June 24, 2026 
Warning: Contains spoilers!
As every reader of mine knows, my heart grows three sizes bigger every time Jumping La Baule comes up in conversation. Now imagine a six-part docuseries on the greatest sport of them all showing up there, at the greatest show of them all?
And now add in the rebel Swiss—Martin Fuchs and Steve Guerdat.
I call them the rebel Swiss for their principled stand against the venues chosen by the Longines League of Nations, which eschewed traditional venues such as the show in St. Gallen to go where the money is. Also for Guerdat’s fight against the modern, unforgiving Olympic format, on behalf of the horses.
Yet watch this latest episode of Faultless and you end up seeing them less as rebels and more as servants to generational ambition—it turns out you need not only talent and drive to be a top show jumper, but a breeding line of them behind you. Take Fuchs multigenerational show jumping pedigree (mother, father, aunts, uncles…) and Guerdat’s Olympian father, you find that the breeding of a rider is as calculated as that of the horse he rides!
And there is Fuchs, calmly describing a childhood of relentless expectation from his dealer/trainer/coach father, only slightly buffered by his more reasonable and supportive mother.
But how else do you breed a champion? How else do you breed a boy who states definitively, “Failure doesn’t exist”?
And there is Guerdat, not just a servant to the vagaries of show jumping, but also bowed under the weight of a body that seems determined to betray him. Here he is at La Baule, only a few months off a second back surgery on the same problem spot, and with food poisoning to boot!
“What do you do besides riding?” someone asks and neither of them knows an answer. Well, Fuchs does not, but Guerdat has discovered one: his young daughter Ella, who has made him realize something can and does exist besides a horse.
But if asked which he prefers, horse or human—daughter aside—he’s choosing the horse!
Did I mention he can’t really feel one of his legs after the surgery? Does it matter? Are legs necessary in show jumping?
There he is, poor Guerdat, laying on a cot in the stable at La Baule, an IV stuck in his arm, rehydrating after bouts of endless vomiting and probably plenty of action out the other end too.
(It’s always a temptation in these coastal locales to go crazy over the seafood, but the risk is real!)
We start with the Nations Cup, where none of our principals have very inspiring rounds (Lillie and Team USA are knocked out at 9th, Fuchs gets a disobedience, and sick Guerdat fails to save the day).
This might be the time to head back to Calgary, to Spruce Meadows, and introduce the world to another player on our stage: Tiffany Foster.
Tiffany Foster is, perhaps, less well-bred by European standards, coming from non-showjumping stock. But the love of horses lurked tenaciously in her DNA, and despite the disadvantages of not coming from an equestrian family, she sang and danced for her supper, using the talents she had as a child actor to earn enough money to pursue her true passion.
And anyone who has been in the presence of Ms. Foster, under the influence of her magnetic charisma, can easily imagine how she did it.
She is staying behind in Canada in order to practice more diligently for that money-soaked Spruce Meadows Masters Grand Prix in the venue where it will happen, along with underdog Kyle King, who is just stepping up his new 9-year-old partner Kayenne Z.
Foster has the gloriously-named Battlecry, but, like Fuchs and Guerdat, is struggling with luck.
Back in La Baule, the Swiss are prepping for the derby. La Baule as a show is most famous for its beach rides. It is a long tradition that the FEI horses are allowed out of the stable and off the show grounds for a frolic in the surf, accompanied, of course, by ever-watchful FEI stewards. I myself have stood several times on that beach in those early hours of the morning and there is not a day of the show that the rebel Swiss do not show up.
They fear neither surf nor spook, being more comfortable on the back of a horse than off, and this predilection for the natural world makes them especially suitable to attack a derby, with a course consisting of hills and water patches and stone walls and ditches. They are practically Irish in this way!
(We get a shot of Irishman Shane Sweetnam clambering over a stone wall of the course and wonder—why are we not following his summer campaign?)
Apparently Guerdat has always dreamed of winning the La Baule derby, but then again, he dreams of winning everything all the time!
And he wins it! First time, we are told, but guess what? This was in 2025 and we’ve just experienced La Baule edition 2026, in which the winner of the derby was…Steve Guerdat!
And coming in second was…Martin Fuchs!
I really hope Faultless, Season Two caught that action.
But the Rolex Grand Prix Ville de La Baule is the thing everyone is waiting for. Our old friend from episode one, Richard Vogel, puts in a clear but gets two down in the jump off. Lillie, despite her 2025 hot girl summer has a rare, 12-fault performance. Guerdat retires after three down, back to his sick bed, and Fuchs never even made the start list, opting instead to spend the day at the beach (wtf?)!
Ah, show jumping. How do you convince the masses this is the sport of all sports, when you’re losing more than you’re winning, when your heroes are more often exiting unsuccessfully from the ring than galloping in victory in front of cheering stands?
But if the difficulty of the sport is on full display in this second episode, the beauty of it is in full view as well, with passion-inducing run ups to lofty jumps and gorgeous slo-mo shots of horses arcing over them.
And guess what’s next? Episode 3: Aachen!
Tune in to the RokuChannel to catch the action! And stay tuned for my recap of Episode 3, coming at you…tomorrow!
