds a stride when there’s a question of add it or leave it out. I’m going try to let him do his job and just try to stay out of his way; give him a smooth ride and do the best we can!”

Cosby Green and Copper Beach. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Five-star first-timer Cosby Green sits 35th going into cross-country after putting a 35.1 on the board with the former Buck Davidson ride Copper Beach, who competed here in 2017 with Buck. This is his first five-star since Kentucky in 2019, and the seventeen-year-old Irish-bred gelding delivered a test pretty much on a par with where he and Cosby have been scoring at four-star — a great start to their weekend.

“He’s tricky in the ring — he thinks he’s an old professional,” laughs Cosby. “So sometimes he doesn’t think he needs to listen to me and he knows what’s coming. But it was nice to do a test he hasn’t done in a while, so it kept him a little on its toes. It’s a good reflection of where he’s at, and he feels good in his body. With his age we just try to change the little things that we can.”

Cosby has been logging a busy — but rewarding — end to her 2023 season, which she’s spent based with Tim and Jonelle Price. She comes to Pau off the back of her Boekelo debut, where she finished as the best-placed first time with Jos Ufo de Quidam. That experience, plus the help she’s been getting from eventing’s most dynamic of power couples, should stand her in great stead going into arguably the biggest moment of her career thus far: her first five-star cross-country start.

“Just having good faith and riding smartly in the moment and sticking to the plan as best you can is kind of how I’m going into it,” says Cosby. “I’ve been relying on the training that I’ve done this past year to really be a good foundation, and so I’m just going to use that when I go out there. I find comfort in that.”

And what advice will tough taskmaster Jonelle, who’s been such an influence on Cosby this year, deliver as she heads out of the start box?

“Just go clear in time,” says the Kiwi with a grin. “I don’t think we’re going to see many in the time tomorrow, so I think there’s an opportunity — and you’re sitting  in a hunting spot on a 35. So go out and do some hunting!”

Easy, right? They’re certainly emboldening words to take out on course – and Cosby’s got determination on her side, too.

“I feel good. Nervous! But there’s no better horse to be sitting on. He gives me a lot of confidence,” she says.

Tomorrow’s cross-country, which will run over a technical track designed by Pierre Michelet, will kick off at the very sociable hour of 11.30 a.m. local time/10.30 a.m. BST/5.30 a.m. EST (yeah, sorry, that one’s less sociable). The first horse and rider out of the box will be five-star debutant Cooley Lafitte, ridden by New Zealand’s Jesse Campbell. You can check out the times in full here, and, as always, tune in to the live stream via Horse&Country TV. We’ll be bringing you both live updates and a full report right here on EN tomorrow – and before then, stay tuned for some in-depth course analysis and previews. Until then: Go Eventing!

The top ten at the conclusion of dressage at Pau.

Les 5 Etoiles de Pau: [Website] [Entries] [Schedule] [Live Stream] [Live Scores] [EN’s Coverage]

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Exclusive behind the scenes footage of Pau director Pascal living his best life today.

And one of course designer Pierre Michelet, too, for good measure.

“I could do without the nightclub music in the walk,” says reigning Pau champion Jonelle Price wryly after her test with Pratoni ride McClaren, who scored a 32.4 to sit ninth overnight after the first day of dressage at Pau, the final CCI5* of the 2023 season. She’s fair to say it, too: for all Pau’s abundant charms, some of its oddities aren’t always wholly conducive to eking the best possible marks out of a hot, fit event horse, and that pounding oontz-oontz music – which was, today at least, piped out of speakers localised to one part of the arena – is certainly among those. That was just one of the factors that created a significant ‘spooky corner’; others in the same area included a cameraman next to the judge’s hut at B, who was at his most terrifying for the first few tests when he had an umbrella over his set-up, and, of course, the arena’s big screen, which looms over the ring in close proximity.

That meant that many of the horses we saw today — even the very experienced ones — spooked either inside or outside the ring, costing themselves valuable marks and leaving the door wide open for day two’s competitors.

