Crème de la crème at Chantilly

The next stop for the Global Champions Tour will be Chantilly, renowned for its love of horses, where everything – but absolutely everything – is built with them in mind. Every year approximately 3000 horse pass through the training centre to work on the perfect sand and fields.     North of Paris, at the foot of a castle, a short distance from the superb Grand Stables, built in the 18th century by a descendant of Louis XIV, is the location for the French leg of the Global tour, where the horse museum established in 1982 by Yves Bienaimè is situated. Riders who have already announced they will be present are: Edwina Tops Alexander, Alvaro De Miranda, Steve Guerdat and Pius Schwizer for Switzerland, the Germans Christian Ahlmann, Ludger Beerbaum and Hans-Dieter Dreher, Spain’s Sergio Alvarez Moya and from the hosts, Bost, Delaveau, Delestre, Leprevost and Staut. For Team GB there will be Brash, Ben Maher, Nick Skelton and Michael Whitaker, for the Irish, Denis Lynch and Cian O’Connor while for the Dutch, Marc Houtzager, Gerco Schroder, Harrie Smolders and Maikel van der Vleuten. Not forgetting, Sweden’s Bengtsson and the winner in Estoril Henrik von Eckermann and the Americans Kent Farrington, Reed Kessler, Laura Kraut, Beezie Madden and Richard Spooner. www.globalchampionstour.com