From Thursday 22 to Sunday 25 October 2026, the Domaine de Sers in Pau hosts the Pau Five Star, the only five-star three-day event (CCI5*-L) held in France and one of just seven in the world. Dressage runs on Thursday afternoon (free entry) and Friday, the cross-country starts at 11.30am on Saturday 24th, and the final showjumping phase is at 2.45pm on Sunday 25th. One statistic hangs over this year’s edition: no French rider has won since Thibault Fournier in 2018, seven editions in a row taken by British and New Zealand riders.
Pau Five Star 2026: the day-by-day schedule at the Domaine de Sers
The schedule published by the organiser (Centaure Events, together with the volunteers of the Pau Events association) is described as provisional. It is no longer printed, for environmental reasons: it can be consulted on the event’s free mobile app.
- Thursday 22 October: 10am, first veterinary inspection of the horses; 2.30pm to 5.30pm, the first dressage tests. Free entry that day.
- Friday 23 October: dressage from 9.30am to 12 noon, then from 2pm to 5pm.
- Saturday 24 October: 11.30am, start of the cross-country; 6pm, international women’s horse-ball tournament; 8pm, a free equestrian show, the “Fire Horse Show”, followed by a bodega-style party open to everyone.
- Sunday 25 October: 10am, horse-ball; 11.45am, second horse inspection; 2.45pm, showjumping; 5pm, prize-giving.
The format is that of any three-day event: three tests ridden back to back by the same horse-and-rider combination, dressage, cross-country and showjumping, with the penalties added together. The winner is the one who finishes on the lowest total, late on Sunday afternoon.
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Pau Five Star 2026: France’s only 5* three-day event, with no French winner since 2018
The schedule, Saturday’s cross-country, and a streak: no French winner since 2018.
Why Pau is the only five-star three-day event in France
Five-star is the highest level of eventing set by the International Equestrian Federation (FEI). There are only seven a year: Badminton and Burghley in Great Britain, Kentucky and Maryland in the United States, Luhmühlen in Germany, Adelaide in Australia, and Pau. Pau closes the European five-star calendar, seven weeks after Burghley.
One clarification avoids a common misunderstanding. Until 2018, Pau was rated “four-star”, which was already the top level. The FEI renumbered its levels in 2019 and the old four-star became the five-star. Pau therefore did not change category; only the label did. The event, founded in 1990, is held at the Domaine de Sers, ten minutes from Pau Pyrénées airport.
The year 2020 gave Pau a place apart: with the calendar emptied by the health crisis, it was the only five-star run anywhere in the world that season. Britain’s Laura Collett won it from start to finish with London 52, a horse contesting his first event at this level, on a score of 21.3 penalties that was hailed at the time as a record.
French riders at Pau: four wins in a row, then nothing since 2018
Between 2015 and 2018, the Pau event was a French affair. Four editions, four different French winners, on four different horses:
- 2015: Astier Nicolas and Piaf de B’Neville.
- 2016: Maxime Livio and Qalao des Mers.
- 2017: Gwendolen Fer and Romantic Love.
- 2018: Thibault Fournier and Siniani de Lathus, ahead of Britain’s Gemma Tattersall, with another Frenchwoman, Clara Loiseau, third on Wont Wait.
Before that run, Nicolas Touzaint had won in 2007 with Hildago de l’Île. Since 2019, the roll of honour has featured only British and New Zealand riders:
- 2019: Tom McEwen (Great Britain) and Toledo de Kerser.
- 2020: Laura Collett (Great Britain) and London 52.
- 2021: Tim Price (New Zealand) and Falco.
- 2022: Jonelle Price (New Zealand) and Grappa Nera, ahead of France’s Karim Laghouag and Triton Fontaine.
- 2023: Rosalind Canter (Great Britain) and Izilot DHI.
- 2024: Caroline Harris (Great Britain) and D.Day.
- 2025: Tim Price (New Zealand) and Jarillo, on 30.9 penalty points, his second win at Pau.
Karim Laghouag’s second place in 2022 remains the best French result of the period. In 2025, the best-placed French riders were Benjamin Massié and Astier Nicolas, seventh and eighth, on horses that the specialist press described as still improving. It was a tight contest: the top ten were separated by about four points.