Tim Price and Viscount Viktor: your day one Pau leaders. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

One horse who managed to get his spook out of his system before entering at A was Tim Price‘s nine-year-old Viscount Viktor (Viscount 22 – Nova EH, by Nobre xx), who took fright at the cameraman while negotiating his pass around the outside of the ring but then shelved any bad behaviour in favour of a professional, sweet test that belied his relative inexperience. That was enough to earn the pair a 28, which is just one-tenth of a penalty in front of their closest competition today – but over four whole marks better than their test at last month’s Blenheim eight- and nine-year-olds’ CCI4*-S.

“He’s coming along,” says Tim, who won here in 2021 with Falco. “He’s a young horse and unestablished at all of this stuff, but the end of the year is hopefully when you’re going to get a bit more, and when he’s going to understand the movements a bit more and start to relax. It was good today.”

That progression from Blenheim, he says, comes largely from simply giving the horse more exposure.

“It just feels a little bit more consolidated — a little bit going through the motions a bit more,” he explains. “I don’t have to make so much of a focus, in the days leading in, of making sure he actually knows his way through those movements. I can just think of relaxation: I can drop his neck, trot him round, get him used to the place and then when you go in and all that is  your foundation, then the movements aren’t a surprise for him. So that’s what Blenheim contributes, because there, you’ve got to hack all the way over to the main ring and he was like, ‘whoa, this is so new and big and different!’ So it’s just nice to get to this stage. This is such a good environment for them even though it’s cats and dogs appalling! But it’s good experience.”

Tim Price and Viscount Viktor. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

This is hardly the zenith of what’s to come for Viktor, who Tim tipped at Blenheim as his next big thing.

“He does actually find the work quite easy and so for me, it was actually a little bit of an underridden test. I was just going for a nice test with not too many mistakes, and then we can build on that over the coming years. The places he finds difficult are coming back from a medium or extended canter, and then he just likes to keep his body nice and long. He knows to come back, it just takes a little bit longer — that will get better over the next couple of years,” he says, adding that the progression feels marked: “I used to have to, not that long ago, sort of introduce a half-pass and then go for the half-pass because otherwise he might pop into canter or lose his balance. But now I can sit him up in the corner and say, ‘let’s go sideways’. And the same with the medium trot. I can come around the corner and say ‘let’s go’, and he goes into a good medium trot, and those moments are really fun in terms of training a horse and building it through the grades.”

Piggy March and Coolparks Sarco. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Just a whisper behind him is another five-star debutant horse, this one ridden by a Brit: Piggy March put a 28.1 on the board with Coolparks Sarco, or Jeremy, who she inherited from her close friend Nicola Wilson after the European Champion’s career-altering fall at Badminton last year. The eleven-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding  (Shannondale Sarco St Ghyvan x Coolpark Lady Diamond, by Coolcorron Cool Diamond) lost a couple of marks when delivering his final flying change a stride late, but otherwise, was polite and professional in the arena — a welcome change after yesterday’s arena familiarisation, when he was visibly unsettled by the big screen in corner.

“I mean, he was really nice until they put the screens on — then he got a bit panicked by that, but I don’t think he’s seen that,” says Piggy. “But today, I thought he was really nice. I might look at it back and be cross with myself for not just being a little bit maybe braver, I don’t know! But I didn’t ever go ‘oh dear’. He’s quite an attractive horse anyway, and  it all felt consistent; he can get a bit above the bit and not be still in his head, but he felt quite still.”

Though she might spot those margins for more bravery on her rewatch, Piggy’s decision to occasionally play it safe in the ring was one that was made with good reason: though Jeremy had settled into the idea of the big screen, he, like so many of today’s horses, wasn’t quite sure about that cameraman.

“Maybe I needed one more gear in there, but I was conscious not to then feel like I was chasing when he felt so nicely in front of my leg and under me — I thought, ‘surely this is quite nice’, and I just felt a little bit concerned with the camera just there. He was a little bit scared of it, but other than that, I thought he was nice.”

For Piggy this is a second five-star in as many weeks: she arrived here straight off the back of a run ’round Maryland with another debutant, Brookfield Cavalier Cruise. That means that she’d not ridden Jeremy herself in over a week on Monday, a situation that requires a bit of extra care and thought to manage appropriately.

