October 26, 2023 
And then the rains came…
Sub 30 scores and soggy conditions were the featured entertainment Day One of the CCI5* Les 5 Etoiles de Pau, in southern France.
The trot up, held in the morning, saw two of 56 horses, both from the British contingent, sent to the holding box. Gelmer, presented by Selina Milnes, and Happy Days, presented by Izzy Taylor, were accepted on their second trot past the Ground Jury.
With several top riders coming to the event double handed, spectators were treated early on to sub 30 scores. Third to go, world no. 2 Ros Canter (GBR), the current European Champion, threw down the gauntlet, scoring 28.3 penalties on her 14 year-old mare, Pencos Crown Jewel.
Canter has had a stellar season, becoming one of only seven athletes to have ever won three or more 4*-L/5*-L competitions in one season. She’s is the only woman in the elite group.
Her lead in Pau, however, was short lived. New Zealand’s Tim Price came in to the arena next with Viscount Viktor and snatched the lead, finishing on 28 penalties. Pau marks the 9-year-old Hanoverian gelding’s 5* debut.
“I’ve brought two horses to Pau,” said the world no. 4. “Both are quite inexperienced, but Viktor is the least experienced, so learning the new movements has been our focus over the last two or three months, getting to the point where he finds them easy, so that we can apply a little pressure in the weeks leading up to the event before backing off before travelling.
“Once we’re here we do a mini version of the same—asking a little bit at the beginning of the week and then letting the horses relax so that they can enjoy themselves in the arena.”
Price and his wife and Jonelle, last year’s 5* winner at Pau, have brought four horses to the competition. Her first mount, McClaren, currently sits in ninth on 32.4.
Jonelle has already started walking the cross country course and commented, “It is iconic Pau. It seems like every other fence is a corner or a skinny or an angled brush so you’re going to need a horse that is very good on a line or you will very quickly run in to trouble. You certainly need to have your horse between the reins!”
Later in the afternoon two British riders bookended Canter, who is lying in third place overnight. Piggy March finished just 0.1 penalty behind Tim, riding the Irish Sports Horse Coolparks Sarco and Pippa Funnell completed the sub 30 scores with a 29.6 on her homebred gelding Billy Walk On.
Switzerland’s Nadja Minder and Toblerone were the last combination to come forward Thursday afternoon and completed the top five, narrowly missing that sub 30 score with 30.5 penalties.
The American team have a strong contingent at Pau this year led by three-time Olympic medalist Phillip Dutton on Z. He’s joined by world no. 3 Boyd Martin (Fedarman B), 36-year-old Alexandra Knowles (Morswood) and 22-year-old Cosby Green (Copper Beach). All four Americans will all be competing in the morning session of Friday’s dressage—in hopefully drier conditions.
