Our last day in France went a little off script. The last farm we were supposed to visit was a lot further away than we originally thought, and the opposite direction of Paris, where we had to catch a train that evening. Given the drive, we thought that heading over there would be cutting it uncomfortably close timing wise to make our train, so we opted to hit a couple local tack shops instead. Just… you know… to browse…

The first one we went into was one that we just happened to drive past on the way out of town. It was more high end, and there was nothing in there that I really just had to have. When we got back in the car I googled for more tack shops and found another one just a half mile away, Equip’horse. Don’t mind if we do! That one had a little bit of everything – a custom saddler, barn supplies, tack, clothing, outbuildings, etc. A total one stop shop, and it had some more unique items I hadn’t seen yet, and good prices.

The guy working in the store that came up to help us spoke English (which was good, since the only thing I mastered in our 3 days in France was how to say “I don’t speak French”) and he seemed oddly fascinated by us and by Texas. This was kind of a common theme when someone asked where we were from. “Ah, Tex-asss, what is it like?”. The guy at the tack shop literally offered to trade places with me and go live in Texas and me stay in France. Bonkers.

It was a pretty cool store, having everything you could possibly need right there in one place. It was like if Tractor Supply was geared towards english riding and only had horse stuff. Out in the parking lot they had arena drags and fence materials (all wood, naturally, no t-posts to be found) and sheds. There was one in particular that caught our eye enough to walk over and take pictures of it. It was a double sided shelter, with an area in the middle to put a round bale or two that horses could access from each side. I think I’d like it more if the back was open, so horses didn’t get trapped in the back, but it was a cool concept I haven’t seen before. The hay is protected in it’s center area.

I did not escape the store totally unscathed, but we were worried about our baggage weight limitations (and uh… we’d already had to buy another bag to put all the Burghley purchases in) so we kept it to small things.

It was all cheap, and it all stuffed into my existing bags, so… I’m gonna say none of it counts. I will have to do a post with all the stuff I bought between France and Burghley and go through it more in depth, but that’ll have to wait.

After we left that tack shop we headed back to Paris, and our nav system happened to take us right through that super ridiculous giant roundabout around AdT. It was total chaos and pandemonium. Cars everywhere. Everyone going in a different direction. It was hilarious. Could not stop laughing.

From there we took the chunnel train back to London, then walked to our hotel for the night. Getting all our bags up the extremely steep and narrow stairs was like 3 days worth of cardio in and of itself. That was perhaps the only fleeting moment where I might have regretted all the Burghley purchases. The next morning we took the Underground to Victoria Station, then went up and got on another train line to Gatwick airport. I think the biggest accomplishment of the entire trip is how many trains we had to take, yet never once got lost. Small miracles.

Yesterday was long, between the trains and all the airport check in and security, and then a 10 hour flight home, customs, waiting for bags, driving home at rush hour, etc. I forgot how god awful hot it was here, and I was already regretting my choice to come back before we’d even made it off the shuttle to get to my truck. It’s not any cooler than it was when we left. Gross. Texas does have one thing going for it that Europe can’t match though…

Mexican food. Which was our first stop, naturally.

Although I have mixed feelings about being home, I am really pumped to go see my boys today. Almost two weeks is a long time to be without them. We’ll see how Presto’s foot is looking and make a decision next week about whether or not he’s going to Championships. Plus of course I get to try all of their new stuff on them. Won’t they be so excited?

This trip was a complete blast, and we got to do and see a little bit of everything. I have at least one more recap post I want to do, plus Michelle is going to upload all the nice pictures off of her camera, so stay tuned.

I’m officially at the point where I’ve seen so many horses in the past week that my head is spinning. Which isn’t a bad problem to have, really. I’ve petted more foals in the past two days than most people will ever pet in their lifetime, so… winning?

Yesterday we met up with another French friend (Usandro’s owner) and started the day with a Selle Francais foal show. The judge was none other than Bernard from Haras de Brullemail, where we had just been the day before to see Jaguar Mail. He judged conformation, watched them walk straight on and away, then they were turned loose to trot and canter. Mostly canter… this is a jumping registry after all. Some of them had a pretty cute little trot in there too though.

The majority of the foals were embryo transfer from sport mares, which this particular farm had plenty of. You couldn’t throw a rock without hitting a 1.60m showjumper. The depth and quality of the mare band is definitely top notch.