The Pau cross-country, eventing’s defining test: what we know about the course
The cross-country is the test that makes or breaks a result. For recent editions, the organiser describes a course of about 4 miles (6.5 km), with 45 jumping efforts over fixed obstacles and 11 minutes of galloping through the grounds of the Domaine de Sers, which spectators can follow on foot. The 2026 cross-country plan is not yet online: the official website says it will be published shortly before the event.
The 2025 edition gives an idea of how selective it is. Of 53 combinations at the start, 39 completed the event; the cross-country cost eight eliminations and two withdrawals, and four more horses dropped out at the later inspections. The 2025 course was designed by Yann Royant; the 2026 course designer has yet to appear on the organiser’s website.
- The dressage score: the judges’ marks are converted into penalty points. The lower the better, and it is the starting point for everything that follows.
- A clear cross-country round: 20 penalties at the first refusal, 40 at the second at the same fence, elimination at the third. A fall by the rider also means elimination.
- The cross-country time: every second over the optimum time costs 0.4 of a point. At this level, finishing “inside the time” is rare and decisive.
- Freshness the next day: a horse that has galloped for eleven minutes must go back in front of the vets on Sunday morning. At the slightest doubt about its condition, it does not run again.
- The showjumping: 4 penalties for each fence down, plus time penalties. A single rail is often enough to cost a place on the podium.
- Consistency: Pau is won by dropping little over three days, rarely by one single feat.
The horse inspection, the stage of the Pau event that the public overlooks
Twice during the event, on Thursday at 10am and again on Sunday at 11.45am, each horse is presented in hand at the trot, on a hard surface, in front of a ground jury and vets. The aim is to check that it is fit to continue. The Sunday inspection is the most closely watched: it comes the day after the cross-country, when fatigue and small knocks show. A horse judged unfit is withdrawn, even if it was leading.
For spectators, it is also the moment to see the horses up close, without tack, with their riders in smart everyday clothes. In 2025, two combinations were withdrawn at this final inspection, including one of Jonelle Price’s horses.
Getting to the Pau Five Star: reaching the Domaine de Sers, shuttles and horse-ball
The Domaine de Sers runs alongside the Bordeaux road (D834), north of Pau. From the A64 motorway, take exit 10, signed for the airport. The visitor car park is free, on rue des Brannes, and free shuttles reach the site in three minutes; the organiser makes them compulsory on weekdays, as there is no safe pedestrian route. Bus lines 6, 10, 16 and 17 serve the “Domaine de Sers” stop. Dogs are welcome, kept on a lead at all times, and the site is accessible to visitors with reduced mobility.
Around the arenas, a village of 120 exhibitors offers riding equipment, clothing and food, with pony rides for children. The international women’s horse-ball tournament pits the best national teams against each other over two rounds, on Saturday evening and Sunday morning. Ticket prices for Friday to Sunday are listed on the official ticket office; only Thursday is announced as free entry.
What we still do not know about the riders at the Pau Five Star 2026
As of 11 October 2026, the list of entries has not been published on the official website: we therefore do not yet know which French riders will try to end the streak, or whether Tim Price will come to defend his title with Jarillo. The cross-country plan and the name of its designer are not yet known either. Finally, late-October weather at the foot of the Pyrenees can change the going, and with it the difficulty of the cross-country, from one day to the next. We will update this article with the results after Sunday 25 October.
Official Pau Five Star website (the “Event”, “Visitors”, “Cross-country” and “Showjumping” pages, consulted on 11 October 2026); International Equestrian Federation (eventing rules); the event’s roll of honour as recorded by Wikipedia and L’Équipe (2022 edition); NZ Equestrian and Horsesport (report on the 2025 edition); Eventing Nation and The Irish Field (2020 edition). Equirider is not affiliated with the organiser, the FEI or the riders named.
To understand the discipline before heading to Pau, our guide to eventing explains the three tests and the levels, and our piece on cross-country and its fixed obstacles shows what the horse faces. If you ride out across country yourself, compare riding airbag vests and body protectors of the kind worn by cross-country riders. To find a riding centre near Pau, our equestrian directory for the Pyrénées-Atlantiques lists 104 establishments. And for the autumn’s other great five-star, read our article on the Burghley favourite and her home-bred horse, or discover horse-ball, on the programme for the Pau weekend.