“It’s not ideal — it’s not ideal at all, and then you’re conscious of not getting here when they’ve travelled and just picking up the reins and working them really hard straightaway,” she says. That, and the continual deluge that’s plagued us all day, also impacted the way she opted to warm up: “The weather today has been fairly horrendous, so I didn’t give him long, because he felt very good. I’m delighted with his brain as well; he really went in there and was very rideable and very relaxed.”

Ros Canter and Pencos Crown Jewel. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

One of the earliest tests of the day was also one of the most competitive: reigning European Champion and Badminton winner Ros Canter piloted the seasoned five-star mare Pencos Crown Jewel (Jumbo x Cornish Queen, by Rock King), a maternal half-sister to her stable star Lordships Graffalo, to overnight third on a 28.3 after a test that, like Piggy’s, was well above and beyond the work she’d been doing while schooling yesterday.

“She was actually a bit lazy yesterday, and probably, if anything, she’s just naturally a bit on a forehand — sometimes she just needs to lift up a bit in front, [which was the case yesterday] but I’m absolutely delighted with what she just did in there,” says Ros with a smile. “Myself, personally, I feel like it’s been a bit harshly marked — but I haven’t spoken to anybody that watched it properly yet, so there might have been things I could have done better, but I was really delighted with the way she went.”

This year, Ros has been experimenting with the mare’s warm-up regime, and now favours a much more low-key approach to getting the good stuff in the arena.

“You just have to persuade yourself that twenty minutes is plenty in the warmup, and most of that is spent in walk: I do two minutes work, have a walk, two minutes work, have a walk, two minutes work, have a walk, and then I walk down here. She just needs to feel good in her body, and the day before a competition, sometimes she looks spicy, but she needs to look spicy in order to be upbeat enough in there for things like the changes.”

Pippa Funnell and Billy Walk On. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Pippa Funnell sits fourth overnight with Billy Walk On on his first trip to France since his young horse years, but while most of us would be frothing at the mouth to score a 29.6 at this level, Pippa was frustrated to post the second-worst score of the 14-year-old gelding’s seven-strong five-star record. They, too, suffered a spook in the ring — “he’s probably too experienced for that, really” — but the source of her frustrations wasn’t her horse, but rather, an anomaly in the stewarding that seemed to have been rectified later on in the day. Pippa was one of several riders who was sent down the chute from the collecting ring well before the prior test had finished, which meant that her on-the-boil and impeccably warmed-up mount suddenly had to contend with the confusion of ping-ponging back and forth down the chute until he could finally enter the ring.

“I was fuming,” admits Pippa, “because we  were sent down so early, when the test before still had all the canter work to do. I came back [to the warm-up] because I realised [the rider before me] was on her walk, and then I was sent right back down again — so that was annoying, because it was just enough that I lost the lovely feeling that I had out here. A lot of it is about split timing, isn’t it, at this level? Not overdoing it, not underdoing it, and loads of transitions just before so he’s prepped up and ready — but then he doesn’t know whether he’s coming or going because I kept on having to turn him back from the arena. You want to go straight in when you’re sent up.”

Nadja Minder and her horse of a lifetime, Toblerone, position themselves with the legends of the sport on their five-star debut. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

The top four at the tail end of today’s competition are all household names in the sport of eventing, as are several more of the top ten — but for many fans of the sport, the rider in fifth place might be something of an unfamiliar face. 23-year-old Nadja Minder came to Pau with her horse of a lifetime, the 16-year-old Swiss Sport Horse Toblerone (Yarlands Summer Song x Medelyne), hoping to gain experience at a new level to them both; she certainly didn’t expect that that would involve delivering a competitive performance in the first phase. But that’s exactly what they did, putting a 30.5 — a top-three score for them across their 31-run FEI career — on the board to sit at the business end going into day two.

“What a time to do it!” says a delighted Nadja, who is Switzerland’s sole representative at Pau this week. “I mean, this horse keeps impressing me; keeps making my dreams come true, still. I’m so proud of him. The dressage was never the easiest phase for him, and we had to work a lot and we really had to make him believe that he can do it in the ring. I mean, he thinks he can jump a seven star cross-country but, it’s so cool that he now believes in himself when he’s in the ring, too, and shows off like he did. I’m so proud.”