We also got to go out in the fields and see dozens upon dozens of offspring by a lot of different stallions, from foals up to 3 years. I love looking at the offspring like this, it tells you a lot, especially seeing so many in one place. I can’t even remember them all but just off the top of my head we saw offspring by: Diamant de Semilly, Alicante, Verdi, Luigi, Apardi, Untouchable, Vigo, Cardento, Tornesch, Vagabond, Malito, Candy de Nantuel, Emerald, Cicero, Kannan, Chacco Rouge, Tangelo, Armitages Boy, Quabri d’Isle, Urano de Cartigny, Qlassic Bois Margot, Topinambour, Quantum, Lauterbach, Cornado II, Casallo Z. We saw multiple offspring from several of them, so it was nice to be able to compare and contrast them side by side. My personal favorites of the day were a 3yo Verdi filly and a 2yo Tornesch filly. They looked like they wanted to event.

I will also say, if you’re ever feeling unloved or uninteresting, just walk yourself out into a field of 2yo colts. I have never been more popular in my life than in these past couple days, particularly with the 2yo colts. Having a 2yo colt at home, I can totally see why that particular group is always the most curious and full of pests. You go anywhere near them and they come at you in a swarm, wanting to climb in your lap or eat anything they can put in their mouth. They are entertaining, even though they have no idea what personal space is.

We also saw the stallion Urano de Cartigny, another horse that jumped through 1.60m with Penelope Leprevost. I didn’t get a photo of him, but what a CUTE dude, almost ponyish looking in the face with a big bushy mane. He didn’t seem to appreciate me saying that, I’m relatively certain he called me something terrible in French.

There was also a cute 3yo stallion who is going for licensing soon, by Cicero out of a For Pleasure mare. Basically, name a top bloodline for showjumpers and this farm probably has it.

Today we have one more stop at a breeding farm this morning, then sadly we have to start making our way home. We return to rental car in Paris this afternoon then get on the Chunnel train back to London, and our flight home is tomorrow. Sad times. I could keep living this life for quite a while I think.

Yesterday was freaking awesome. Okay so this whole trip has been awesome but it’s possible that this was my favorite day so far.

We started in Le Mans, picking up ex-pat Mimi (y’all know her from her hilarious recreations of Presto pictures) along the way. She was vital to the day’s success, since she actually speaks French and has a clue about how things work around here. Mimi, you’re the best.

From there we went to The Stallion Company, where we saw Grafenstolz, Namelus R, and Quintero la Silla.

They were all lovely stallions, but we fell in love with the super cool character of Quintero. He seemed like a very kind boy, especially from the manager’s description of what he’s like in the barn. We also got to see a colt by him, which was a nice perk. Quintero is a big dude with lots of presence and so was the colt.

We also got to peek inside their lab and cold room, where we saw container upon container of frozen semen. Seriously, never seen so much in my life. Their worldwide operation is super legit.

From there we stopped at a store that Mimi insisted we had to see. It was just your basic run of the mill sporting goods chain store, but it has an EQUESTRIAN SECTION. That’s right y’all, two whole aisles of horse stuff right in the middle of all the other sports, and everything was cheap. It’s possible that I bought another pair of gloves. One can never have too many gloves, right?

Then we stopped at an awesome bakery in some other random little town, picking up a quiche and some cake/eclairs that were ridiculously to-die-for good.

THEN we were off to Haras du Feuillard, the home of (drumroll please) Presto’s sire Mighty Magic!

I was excited to finally see him in the flesh, after all these years of being a super fan, and boy did he not disappoint. Presto looks SO MUCH like him it’s almost spooky, and they both have the same goofy side eye and extreme mouthiness. I posted a video on my Instagram but here are a few screenshots to give you an idea. Look familiar?

It’s just crazy how similar they are, right down to the ever-present need to have something in their mouth. MM is beautiful, I was not disappointed.

We also asked to see his stablemate Cassitano, who I think is an interesting cross for a TB mare to make an eventer or to a dressage mare to add power/canter. He’s so correct, and jumped to 1.45m before switching to dressage and going to Grand Prix with a young rider. He can move, he can jump, he’s beautiful, and he has a great character. Loved him as well.

Mimi also made the mistake of asking to see the Mighty Magic x Welsh cross yearling, which was ADORABLE, and loved Mimi, so now we have to figure out how to crowdfund a baby pony for Mimi. His dam was 13.2h and jumped to 1.40m, how nuts is that?

After that we were back in the car and headed to Haras de Brullemail, where we were greeted by none other than Olympian Jaguar Mail. He went to the Hong Kong Olympics for showjumping before going on to sire 5* eventers as well as 1.60m jumpers. He is 82% thoroughbred and 100% gorgeous.

He was a very sweet boy, happy to see that we brought him an apple, and also happy to get lots of wither scratches. I loved his temperament, and he’s quite a good size and well put together. Another lovely stallion, and he looks great for a 22yo horse that had a big career himself.

