Noor Slaoui and Cash in Hand represent Morocco in this week’s five-star. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
And so we meet again, Les Etoiles de Pau: the final five-star of the season; the end of our European reporting line-up for the year; always, indisputably, one of the weirdest and most wonderful events of the year. There’ll be men in horse suits, 18th-century royals on stilts, more €3 wine than any of us know what to do with, enormous rats in the water complex – but before all that, there’s today’s hugely busy first day of competition, which began with the first horse inspection.
49 of the 50 horses entered into the competition have been accepted by the ground jury of James Rooney (IRL), Laure Eslan (FRA), and Judy Hancock (GBR) in an inspection that was, for the most part, completely sans hiccups. It wasn’t until the final two horses that anything other than quick acceptances happened, but before everyone assembled could drift off to the bar for an aperitif, both Alexa Gartenberg’s Cooley Kildaire and Julie Wolfert’s SSH Playboy were sent to visit the holding box vet.
Julie Wolfer and SSH Playboy. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Both returned to re-present, but just one would proceed to the competition. We bid a sad adieu to Kansas’s Wolfert, who had intended to make her five-star debut this week with the Rebecca Farms CCI4*-S winner SSH Playboy, with whom she’d orchestrated an extraordinary comeback from a hairline fracture of the fetlock sustained a couple of years ago. The pair have been based with French Olympian Astier Nicolas over the last ten days and while we know they’ve had an incredible trip so far, hacking through the historic villages and beaches of France, it’s a particularly heartbreaking early finish to a trip that’s been so long-awaited. We hope to see them back on this side of the pond soon.
“She hasn’t even started yet!” Alexa Gartenberg and Francesca Pollara on mum-calming duties after re-inspection. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
For Alexa, though, it was a happy acceptance to her own five-star debut, which compelled her mother to floods of – understandable – tears. We’ll see them return to the main arena on Friday for their dressage test.
And it was dry! A thrill.
Look, I know it’s not very interesting or very original to talk about the weather. I get it. But Pau, in recent years, has been truly plagued by a case of the Octobers – none of us will soon forget the deluge of 2024, which resulted in several minutes and a huge swathe of fences being cut from a course that was almost entirely submerged under several inches of water – and every time the black clouds roll in off the Pyrenees, they bring with it an innate sense of the Jaws theme song. Wednesday was okay, as long as you weren’t driving down from Bordeaux, in which case it very much was not fine and felt a bit like trying to steer through a year’s worth of rain in an hour. Wednesday evening we got another dumping. Today – who knows? So far, though, we look on track to actually have our Thursday afternoon dressage session, which is more than we managed last year when a swift schedule change was necessitated. When’s the off-season, again?
Jonelle Price and Capitaine de Hus Z. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
More interesting, probably, than the weather is the field at this final CCI5* of 2026. Where many events of this level have bemoaned smaller-than-usual line-ups this season, Pau is actually pretty well-subscribed and certainly not lacking in any quality. The field of 50 horses and riders covers ten nations and features two previous winners – Grappa Nera for Jonelle Price, who won in 2022, and Jarillo for Tim Price, who took the title last year. The Prices, for what it’s worth, represent 12% of the field: each has brought three horses in a strong bid to keep the trophy in the family in 2026.
Hallie Coon and Kapriccio. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Notable beyond the Kiwi contingent are several of this year’s Luhmühlen all-stars, including runners-up Emily King and Valmy Biats and fifth-placed Hallie Coon and Kapriccio, who lead a small but exciting US contingent here this week that also includes Olympian Tiana Coudray and Cancaras Girl, who led day one of dressage at Badminton this spring. Also flying the stars and stripes is intrepid first-timer Alexa Gartenberg, who has been based in the UK for the last few seasons with Kevin McNab and will pilot Cooley Kildaire this week.
Emily King and Valmy Biats. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
This might as well be a satellite British five-star for the relative size of the country’s entry list here: 22 of the 50 starters are Brits, and several of the represent strong chances of a win bid. Beyond Emily King and Valmy Biats there’s a smart entry from 2022 World Champion Yasmin Ingham, whose debutant Gypsie du Loir won the CCI4*-S at Bramham this summer; Bramham’s CCI4*-L winners, Bubby Upton and Its Cooley Time return after a tricky week twelve months ago and are accompanied by stablemate Cola; former winner Ros Canter has young upstart MHS Seventeen in the mix; and after missing much of the season with an injury, Izzy Taylor returns with a vengeance with three rides.
Yasmin Ingham and Gypsie du Loir. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Switzerland’s two-time five-star winner Felix Vogg is also double-horsed, with Maryland champion Cartania heading his charge, while France’s bid is arguably helmed by Benjamin Massie, who brings Figaro Fonroy – a top ten finisher at last year’s European Championships, but a shock non-finisher when pathfinding for France at this summer’s World Championships – for the eleven-year-old’s level debut.
The week’s competition begins in earnest in just a few hours’ time at 14.30 local time (13.30 BST/8.30 a.m. EST), when 17 horses and riders will deliver their dressage tests in a short afternoon session. Our first in the ring will be Jonelle Price and Grappa Nera, our 2022 champions, and we’ll wrap up with Yasmin Ingham and Gypsie du Loir in the ring at 16.42 (15.42 BST/10.42 a.m. EST). If you’re following along from the US, your first opportunity to cheer on the stars and stripes will come at 16.07 (15.07 BST/10.07 EST) when Hallie Coon and Kapriccio head down the centre line. You can find the times in full here, and you can follow all the action live via Pau’s dedicated streaming service, available here. Join us later for an analysis and interviews with the key movers and shakers of day one here in the south of France. Allons-y, and Go Eventing!
Les Etoiles de Pau: Website | Entries + Live Scoring | Live Stream | EN’s Coverage
