July 17, 2025 
Scott Brash Hello Folie Scott Brash Hello Folie Brash Folie Brash Folie Brash Folie Folie Folie..!
What will my editor say if I write only this? If I turn in an article all feeling, no information? Just the names of horse and rider repeating rhythmically with the pounding of my thrilled spectator’s heart?
Oh, let’s stop the hero worship and call it what it was—a mistake, a rider throwing his rein away, like a fool! “How can you explain this to your students?” says the commentator breathlessly as it happens. (Her other job is that of trainer).
How can you explain it full stop?
Let’s see, let’s see. We are here in Spain on the second day of European Championship competition, the day when everyone comes back and we whittle 18 teams and 89 riders down to 10 teams and 50 individuals.
This day is a long one. We begin with the individuals, those riding solo, not on a team. We then go to the teams placed 18th to 11th. Then we finish the day with the teams placed 10th to 1st.
The most spectacular performance from an individual on Day 1, of course, was Daniel Coyle with the glorious mare Legacy. They rested on a total of 0, but the day dawned with the news that they had pulled out of the competition, the mare not feeling 100% and the competition being a long and strenuous one.
That left Richard Vogel and the freak stallion United Touch S in the lead with a hilarious score of 0.01, the teeny-tiniest score possible.
The competition began under mist and rain and despite this and their absence from teams, the individuals turned out well-prepared. Clear round after clear round presented itself, forcing observers to wonder if the course designer, Santiago Varela of Spain, hadn’t built the whole thing a bit too easy.
How laughable that thought seems now. Bring on the pressure of a team competition, and that course begins to look a little different.
The most notable individual performance came from Abdel Saïd aboard Bonne Amie, who gave another clear round and ended the day in 10th place with penalties of 1.94 carried over from Day 1.
The most pressing question that came with the first group of teams was: Would the reigning 2023 Team Champions Sweden really not make the top ten? Would we really see them fade away after just two days of competition?
Adding 8 faults to their score for a total of 23.93 didn’t give us a definitive answer. That wouldn’t come until the top ten teams rode and Norway added an unfortunate 12 faults for a team total of 25.17, which pushed them down past Sweden into 11th place and out of the competition. Sweden, clinging to tenth place, returns.
But let us turn to the top ten teams, where the competition really rests. Let us look at Ireland, who managed only a seventh placing after the first day, due to time penalties and not rails. Smartly, they added nothing to their score and moved up into fourth with a team total of 8.39.
France, who held fourth going in, added four faults for a team total of 9.69 and jumped down to fifth. Julien Epaillard gave a fast and cunning clear aboard his homebred Donatello d’Auge to put himself into third on the individual ranking with a score of 0.69
Poor Switzerland, after an unfortunate 16-fault round (luckily a drop score) from Aachen Grand Prix winner Martin Fuchs, was unable to better their placing and stayed in sixth. Italy, who had a rider withdraw and lost their drop score, settled down from fifth place into eighth.
So we come to the top three. Belgium decided to keep it spicy after a clear from Nicola Philappaerts and Katanga v/h Dingeshof, when Peter Devos and Casual DV Z, second to go, turned in a score of 8 faults. Any additional faults, even one little measly rail, would launch them all the way down into eighth. (Oh, what a fraught competition!).
But look who the heck we have to go on that Belgian team—two magnificent stallions. The first was a big, dark, scopey thing of tremendous quality whose baby I really want and who sent me to Google to figure out where I could get one. He is named Impress-K van’t Kattenheye Z and is ridden by Thibeau Spits, and he turned in a convincing clear round, negotiating the terrible triple in style, because when you got scope like that how hard is anything anyway?
And maybe I should say something now about that terrible triple, that triple that haunted the course like a loosed phantom! No one noticed it at first, but as the day wore on, more and more found themselves floundering, usually in the middle of it. Not only did rails rain down there, but we had no less than three in the top ten teams that crashed or stopped, leading to two retirements and one elimination.
I’ll be back at that triple in a moment, but let me tell you about another stallion crush you probably already have and if not, well—I guess you know nothing about show jumping! Look at Ermitage Kalone, son of Catoki, daddy of innumerable young foals selling for bank at innumerable auctions, Mr. Perfect-Form-Over-a-Jump! And oh, yeah—he has a rider, Gilles Thomas.
Mr. Perfect was once again perfect, giving a clear round and not adding one teeny-tiny Vogelesque 0.01 to Team Belgium’s score.
As far as Germany goes, sitting there in second—they put up four riders and four horses and didn’t put a foot wrong all day. We had Ehning and Hinners and Kukuk and the aforementioned Vogel and the only bit of drama came in wondering if Vogel and United could hold on to that crumb of a score, 0.01.
Which they did. And I’ve heard people crowing about Guerdat’s 2023 win on a score of 0.43, the lowest in the history of the European Championships, which stretches back to 1957. I’m not trying to jinx it, but I am trying to tell you that if Vogel can hold on to 0.01—well, that’s not a feat that’s likely to be repeated like ever, if it can be achieved.
Now let’s get to the moment of all moments, which set my heart on fire! I do need to say that as far as Hello Folie goes, my heart was all lit up when I first saw her in person contesting the La Baule 5* Grand Prix back in June, where she got fifth.
Hello Folie is a 10-year-old mare ridden by Scott Brash of Great Britain, daughter of Luidam and full sister to another stallion making babies all over the place (I have one!), Candy de Nantuel.
Oh, that little, bright chestnut, spirited thing!
Now let me tell you how it was going. Great Britain went into the day in first place with a score of 3.96. We saw Belgium go clear and maintain their score of 4.61. We saw the perfect Germans go and maintain their score of 4.19. Then we saw Great Britain go.
Their first rider up, Ben Maher with Dallas Vegas Batilly, clocked in with a clear. Disaster struck, however, with rider number 2, Matt Sampson, who found himself befouled by the terrible triple, the second element of which took his horse out twice and led to their elimination.
Donald Whitaker and Millfield Colette rallied the team with a clear, keeping hope of staying first alive and keeping himself in contention for an individual medal at second place with a score of 0.67.
Then came Scott Brash and Hello Folie. “Oh, that terrible triple,” I thought to myself. Is this little horse gonna be able to launch through this thing that takes a big scopey stallion the likes of Impress-K van’t Kattenheye Z to negotiate smoothly?
The course began and Hello Folie sprinted through like a champ and then—Brash threw down his reins! Or one of his reins! Coming around the turn to that terrible, horrible triple and he let loose a rein! Hello Folie looked left, looked right, slowed down to nearly a stop and—all was lost!
“You can’t possibly jump it!” shouted the commentator, as I fell off the bed, where I was watching the livestream.
She couldn’t possibly jump it but she did—slow and deep and impossibly! Horses placed perfectly, with proper momentum and rhythm, had struggled to get out and Hello Folie jumped the whole thing clear with Brash on her back struggling to regain the reins. And then she went on to finish the course clear.
How will we explain this to the children?
I would say it this way: nothing is a mistake that makes you what you are and Hello Folie and Scott Brash are part of Team Great Britain that is sitting on the top of the European Championship leaderboard after two days of competition.
And I got to skip my cardio today because my heart rate is STILL up even several hours later as I type up this report.
Tomorrow brings us the highly anticipated final so stay tuned!