We also got to see TONS of mares and foals and older offspring at Brullemail, it was like the pastures full of fantastic horses were never ending. We saw tons of 2yo colts, tons of foals, broodmares like Tresor Mail’s full sister, Jaguar Mail’s half sister, and Jaguar Mail’s dam. The owner Bernard is so knowledgeable about all of his horses and their bloodlines, and obviously proud of them. He should be. At one point Mimi was standing there in the middle of a sea of foals saying that if she got kicked in the head and died right there, she’d be ok with it because she was already in heaven.

Matriarch Elvira Mail, dam of Jaguar Mail and Katchina Mail. 27 years old!

We were at Brullemail forever, yet we still didn’t get to see all the horses. We had to cut it a bit short in order to get Mimi back to the train station in time. Which required some Formula 1 type driving from Michelle in our little Volkswagen Polo, which I thought was great fun. Mimi seemed a bit nervous. But hey, we got her there EARLY.

Thanks again to Mimi for all of her help, we had a fantastic day! Now Michelle and I are off to a foal show in Clarbec. Tough life…

Which day is the best day? Cross country day! The whole point of coming to Burghley is to see the biggest toughest XC that exists in the sport, and this year’s course certainly lived up to that reputation. Burghley is no freaking joke.

We started our day at the Leaf Pit, camping out there for a couple hours before the start to make sure we got a prime spot. We came equipped with mimosas and cheese and crackers, so we were happy. We watched the riders doing one last walk, plotting their lines and cementing their plans. Oh, and Michelle went back to grab a few more things for us (and other people) at the trade fair before the start, because that pile of stuff we had already accumulated on the living room floor of the Airbnb wasn’t big enough yet I guess. I’m proud of us, it was beautiful.

Soon enough the first horse was on course, and I was pretty freaking excited to be sitting at the bottom of the Leaf Pit, one of my favorite jumps in the sport, on a beautiful Saturday morning in England. That drop is so big, and the landing so downhill. We watched the first four horses hop through like it was a gymnastic before packing up and moving along the course. Our plan was to watch a handful at each of the major fences/combinations. Which… on this course was kind of all of the them.

The crowds were CRAZY, like multiply Kentucky by at least 3 and there you go. But it was surprisingly easy to get right up to the ropes, since almost everyone was traveling around the course from jump to jump like we were. All the pics in this post are from my very shitty cell phone camera, to give you an idea of proximity. I could have reached out and touched the horses a few times.

We watched a few go through Discovery Valley, and once Will had gone with Tight Lines, we moved along again, this time to the Trout Hatchery. One iconic fence after the other. We watched a few there, which had varying success. This was a course that definitely needed to be attacked confidently, and we were already seeing some horses that looked a little overfaced and some riding that wasn’t nearly positive enough. We stayed at the Trout Hatchery through Andrea Baxter, then moved along to The Maltings.

Those big open oxers and corners at the Maltings were definitely my least favorite on the walk, but I figured we might see a lot of people opting for a longer route. There were lots of options at that combination aside from the very difficult straight route. But no, most tried to ride it direct, and that didn’t work out so well for many of them. Almost everyone who had a problem, you could see it coming from at least the first fence of the combination, if not even earlier. Or they didn’t make the right decision in the line from the oxer to corner and got there on a half stride. I hate open corners and always will, but thank goodness for the frangible pins. We saw them break 3 times just in the first 6 horses we watched come through.

After that we moved along again, to the Rolex corners. We only saw a couple come through there, because everyone was getting caught out at either the trout hatchery or the Maltings. So we kept going along the course, stopping a couple more places along the way to watch a rider come through, before finally making our way to the Cottesmore Leap at the farthest end of the course. Where we sat for like half an hour and only had one horse make it that far. And then Liz hopped over that giant death trap like it was no big deal, and it was super anti-climactic.

By this point after listening to the announcer and getting an idea of what was happening, we figured that if we wanted to actually see anything, we should go back to the Maltings. So we hoofed it way back there, stopping along the way to watch Chris Talley come through the Rolex corners.

Then we just parked ourselves at the Maltings for the rest of the day, down by the big open corner of the direct route. From that angle it was easy to see exactly where things were going wrong for people. So many just made a bad turn from the second oxer to the corner. It seemed like the USA folks had mostly decided to go a slightly longer route, turning right after the second oxer to a different corner off a longer approach. It still caused it’s fair share of carnage, and I was kind of surprised to still see so few people opting for the easiest longest route. We only saw one. Therefore we also saw a whole lot of fence repair when people missed or tried something they shouldn’t have, and inevitably went crashing through yet again. It was a treat to see Gemma and Pippa and Ollie and Tim come through though… they made it look so easy. All class.

