How French are You Feeling? – Riders React to Cross Country at Les 5 Étoiles de Pau

Classic Pierre: half strides galore, lots and lots of places to not make a silly mistake, and a brand new drop that’s bigger than the Burghley Leaf Pit – it’s all happening at Pau.

Speed’ll be the name of the game, for sure, no bad thing when the scores are so very bunched up after the first phase and, as Tim Price so eloquently puts it, “We’ll have to be fast, won’t we?”. But it’s twisty out there and the distances are, shall we say, very French.

Alongside all of that, there’s big bears and squirrels offering floral gifts, spiders’ webs with mammoth spiders, giant goblets and terrifying Jack-o-lantern-headed beings, snails and sheep and a life-size straw donkey (really) – oh, and mushrooms (probably the fun kind, we’re guessing). It sure is spooky season out there! That’s not to mention all manner of crazy happening just the other side of the ropes – this is the Pau we all know and love, after all, even if we don’t really get it.

Happily (miraculously, considering the conditions for Thursday’s horse inspection), there is a track this time around, rather than just one continuous water complex like last year, which makes Selina Milnes happy, but there is a lot of (intended) water, which is on Emily King’s mind. Alex Bragg is ignoring the huge great big drop (for now) and Alex Hua Tian’s interest has been peaked. Oliver Townend’s hoping not to get run away with, Jenny Caras is all about positivity, and overnight leader Bubby Upton is relieved to have her long-time pal out first of her three rides. Everyone’s counting (half) strides.

I’ll leave you with some wisdom from Tom McEwen: “Pau is Pau”.

Dive in below for more.

Allez…

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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🇬🇧 Bubby Upton – Cannavaro – 25.6 – 1st / Its Cooley Time – 28.5 – 6th / Cola – 30.3 – 12th=

It’s very classic Pau – I would say the twistiest one I’ve walked. Obviously it’s always super intense with Pierre’s [course designer, Pierre le Goupil] classic distances and things like that, so a lot of decisions to make. I’m going to go out with Cola and ride to the way that I know that he suits and go off my plan, and then after that, I’ll then either alter my plan for the other two or it will cement the plan for the other two. It’s so nice having him out first to really get a feel for the track on a horse that I know inside out – he knows me inside out – and he hasn’t had the time off like Cannavaro and it isn’t his first time at the level [like Its Cooley Time], so I’m very relieved to have him out first.

🇬🇧 Tom McEwen – Brookfield Quality – 26.1 – 2nd=

Pau is Pau, isn’t it?

There’s very much similarities to other years but I think if anyone became complacent because it was similar in places, I think that would be an error. It’s really nice the first two minutes, then it really gets into it – twisty and, obviously, we know that he [Pierre] loves his positive distances, but… I think it’s being wise when to use them and maybe when not to.

About the new drop at 22AB

I thought that was massive, to be honest! It’s very big for Pau, it’s a huge great big drop. To me it looks bigger than the Leaf Pit [at Burghley]. At least at the Leaf Pit you land and you’re running and you’ve got loads of time.

At Pau the riders will come off the “huge great big drop” to a skinny at 22B before taking on the big water complex at 21ABCD.

Pau is all about if you get away with a few things, put a few stars back in the bank for confidence later rather than just keeping running and risking it. It’s usually down to that, really.

🇬🇧 Oliver Townend – Ballaghmor Class – 26.1 – 2nd=

I’m just hoping that he’s not going to know his way and that he’ll actually ask me a couple of questions for once!

Look, he’s done an Olympics and that looked like it wasn’t his type of course – there isn’t really a course that isn’t his type of course. He knows his way around Badminton, Burghley, Kentucky and Maryland. I’m just hoping that he looks at the crowd and looks at the trees and doesn’t run off with me like he did last time out [in the 4*-S at Little Downham, where they were 3rd. Oliver says that’s when he knew the ‘Thomas’ wanted to go again at the top, and why he’s at Pau with the 18-year-old.].

🇳🇿 Tim Price – Jarillo – 26.5 – 3rd / Happy Boy – 29.1 – 9th / Global Quest – 34.9 – 39th=

I’m happy to be going out with Global Quest first, he’s a fantastic cross country horse. The late Georgie Campbell did an amazing job with him – he’s very knowledgeable and he’s a joy to ride cross country so I’m really looking forward to it. He’ll show me a bit, because he can do a bit more – my other two, they can add – they can, hopefully, not add – so I will learn a bit with ‘George’ [Global Quest], the first horse, because he’s just a proper big galloping, big striding horse. Hopefully that’ll set me up for the other two.

[Overall, the course] it’s maybe a little bit underwhelming, I would say. That by no means, means it’s an easy, course, it’s just a little bit imaginative in places. But, it’s there to be jumped and you have to make a lot of good riding decisions in the moment, I think, because the difference between three and four strides is quite different in the moment. If your plan is for bold and strong for the big three, and something doesn’t quite go right, you’ve got to really know your plan B and accuracy everywhere.

We’ll have to be fast, won’t we?

Anything that’s got Tim scratching his head?

