Most of you probably aren’t as Young Event Horse obsessed as I am, so you may or may not have followed the goings-on from Mondial du Lion this past weekend… also known as the 6yo (CCI1*) and 7yo (CCI2*) World Championships for eventing. If you didn’t see at least some of it, no fear, I’m here to show you the best part.
But first, for the data geeks that were asking about numbers and predictability after my post about the USEA YEH Championships, the World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses has actually collected some data about Mondial du Lion and how good of a predictor it is for future upper level success. Not quite applicable to our YEH program here in this country (yet) but a very interesting read, if you’re into that kind of thing. Some of the names of past participants might ring a few bells…
http://www.wbfsh.org/files/Survey_of_horses_in_Lion.pdf
If you don’t want to read the whole thing, basic summary is that the 6yo rankings don’t seem to be a very reliable indicator of future success, but the 7yo results certainly do:
There are probably several reasons for that, if we really delve down into it, but enough nerding for today, let’s get on to the best part: Lion’s XC course. Leave it to the French to make something super cool and interesting and artistic like this. If you want to see pictures of the full 6yo course, go here, and there’s helmet cam video of the 7yo course here, otherwise I’ve pulled out some of my favorite pictures of the different fences from both courses below.
Dragons, anyone?
Or fallen chess pieces
Or a cutout heart (next to a tree with hearts, of course)
Just a horse jumping a violin, nbd
https://www.instagram.com/p/BL3O1vxDYEV/?tagged=mondialdulion
Giant spider = nope
https://www.instagram.com/p/BL3_oQPDCeT/?tagged=mondialdulion
The giant watering can is friendlier-looking
Giant human form, which definitely looks a lot more like art than a XC fence
https://www.instagram.com/p/BL5hDjODzga/?tagged=mondialdulion
And of course, we can’t forget this one from last year:
Congrats to YEH graduates Fleecework’s Royal and Betawave on their completions in the 7yo class. The fact that our US-bred horses can hold their own against the very best young eventers in Europe says a lot about the quality of horse that we’re producing here.
breedrideevent.com 
Wow, some of those jumps for sure look more like art than something a horse would jump over. The violin and the human form are pretty amazing.
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I’ve seen Tamie Smith and Fleeceworks Royal at the HPNJ, and have been following Tamie for a few years now. I LOVE “Rory” and think Tamie is such a classy rider, and it was great to see them do so well over the weekend at the YEH Championships.
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But I liiiiiike nerding out! It’s cool that even though the 6 yo results weren’t significant, they had a definite trend. Obviously with all the caveats of owner/rider/money, it definitely sounds like a place to keep an eye out for the next super star eventer.
Also I had no idea that Fischer Takinou was by Jaguar Mail but that makes me really happy!
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JM has been working really well on the french AA mare base, there are a lot of them coming up through the ranks.
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Those are the most amazing XC fences I’ve ever seen! So cool!
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These jumps are absolutely ludicrously amazing. I must go look at all of them.
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Those fences are insanely neat!
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Those are some seriously scary jumps!
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All of these look like art and not real fences! For some reason I can’t get into it, even though it looks cool. That Might Magic GIF is neat though, he’s classy
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I like that the course isn’t just giant table after giant table after skinny after skinny. It’s more creative and uses terrain really well… definitely rewards a bold, forward-thinking young horse without being trappy.
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that human form jump is just gorgeous. what a lovely course – officially added to the bucket list haha (maybe one day?)
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These jumps are incredible! Also interesting to see the stats.
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I love this!! as an artist myself…I am totally dying this exists. Horses and this combined!? UMMM YEA!
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Those are such amazing jumps! That would be a fun course to play with.
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Holy cow those jumps are creative! And gorgeous.
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Those jumps are insane! And pretty! But mostly insane.
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That last one. OH HELL NO.
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These fences are awesome!!!
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That’s a pretty badass xc course! I am convinced Halo would truly believe that last bank’s mouth would open and swallow him.
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Those jumps are just so much nope for me. Lol. They’re incredible, but what kind of horse canters up to a jump that is actually teeth coming up out of the ground? I suppose starting them young makes them braver, but wow. Those are some pretty cool horses to rock around a course like that! Those jumps definitely make for a much more interesting course compared to a lot of our courses.
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I’m pretty sure mine would jump it. I don’t think it would read any different to them than a sharks tooth type fence. They don’t compute that as being a giant monster face the way a human would! 😉
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Henry is much braver than Val! Maybe I’m just used to ring babies who look at a new box of flowers funny. Lol.
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Hands down the most beautiful cross-country course in the world. Definitely on my bucket list to visit someday!
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I WANT TO JUMP THE SPIDER SO FREAKIN BAD.
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WOW those fences are phenomenal!
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I don’t know if my horse would spook at these, but I definitely would…
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Fantastic!!!!!!!!
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Those jumps are so rad! ❤
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XC jumps are so cool!
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