Burghley has always been a dream event for me, and it definitely did not disappoint. We had a great time, and WOW it is truly next level. I was sad to walk out of those gates after XC, not really ready for it all to be over. I’m not sure any other event will ever compare.

We had a total freaking blast, that’s for sure. And bought a ton of shit. For once I think Bobby bought as much if not more than I did. I have some pride in that. My job here is done.

On Sunday we packed up and left Peterborough to head back to London, and Bobby parted ways with us. He headed home, and we got on the Chunnel train to Paris. We were able to watch the showjumping on the train, so that worked out great. From Paris we rented a car and headed west, ending up in Le Mans for the night. Today we start the stallion and foal part of the trip, and I’m super excited.

Michelle got some really awesome Burghley photos on her camera, which we’ll upload when we get home. Here are some sneak previews though, with me just taking a picture of the camera’s view screen.

Things are gettin crazy up in here y’all.

So ANYWAY.

Our focus on Friday was the Young Event Horse Championships and stallion show. The British format is kind of similar to our own as far as judging criteria, but the format is a bit different. The arena has a dressage court, show jumps, and XC jumps set up in it, and the horses do all 3 phases back to back. Dressage test, then straight over to showjumping, with XC jumps at the end of the showjump course. After that they strip tack and judge confirmation. Each horse is in and out in about 10 minutes.

Each horse gets scored for those sections, then they bring the top 10 back in together to w/t/c while one of the judges (in this case Ian Stark) gives them a score for Suitability. Fun little byline, I happened to be sitting next to Eliza Stoddart‘s grandparents, who were super sweet and adorable. I texted a video I took of one of Eliza’s young horses (the above Ramiro B) to her grandmother.

From there Ian picks the top 3 to ride, and the horse’s rider hops down, Ian gets a leg up, and off he goes for a quick w/t/c. They had Ian outfitted with a microphone so he could talk about what he was feeling with each horse, and what he was looking for. Basically he wants one that feels balanced, elastic in its body, rideable, and with a desire to go forward. Each of the horses he chose to ride was quite different from each other, so it was interesting to hear what he had to say about each. The one that was my original favorite ended up 2nd, so I was happy about that.

What struck me the most during all of this was how absolutely PACKED the crowd was. The bleachers were full and it was standing room only, many people deep, all around the perimeter of the arena. Having been to the US championships at Fair Hill, where there are maybe 20 people watching, it blew me away. The people seemed mostly quite educated too, the comments and murmurs I was hearing were spot on. It made me a bit sad, knowing how little people care about these classes in the US. It’s a big deal here.

During the lunch break they had a stallion show, and I fully expected the stands to empty out. Yeah no. MORE people filled in.

I particularly wanted to see former 5* stallion Leprince des Bois, and was not disappointed. For a 20yo stallion that jumped around Badminton, Pau, Burghley, and Luhmuhlen, and THEN went on to win at the Young Rider level, he looks freaking amazing. Good mover, good type, lots of blood. We might have to use him next season.

After that we wandered over to dressage warmup to catch some of that. We got over there as Lauren was warming up on Vermiculous, at which point the skies opened up and it was blowing a gale. I was frozen. Luckily it passed through quickly, and the sun came out for the last group. We watched Pippa and Izzy and Ludwig and Ollie and Tim warm up, which was interesting. You saw everything from lots of long and low stretchy trot to people running through their tests over and over. Watching warmup is definitely more fun to me than watching the actual test.

Despite all the shopping that we did on the first day, we still managed to do some damage again. Not nearly as much, but we went back and got some more stuff. The prices are so good, and there’s just so much. I grabbed Henry a shipping halter like I got for Presto (it was $18, how could I not???), Bobby bought a hunt bridle, and Michelle got a couple halters and some gifts for friends.

The total pile that is accumulating on the living room floor in our flat is getting out of control. We’ve left it all there because every time we walk in the room it feels like Christmas all over again.

We finally got our very English dinner last night too, fish and chips. And peas I guess, which I don’t eat. The mushy peas looked even more disgusting. But the fish and chips were AMAZING, especially with the curry sauce. Then we found an ice cream shop and tore that shit up too.

Rough life y’all. Today is cross country (I’m literally sitting by the Leaf Pit as I type this, waiting for the start) which should be AWESOME. The course is huge. So freaking big and gnarly.

I’m posting a lot more pics and videos on my Instagram stories if you want to follow along over there! I’ll be adding things as the day goes along.