“He Makes My Job Easy”: Tim Price Takes Pau with Young Star

If you’ve ever thought that Pau’s twisty, turny, half-stride heavy cross-country course looks like a serious challenge, take a moment to consider, too, its showjumping track. Historically, this is the toughest of the five-stars in this phase: because the event has the benefit of a surfaced arena they, like at Luhmühlen, don’t shy away from building courses more reminiscent of pure showjumping – tough lines, tricky, variable distances, and big, big, big jumps. But the arena itself is also an interesting anomaly; rather than being a springy, modern fibre-mix surface, it’s kind of just… sand. It’s heavy when it’s sunny and heavier when it’s waterlogged, and as you watch horses go around, you barely see them getting a cut into it, and you can absolutely track their movements by the thudding cadence of their hoofbeats.

Last year’s course felt like one of the toughest showjumping tracks yet at the venue. This year wiped the floor with it.

By the time overnight leaders Sarah Bullimore and nine-year-old Corimiro came into the ring, 38 horses and riders had jumped, and a rather ferocious 76 poles had fallen. The time was also so tight that only six competitors had jumped clear rounds without time penalties, and the leaderboard was so tightly packed after cross-country, with just one rail covering the top ten in last night’s standings, that there was constant dramatic movement up and down the rankings.

Sarah, who had brought Corimiro to this event simply to give the talented young homebred experience, didn’t have a rail in hand when she entered the ring. Ultimately, she would tip just one, and add 0.4 for a single second on the clock, too, in what was a peach of a round for an inexperienced horse with an enormous career ahead of him. That would knock her down to a final fifth place; a disappointment, no doubt, in the wake of such close proximity to a win, but the bigger picture remains clear —  Corimiro is one of the ‘next-gen’ horses we’d be silly to take our eyes off of, and Sarah, after a few rebuilding years at the top level, is very firmly back on the radar.

That rail opened the door to victory for a horse whose fate felt predetermined all day. Tim Price’s Jarillo is an exceptional showjumper; what’s more, he came to Pau with venue form, having taken a top ten placing last year. That placing came off the back of a clear round in the final phase, and because Pau’s showjumping is such an outlier, it’s that form that counts the most – though it’s hard to look past the fact that he’s only ever had two rails in his entire FEI career.

Today, he stayed true to form, making easy work of the up-to-height track and finishing one second inside the 79-second time allowed, too.

But before Tim could come into the ring and jump that decisive clear under pressure, he had to find a way to rejig his own headspace. He’d been the first rider into the ring, jumping out of order on then-20^th placed debutant Global Quest, but early in the pair’s round, the gelding – perhaps taken aback by a significant glare on the wet sand and white poles in that end of the ring – stopped in the middle of the double combination, snapping a pole with his legs in the process. Once the fence was rebuilt, he went on to knock two further rails in a round that aimed simply to restore his mettle after that odd incident – and then Tim had to figure out how to restore his own before he returned with his next horse, top-ten contender Happy Boy.

“It’s amazing how it can unravel quite quicky. I was saying to my buddy Carlos Parro, who’s been helping me all week, that people probably don’t realise just how fragile your confidence is,” he admits.

The warm-up with Happy Boy was, he continues, not ideal: “I didn’t really get going good on him in the warm-up. But I came in knowing the horse really well – I’ve had him since he was four, so there’s a partnership there – and just galloped on down to number one, and everything felt right. I was very pleased with that.”

That ended up being the turning point for Tim.

“It was good to go in with him, because that’s the way I need to ride. The other two horses are probably more my type of horse, where they really reward me for riding positive to a fence, as long as I’m not running through the fence – but that first round really rattled me, and I was a bit damaged goods out there. So I came in thinking, ‘I’m probably going to have a good round on him – he’s a good jumper, and we might have a pole, but he’s tried hard for me in the past.’ Then I had to get my shit together.”

