From zero to the Olympics in two years – meet the mare who can ‘piaffe and passage in a headcollar’ for a junior rider

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Published In Features
Olympic dressage: Alexandre Ayache riding Jolene for France
(Image credit: Peter Nixon)

There was a lot of pressure on the home nation at Paris 2024. While France is known for their eventers and showjumpers – who duly delivered with team silver and bronze – their Olympic dressage hopes were more sketchy. They have not won a medal since gold in 1948 in London.

But their trajectory is now on the rise again. The team of Alexandre Ayache, Corentin Pottier and Pauline Basquin not only qualified for the team final, but finished seventh. And Pauline was placed 16th individually.

Martha Terry
Martha Terry
Features editor

Martha is an experienced journalist who is mad-keen on horses and dogs. Her reporting CV includes the Paris Olympics, European championships, Aachen World Equestrian Festival and World Cup finals. After growing up with assorted liver and white springer spaniels, she enjoyed 14 years with two rescue dogs. Now, her constant companion is Fidget, an extremely energetic and habitually muddy black and white springer. Martha has written on topics as diverse as a top horse’s clone to the best GPS trackers for dogs, as well as equestrian and rural matters for Country Life, The Field, The Times, The Spectator and The Telegraph alongside Horse & Hound.