Getting to that point, she explains, has just been a matter of patience and sympathetic riding to work out Toblerone’s comfort zones and gently expand them, taking everything back to basics as needed to reestablish his confidence.

“It took me some time to really figure out how he ticks, and it’s a little bit the same in the show jumping,” says Nadja. “He wants to be careful, but he doesn’t have the technique to do it, and when he’s unsure he maybe even starts to stop at the colourful fences. It was a little bit the same in the dressage. It was like, when we were easygoing, and he felt safe, he was super, and from the point we wanted to push him more or wanted more, to get higher marks or a flashier trot or whatever, but it felt like it stressed him out. Maybe I’m not the right jockey to ride it properly, but as I got to know him better,  I think I figured the training out, to just not push him too much, and to really make him believe, and then it just got better. But sometimes, like at the beginning of this year, I had a little bit of a step back again, because I wanted too much again, and then he started to stress out in the ring, and then nothing works anymore, and now we’re back to normal.”

Nadja Minder and Toblerone. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Nadja’s long been dreaming of making the move up to five-star — one that isn’t always common with many of the continental competitors, who’s pathways are often more championship-based. But the growing string of horses she’s producing to the top level opened a window of opportunity to make the move up with her old friend, with whom she contested this year’s European Championships and last year’s World Championships.

“To be honest, I was thinking about [coming to Pau] since last December. But it takes a lot of good circumstances to get your horse to five star. The thought process behind it was that the Europeans went well, and the cross country wasn’t that long, [because it was shortened to eight minutes]. So it wasn’t really a long format, even though the horses got tired anyway. I always wanted to ride a five star, and I luckily have other horses in my stable who I can think about for Paris next year. Maybe if there was only Toblerone, I wouldn’t have had the courage to come here. But I thought, it’s the time to do it, and if not now, when?”

Toblerone has been Nadja’s partner through the realisation of so many of her lifelong dreams: before the World and European Championships, they picked up an individual eleventh place finish in the 2021 Young Rider European Championships at Segersjö, and she contested her first-ever four-star with the gelding that year too, giving her valuable mileage to bring several more of her horses to the level. And so this moment? It’s understandably a pretty major one.

“I’m so f*cking proud of him,” she beams. “I have to be careful that I don’t start to cry! But right now… he’s so special. When he came to me, we didn’t know that he is this good, but it’s always very special when riders have their Young Rider horse [through to Seniors]. When you’re a young rider, you maybe have more time to process a partnership, so the process comes naturally than when you’re more experienced and you maybe have owners who push more or whatever. But  we never had expectations with him — it just happened, and he made the step from Young Riders to the Senior camp so easy. I don’t know if even now I know what I have with him. Maybe in a few years time I will realise how incredibly special he is. I don’t know if I can appreciate it — I appreciate him like crazy, but maybe in a few years time I really will know how special he was.”

Muzi Pottinger and Just Kidding. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

New Zealand’s Muzi Pottinger sits sixth overnight on a 31.1 with the full Thoroughbred, Just Kidding, while Kylie Roddy and SRS Kan Do, who were eleventh here two years ago, are equal seventh on 31.7 with Izzy Taylor and Happy Days. The top ten is rounded out by British-based Frenchman and five-star debutant Gaspard Maksud on his World Championships top-ten finisher Zaragoza, on a 32.9, just behind ninth-placed reigning Pau champ Jonelle Price and her Pratoni team bronze medallist McClaren, on a 32.4.

Tomorrow sees a full day of dressage on the agenda, beginning at 10.00 a.m. local time/9.00 a.m. BST/4.00 a.m. EST with France’s Cedric Lyard first in the ring with the experienced Unum De’Or. Check out the times in full here, and if you want to follow along with the form, you’ll find EN’s 5* Form Guide here. Tune in for the live stream via Horse&Country TV, and keep it locked onto to EN for live updates, full reports, and plenty of behind-the-scenes glimpses of all the goings-on via our Instagram account, too. Until then: Go Eventing!

The top ten after the first day of dressage at Pau.