The pair ended up delivering the first of Tim’s two faultless rounds, which would ultimately push them up to a final fourth place.

“I just love that wee horse,” says Tim with a grin. “He’s got so much ability. He’s been naughty all year, and he’s kept that going this year – normally it’s ebbs and flows, and he comes good a couple of times a year, and this year he’s been a little shit all year. But he’s a great little horse, and when his mind is in the right place, his heart’s right behind him.”

And so, with the victory of Happy Boy’s success behind him – a job well done after a tricky Kentucky this year, an unused entry at Luhmühlen in 2023 and a withdrawal after dressage at Pau in the same year – it was time for the big guns to come out, and for Tim to pilot Jarillo to the clear round he knew he had no excuse not to secure.

Box? Ticked.

“He’s always been classy, but he’s a bit skittish and sensitive as well, and just to bring the best out on him has been what I’ve always wanted to do,” says Tim of the eleven-year-old, who he rides for owners Lucy Allison, Frances Stead, and James and Rachel Good. “But he’s always been a pleasure to ride. I just have to be his friend and support him, and when he has silly overreactions, don’t create an issue with it, but carry on in a good way.”

As a result of that sympathetic approach, “he’s just showing his class more and more. I don’t think he’s a horse that wants to be put in the middle of a fence — I think that would take quite a bit of time to get him back, because it’s all about confidence, and I’ve had that experience and been found out a few times now, with Falco and Wesko, even. They look so easy and good, but if you gave them a wrong distance… [you want] just positive to a pretty good distance.”

This year, though, is the year that Tim felt the young horse was ready to step up and be more competitive at this level, and on yesterday’s cross-country horse, he was delighted to find that the sensitive gelding took a bit of a miss without any issues.

“You have to [try to place them right all the time], and I didn’t yesterday at number two, and it’s okay, because it’s just one [miss] and not very many. I buried him there and he climbed over it. But he’s a great horse; he’s a super horse. He makes my job easy, but although this is his third time at the level, he’s inexperienced – but he’s just so class, and I’m so lucky to ride him and have the joy of sitting there and just keeping my leg on and putting my heels down.”

One of the joys of Pau, as a late-season five-star, is that it’s often packed to the gills with young horses stepping up – and that makes it, like Boekelo CCI4*-L earlier in the month and the Six- and Seven-Year-Old World Championships the week before, a great place to spot the stars of the future. Jarillo, at eleven, is one of those three-phase freaks of a horse who looks on a surefire trajectory to next year’s World Championships and the LA Games beyond, all being well, but he’s far from the only exceptional young talent who rose to the top this week.

Second-placed Tom Jackson began his week in the bottom half of the pack, sitting 31^st after dressage with the ten-year-old Plot Twist B – but if the first phase is his weakest for now, it doesn’t look as though it will be for long. His Friday score of 33.2 marks a significant improvement on his outlier Luhmühlen score of 41 and improves upon his four-star mid-30s average, too – and though Tom has previously run him steadily in order to develop his education, his 2025 season has seen the handbrake come off and a true cross-country horse emerge. The pair ran clear inside the time in CCI4*-S classes at Burgham and Scone this summer, then cantered gently around a final prep at Little Downham at the end of September, before coming to Pau and handily finishing on their dressage score – the only pair to do so this week. That clear round inside the time yesterday was enough to catapult them up to 8^th place; today’s sealed the deal for second.

“He’s been as good as he could be all week,” says Tom, who’s produced the horse from a four-year-old for Mary Harris and Ruth McMullen. “He isn’t the easiest on the flat, but he did a much-improved test from his last two five-stars, and then managed to stay on it, which we knew he was capable of. He’s had a progressive journey, kind of being there or thereabouts, but he’s only ten and hopefully can just keep on improving.”