Maybe the water in the middle of the racecourse [21ABCD]. It’s got a quite a strong corner in the water, and that distance is three and a half so we’re going to have to trust our horse’s stride. By then we’ll know a little bit, we’ll have jumped a few combinations and gathered a bit of information about how our horses traveling across the ground, but then, that’s a water jump so it’s just going to be quite a good precision ride in there.

Then there’s just all the other lots and lots of places to not make a silly mistake.

It’ll be good fun.

🇨🇳 Alex Hua Tian – Chicko – 28.5 – 7th

It’s a very different course [to last year]. It’s the other way around. It feels more of a track this year than last year and I wonder whether last year they knew the ground was going to be soft so it didn’t really walk like a big track this. This one is quite interesting. Minute two to four, I would say, there are a few combinations where you have an option to do something really brave. I don’t know if I’m that brave. Fence 6 you have the table to the corner – you could go four there or five. Five is just like, really nice. Four is punchy at that point in the track, and then you’ve got a turn sharp left. Then you’ve got that log to the corner in the water [8AB], which, again, you can go a really punchy three or a really safe four. It’s tricky, really, because Chico is isn’t the quickest and but he’s very organized, so he’s a horse that I can take a lot of risks on, he doesn’t have the biggest stride, so I haven’t decided yet. Like the drop at Fence 4, it’s three strides, if I was here on Chocks [Jilsonne Van Bareelhof, Alex’s Paris Olympics ride] I would consider going two, but I don’t know whether it’s there for Chicko, really, at Fence 4, maybe later on.

🇬🇧 Emily King – Valmy Biats – 29 – 8th / Jackpot – 33 – 30th

I think it’s a real rider’s course because there’s lots of different options you can do in the combinations – you can do the lesser stride, you can do the extra stride, so I think it’s for us to really have a game plan, know what we’re going to do with each horse, and then obviously give them the best chance of seeing it and understanding what we’re asking.

Jackpot, he’s a sweetheart – I’ve never had him not want to do it if he understands it. I’ll try and make it extra obvious to him and really try and fill him with confidence. Obviously, it’s his first five-star, so it’ll be interesting to see how he how he takes it on.

Val, I know him so well, but then don’t want to start overthinking things, because I know know him so well.

It’s the first time I’ve had two at five-star, so it’ll be interesting having a spin on one first, and then actually having Val second. Hopefully it will give me a little bit more feeling to ride him, hopefully, better.

Head-scratchy fences..?

There’s a lot of water.

The big roll top on the racecourse down to the shoulder brush [19AB] – that’s a proper question.

There’s quite a few!

🇬🇧 Selina Milnes – Cooley Snapchat – 30.3 – 12th=

I think it’s nice. Probably on the way home, it’s going to catch you more – like you’ve got the water in the in the racecourse [21ABCD], and then the water on the way home [23ABC] – it looks quite straightforward, but actually it was early on last year, and it still didn’t ride that nicely. I just hope that it doesn’t rain any more – I really didn’t want to run him round in the mud again! [after last year’s particularly soggy offering.] The grounds seems quite dry compared to last year at this stage – I think it’s probably dried up a lot today, as long as it doesn’t rain overnight.

🇬🇧 Alexander Bragg – Ardeo Premier – 31 – 18th=

He came for his first time here where I think the stats said it was the hardest Pau ever, and the hardest five-star for 15 or 16 years or something and that was his debut at this level but he got round and he completed. This year, I feel like we he’s more prepared and ready. There’s a slightly easier introduction into the course, so we’ll see. Hopefully [the cross country] will play a part because everybody is very close together after these dressage marks, so hopefully the cross country will stretch everybody and then the show jumping will will be fun but not crucifying where you have one rail and drop 20 places, which is damaging, but we’ll see.

If you’ve got a really genuine one, then they should take off and try and get through the flags. Some of them, I’m trying to ride a line for four and then others you have to go super direct and you think, actually, this is meant to be ridden straight. But you have to decide – if you just come down and just fumble your way, you start scratching around, and then it’s the accumulative thing, the horse says, oh, I’ll try one time, and then the next…

About that huge great big drop at 22A, once he remembered that there’s a huge great big drop out there, which he’d clearly subconsciously blanked out when he was asked about it (IYKYK, um, Maryland):

Oh yeah, that is big! It gives you Defender Burghley vibes. That will come up and they could feel like they’re teetering off a cliff.

Tilly predicts the best ride of the day at the huge great big drop for Alex, you heard it here first.

🇺🇸 Jenny Caras – Sommersby – 32 – 25th

I think it’ll suit him well, because it starts out galloping in front of you – it’s important for me to set the tone early. Then it comes quick and fast and you’ve just got to keep thinking and riding and keep putting money in the bank the whole way around, basically. But the footing is great, it’s beautifully presented, it’s all there to be jumped if you ride well.

Any particular combinations she’s going to get a sneak peek of before she heads out there?

I’ll watch them all! But I think it’s having my plan and sticking to my plan, and as long as I ride positive, he’s usually very good.

And there we have it, straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak.

Allez 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.