May 24, 2025 
“McLain.”
The old man was looking me dead in the eye. We were both perched on the edge of wide stone steps that formed an oval amphitheater with a wide green field at the center, surrounded by magnificently tall and thin Italian cypresses.
I returned a quiet smile, but only seconds before I had not been quiet. In fact, I had been shouting, “I’m sorry, Frenchie, but we got the closer!”
And I was shouting it wrapped in an enormous American flag, a gift from the wife of Team USA member Karl Cook. It was a lucky charm that nearly ensured victory, with the added necessity of a string of exemplary performances. I was doing my part.
On my left was my companion, a woman with dual citizenship who waffled between supporting Team USA and Team France, depending on how the competition was shaping up. And it was shaping up wonderfully for her, with both teams heading into Round Two of this Nations Cup on a mere four faults. She was guaranteed a win.
The old man to my right also seemed to be carrying dual allegiances, cheering for Team Italy and Team France. But his look told me he suspected what was coming.
Villa Borghese, Rome—the site of this week’s 5-star, which includes a Nations Cup and a $500,000 Grand Prix. Villa Borghese is a public park covering 200 acres, a landscape of gardens that includes what was once the “party villa” of a certain Scipione Borghese, a nephew of a pope, who in 1605 began turning a family vineyard into a pleasure-grounds filled with fountains, statues, extensive flora, and various buildings of decorative appeal.
Two centuries later, the Piazza di Siena, named after the town of Siena, home to the most famous horse race in Italy, was added in the heart of the gardens. At the turn of the 20th century, the Italian government purchased the villa and turned it into a public park. The famous Galleria Borghese is housed in the original Villa Borghese Pinciana, built by Scipione to show off his art collection, and is a riot of masterpieces by Bernini, Caravaggio, Titian, and more.
The Piazza di Siena has not strayed from its original purpose of hosting equestrian events, most formally beginning in 1929 when the International Equestrian Federation held its first CSIO in the Piazza. It was also home to equestrian events during the 1960 Rome Olympic Games.
And today it hosts the CSIO-5* Nations Cup.
Within minutes of arriving in Rome, it occurs to me why Aachen is the greatest horse show in the world—there’s nothing else to do. But here in the Eternal City, I am continually seduced away from the show, sucked into sun-warmed squares hosting glorious fountains, my feet traversing basalt cobblestones, listening to a street performer singing opera under the portico of the pantheon, eating pasta on street-side patios, walking with gelato formed into the shape of a flower and marveling at the beauty and atmosphere of the city.
What horse show?
Oh, yeah. We began the day with 10 teams: USA, France, Italy, Germany, Netherlands, Brazil, Switzerland, Great Britain, Argentina, and the United Arab Emirates. We entered Round Two with eight, Argentina and UAE eliminated. Three teams went into Round Two on a score of four faults: USA, France, and Germany. Things fell apart a bit for Germany, who racked up 16 faults, while Italy improved their first round performance to edge them out for third.
But the winner came down to the wire, in a truly exciting competition. On Team USA, Lillie Keenan, riding 11-year-old stallion Kick On (too horny to attend the prize-giving, so she rode her beautiful gray mount Argan instead), put in two flawless clear rounds. Another young rider to thrill us all with her continuing ascendence in the sport was France’s Nina Mallevaey with Nikka Vd Bisschop, who, as the opening rider on the French team, also putting in two flawless rounds, joined by her teammate Antoine Ermann with Floyd de Pres.
On Team USA, Laura Kraut suffered in both rounds with four-fault-itis, while Karl Cook, riding his beloved Caracole, improved from a single-rail performance in Round One to a faultless one in Round Two, setting us up for McLain to do what McLain does best.
Which even old men rooting for other teams have to acknowledge.
I’m not saying I wasn’t nervous—I had never seen the horse before. Imperial Hbf, a 12-year-old gelding by VDL Glasgow van’t Merelsnest, was recently purchased by McLain from British show jumper Tim Gredley, a decision Gredley described as one of the most difficult of his life. And today’s performance was the first time the new partnership would jump 1.60m!
All McLain had to do was touch a pole and we would be headed to a jump-off. Touch more than one and the victory was France’s.
A barrage of texts informed me that I had become a celebrity on the livestream, wrapped in my enormous flag, dancing in delight on the edge of the stone steps. McLain and I had a lot riding on this last round.
And the course ended with a bit of a mean line, a triple combination ending in a vertical over a liverpool, and let us not forget that massive wall: a gray edifice with the founders of Rome, Remus and Romulus, sucking on the teats of the she-wolf that raised them, ensconced in the middle of it. When that thing came down, which it did several times, it took the jump crew a solid ten minutes to reconstruct it, while I played with pebbles with my bare toes in the warm afternoon sun.
McLain took it slow and steady and gave us what we needed – a clear round – and gave Team USA what they came for: a victory!
And looking at me, the old man smiled back.
Next stop on Erica Hatfield’s #DestinationHorseShow European: St. Gallen, May 28–June 1.