On yesterday’s cross-country track, Tom continues, “he was mega. He didn’t really skip a beat. We actually brought him here sort of thinking that it would be a track that would suit him, because he’s quite nimble and small, and he’s normally a very good jumper. He can just get worried – his thing is that he’s a big worrier. About horses, about people – but actually, it sometimes suits him better to jump on the last day because he’s a little bit more level-headed about it. You really have to get into his head to ride him, but I think he’s just always been improving.”

A more experienced horse, but in the throes of a new partnership, moved up from two-phase tenth to third place thanks to a clear round with just 0.4 to add on the clock. That was Liz Halliday’s Paris Olympics ride Cooley Nutcracker, who returned to France – where he was initially produced by Astier Nicolas – to scoop a podium position with Boyd Martin in the irons.

“He’s magnificent,” says Boyd. “I came to this weekend not quite knowing what to expect, and I’m blown away by him in all three phases. He’s unbelievable.”

Liz remained very much at the forefront of the week’s competition: not only was she honored in the form of the ‘Keep Fighting, Liz!’ saddlepad on Bali, but she was also the head of the cheering squad across the pond, and dismounted from a riding session of her own to watch the pair showjump today.

“I’m thrilled for all of Liz’s connections,” says Boyd. “We were just with the owners there, and Liz was on the phone cheering. It was very emotional with the group that have supported this horse in these all these years. We just wanted to finish well here at Pau and I’m really, really honoured and feel privileged to ride this Olympic horse.”

Her careful production, he continues, has been the lynchpin of the success that he and Bali have conjured this week in their first five-star together.

“I think the horse has been supremely trained by Astier and Liz. And then the other advantage I had is that Liz Halliday and myself shared the same coaches with Erik Duvander and Peter Wylde, so I had a bit of a leg up with a lot of information coming from former coaches. Peter knows this horse through and through, so all in my training and then walking the course with him at the show, and everything in the warm up, Peter’s basically just spoon-fed me exactly how to ride him and how to deliver him to each jump. And Bali just catapulted himself into the air and flew around the course.”

This is just the fourth FEI run that Boyd and Bali have had together, and it represents no small milestone in their fledgling partnership.

“I just got him the beginning of this year, and we sort of scampered around a four-star Long at Tryon earlier this year, and it was a bit rough and ready in all three phases,” he laughs. “It took a bit of time, but we just clicked into gear at the second half of this year. I just got to know him pretty good. He’s a different type of horse than what I usually ride; I’m usually on hot, spicy horses, and he’s been a bit of a different ride. But it just all fell into place this weekend. He’s laid back, and he’s a big boy, big mover, proper, sort of jumper.”

“He came into the show jumping today, he jumped the moon, and I couldn’t believe it when I was standing there just watching all the riders before me have a rail or two,” he continues. “And then Tom jumped a beautiful round. When I saw Tim jump the first fence, I thought, ‘wow, this is this horse isn’t going near a rail.’ So I’m very, very pleased for Tim. He’s been a good mate of mine for many, many years, and to sit next to him here in the press conference a Pau is a real thrill and he’s a champion rider — the amount of five stars he wins he’s racking up now, I think he’ll go down in history as one of the great riders.”

Boyd has previously mentioned that he’d like it if my reports were a little bit less… long, because I guess he’s not into, like, Tolstoy or whatever, so EN editor Sally Spickard and I have been occasionally penning him haikus to speed the process along a bit. So, Boyd, if you’ve made it this far, this one’s for you and Liz:

A podium shared:

On two sides of the ocean

They rode to glory

Overnight leaders Sarah Bullimore and Corimiro took fifth place, just behind fourth-placed Tim and Happy Boy, with their single-rail round – and as he has all week, the wise-for-his-years gelding stood as quietly as a hunter amidst the hubbub of the ingate while riders and connections and TV crews bustled around him. It’s good practice, anyway, for when his own big victory comes – although he’s come achingly close twice now, missing out on the Boekelo win last year with a rail, too, this is a horse who looks firmly set to have his moment in the sun over the next few years.