Les 5 Etoiles de Pau links: Website | Entries | Live Scores | Live Stream | EN’s Coverage

EN’s coverage of Les 5 Etoiles de Pau is brought to you by Kentucky Performance Products.

“I hate my life.”
“Same.”
Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Generally, I like to think I watch horse inspections with a pretty analytical eye. I look at hooves, I look at stride length and whether it’s equilateral, I quietly brew up ways to make fun of all the outfits. I am present.

Today, I would like to be less present.

“Please. I beg of you. Make this an indoor sport.” Photo by Tilly Berendt.

The first horse inspection at Les 5 Etoiles de Pau, the final CCI5* of the 2023 season, took place mid-morning under the watchful eye of ground jury President Nikki Herbert (GBR), Helen Christie (NZL), and Emmanuelle Olier (FRA). It also took place under the watchful eye of probably the most malevolent raincloud I’ve ever encountered, at a horse inspection at least.

“Why didn’t I get into hamster breeding instead?” Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Just two horses were held through the course of proceedings, which was quite enough to make me want to consider a fistfight with the ground jury, not because they were wrong in their decision, but because I’d happily have sent a dying chicken on a unicycle through to dressage if it meant we could get the whole thing done a bit faster.

Izzy Taylor and Happy Days encapsulate THE VIBE. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Those not-dying-chickens-on-unicycles were both of the strong British contingent that’s come forward this week, and both of them, Selina Milnes’s Gelmer and Izzy Taylor’s Happy Days (truly, WHAT ARE THOSE) were accepted upon re-presentation. One further horse, James Avery’s debutant MBF Connection, was asked to trot a second time but not held. And then, I guess, some other people and some other horses fannied about on the trot strip; I don’t know, it felt like we were there for hours and I’ve been having to wring my sleeves out ever since. Can confirm, though, that all 55 are accepted. What more do you want from me?!

“I, inexplicably, am having quite a nice time, actually.” Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Just kidding. Kind of. We’re all delighted to be here, really, even if the south of France is meant to be much sunnier than this. Pau is a firm favourite, not just in my own and EN’s calendar, but in the calendar of the riders it attracts: it’s got a much more laidback end-of-season feel than the pomp and circumstance of the ‘big ones’, and it’s much more compact, too, with the lorry park and schooling area abutting the public food and trade village, which means that everyone intermingles with everyone else, and it’s just really quite nice, you know? It’s also an event that’s chock full of all the bonkers bonuses we all really, truly desire: pint-sized middle-aged Frenchmen in horse costumes, an inexplicable leather-clad horse dominatrix that wanders around, propositioning children, a horseball tournament, for some reason, and something new this year that keeps landing in my inbox with excitable headlines telling me to check out the ‘PONEY DERBY!!!’ that’ll take place in the main arena. Sure! I have no idea what’s happening! Sign me up! I’m still recovering from the bout of ennui that hit me when I realised that they’re not also hosting combined driving again this year, as they ordinarily do, because nothing thrills me more than seeing carriage horses and eventers do a lap of honour together, but I’ll survive — and more importantly, so will our competitors, this year.

Boyd, you good, my man? Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Dressage will begin this afternoon at 2.30 p.m. local time/1.30 p.m. BST/8.30 a.m. EST, with New Zealand double-hander Jesse Campbell first in the ring aboard his debutant, Cooley Lafitte. We’ll see nineteen horses and riders in total today, though none of our small but might US contingent — and you won’t want to miss this spicy first batch, which includes France’s Gaspard Maksud and Zaragoza, who were sixth at the World Championships last year, team bronze medallists Jonelle Price and McClaren, and Piggy March and the former Nicola Wilson ride Coolparks Sarco. You can check out the times in full here, and tune in via Horse&Country TV to catch all the action — a viewing mode I highly recommend, because it’s going to dump 30ml of rainfall on us in exactly the scheduled time period that dressage will be underway, according to H&H snapper Peter Nixon. So that’s fun. Wish me luck. Wish us all luck. Go Eventing. Or swimming. And in the meantime, catch up on everything that you need to know with our packed form guide. It’s dry in there.

Les 5 Etoiles de Pau links: Website | Entries | Live Scores | Live Stream | EN’s Coverage