Boyd Martin and Fedarman B. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
You know what takes a long time? A horse inspection with 73 horses in it. You know what takes even longer? A horse inspection with 73 horses in it and an evidently lonely holding box vet, who just wants a pony pal to hold for a little while, or, maybe, eight of the damn things, which is exactly what happened at this morning’s first horse inspection at Les 5 Etoiles de Pau.
“The crazy thing is, there’s just one cup – the math doesn’t work at all! Here, let me show you,” says Belgian chef d’equipe Kai Steffen Meier, in an artist’s interpretation of this conversation. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Pau, the final five-star of the year, always works on a bit of a funny schedule: perhaps anticipating fewer entries at this end of the season, they put the horse inspection on Thursday morning, followed by a short and sweet dressage session in the afternoon and then a full day on Friday. But as it happens, a field of 73 isn’t actually particularly small, and so when it felt a bit like every other horse was being sent to the holding box, we all started getting a bit twitchy and checking our watches. I’m still twitchy now, even as I write this, but I think that might just be my annual end-of-season breakdown coming. We won’t know until we know, I guess.
New Zealand’s James Avery serves up some fresh and tasty mullet at the first horse inspection. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Anyway, back to the strip: those 73 entrants represent an incredible fifteen countries, basically making this the Olympics v2.0 (and, happily, featuring a few of the partnerships who were at 1.0, including Poland’s Wiktoria Knap and Quintus 134, the USA’s Boyd Martin and Fedarman B, New Zealand’s Clarke Johnstone and Menlo Park, and plenty more besides). And, even more happily, all of them have been accepted into the competition by the ground jury of James Rooney (IRL), Katarzyna Konarska (POL), and Emmanuelle Olier (FRA), despite that busy holding box that contained, at various points…
Belgium’s Wouter de Cleene and Quintera, Denmark’s Sara Bech Strøm and Dicte Aldrup, France’s Louis Seychal and Bakar de l’Ocean LA, Great Britain’s Caroline Harris and D. Day, Piggy March and Halo, Storm Straker and Fever Pitch, and Zara Tindall and Class Affair, and, finally, Ireland’s Robbie Kearns and his first of two rides, Ballyvillane OBOS. New Zealand’s Tayla Mason narrowly escaped a visit to the box when she was asked to trot up Centennial again on a looser rein, after which the pair were accepted.
Piggy March and Halo. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
This year’s field isn’t just big and wildly multinational, it’s also pretty well packed with potential winners – last year’s champions, Ros Canter and Izilot DHI, return to defend their title after so nearly winning Luhmühlen in the summer and trying a second British ‘B’ and discovering it didn’t quite work for them in September, while the US has a serious double-hander in Boyd Martin and Federman B and Will Coleman and his Aachen champion, Off The Record. The Kiwis are helmed by Clarke Johnstone and the smart Menlo Park, but it’s hard not to get a bit hot under the collar for the young guns of Jarillo, ridden by Tim Price, and Lord Seekonig, ridden by Samantha Lissington, both of which have plenty of talent. China’s Alex Hua Tian has a compelling shout in Chicko, who makes his five-star debut this week, and the Brits are, as always, exceptionally well-mounted: joining Ros and Izilot DHI in the five-star winners’ club is newly-minted Maryland champ Oliver Townend and his Kentucky winner, Cooley Rosalent, who’s the best of his three rides here. Emily King and her two-time Grantham Cup winner Valmy Biats can be counted upon to put up a good fight in their Burghley reroute, as can Yasmin Ingham and Rehy DJ, who’s twice been on the podium at Luhmühlen. We’ve not seen Ben Hobday out eventing in a fair few seasons, but following the silver medal success of his horse, Shadow Man, at Paris, Ben’s taken the reins back from Chris Burton and returns to the top level on the back of a second place finish in Strzegom’s CCI4*-S. A meaty week, all things considered, to wrap up the European season proper.
“Look, I’ll give you a really good deal on all the stuff I stole out of this storage unit I broke into if you buy the lot without asking any questions” – Oliver Townend, by the looks of it. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Today’s dressage will begin at 14.00 local time (13.00 BST/8.00 a.m. EST) with pathfinders Oliver Townend and En Taro des Vernier first to go. Our first US representatives will be Boyd and Fedarman B, who come forward at 14.21 (13.21 BST/8.21 a.m. EST), and in total, we’ll see 24 tests over the course of the afternoon, before finishing just in time for a glass of cheap rosé and, like, maybe an oyster or something from the food stands, because we’re in FRANCE, baby, and we’re going to live like it.
Emily (Sam Lissington) in Pa(u)ris. Look, bear with us, we’re trying to make this work. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
You can check out the times in full here, sign up for Pau’s newly-launched live stream service here, meet the field in our form guide, coming shortly, or catch up on the nitty-gritty of the week to come in our Ultimate Guide here – or you can hang out and wait a few hours for me to return to you with a basket full of stories. Whichever you prefer. You do you. Until then: Go Eventing! Allez allez allez! Something about les bleus!
Les 5 Etoiles de Pau: [Website] [Entries] [Timing & Scoring] [Live Stream] [EN’s Coverage]