Of her single rail, Sarah laments: “He jumped in the in the distance so well and actually I just should have sat up. He was like, ‘this is exciting!’ He really jumped in there, and I just probably need to sit up a stride or two earlier and say, ‘No, really, whoa.’ He’s like, ‘It’s okay, mom, I can do it!’ So, yeah, it’s frustrating. But, you know, he’s nine, and he’ll put himself in that position again. It’s like would’ve, could’ve, should’ve — story of my life!”

Sixth place was claimed by China’s Alex Hua Tian and Chicko, who were placed fourth here last year and once again demonstrated their consistency at the top levels. (We’ll forgive that outlier blip at Badminton this year, because it doesn’t really count if your shoulder pops out of its socket on course and you have to spend quite a lot of time attempting to force it back in, Alex, you freak.)

The pair have been firmly in the hunt all week: they began in seventh place on a score of 28.9, then dropped down to 13^th after adding 5.6 time penalties yesterday, before stepping right back up with a fault-free round today.

“He’s just such a little legend, Chicko,” says Alex. “He’s quite unassuming – he’s just like a posh hunter at home. You look over his stable door and he’s just very chirpy and happy — and he just delivers. He just tries so hard. It’s a big track in there, and it caused a lot of issues, and he got a bit strong on me and we rubbed a few, but I trust him, and we just kept going.”

A rail apiece for Benjamin Massie and Filao de Perle and Astier Nicolas and Dirty Old Town spelled heartbreak for the French crowds, but probably not for the riders themselves, who finished in seventh and eighth place, respectively, aboard their exciting ten-year-olds who will no doubt be on team pathways in the not-so-distant future.

David Doel and Galileo Nieuwmoed had a case of deja-vu when the final rail fell, just as it had in 2022 – though this time, at least, they weren’t jumping for the win when it happened. Today’s rail dropped them from overnight sixth to a final ninth place – but marks a welcome return to the business end of the leaderboard at this level after shock falls at both Badminton and Burghley this year. This is now their seventh top-ten finish at five-star, and we’re delighted to see them back at their best.

The top ten was rounded out by Jonelle Price and Senor Crocodillo, who jumped a clear round with 1.6 time penalties to complete their weeklong climb from 15^th – and Jonelle played an important part in the prizegiving, flinging herself into the arena from the ingate to force every rider to high-five her on their lap of honour, while also guarding the champagne bucket. A woman of many talents!

That wasn’t the only celebration in Camp Price: Cosby Green, who’s based with the Kiwis in the UK, climbed to 11^th place with one rail and 0.4 time aboard Highly Suspicious – a serious climb from first-phase 32^ndplace. She also finished just outside the top twenty in 22^nd with Jos Ufo de Quidam, who had two rails.

Emily Hamel and Corvett tied a neat bow in the finale of their bid to complete every Northern Hemisphere five-star, jumping a characteristic Barry Airways clear to take 14^th place, up from 42^nd after dressage, while Grace Taylor and Game Changer had an unlucky three rails to take 16^th, dropping from overnight ninth place. Tiana Coudray and D’Artagnan gave us flashbacks when they entered the arena – a pinque coat and a big grey gelding, a la London 2012 – and tipped two rails in an educational round for the five-star debutant, who’s a particularly exciting horse for Tiana’s string.

It’s over and out from Pau for now from us here at Team EN – we’ve got socks to tumble dry, live streams to rewatch, and a week of sleep to catch up on as we welcome the off-season (on this side of the pond, at least). Thanks for joining us for the (soggy, twisty, wild) ride and as always: Go Eventing.

EN is proud to welcome Horsepal onboard as the sponsor of our Pau coverage! Horsepal is a newly-launched heart rate monitor brought to you by Tom MacGuinness, founder of Horseware and an FEI eventer and endurance rider, who’s brought his decades of knowledge to practice in the design of Horsepal. You can now purchase Horsepal directly to the UK and Europe — learn more here.

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