Text © World of Showjumping

Some might argue that Scott Brash’s sensational 10-year-old mare Hello Folie (born Folie de Nantuel, Luidam x Diamant de Semilly – bred by Claire Gouin, owned by Lady Pauline Harris and Lady Pauline Kirkham) was the true star of the 2025 Longines FEI Jumping European Championship in A Coruña, Spain.

With her raw talent, overall feisty attitude and incredible acrobatics during the second day of jumping in A Coruña, the chestnut mare charmed everyone as she grew during the week-long competition – ending up playing one of the lead roles in her first ever FEI championship, finishing just 1.07 penalties away from the gold medal.

“She has just showed the world, I think, how talented she is,” Scott Brash said about Hello Folie after they had jumped home two silver medals. “I always felt that she is going to be a top, top, horse, but until they actually come and do it at this level, you don’t really know.”

To learn more about Folie’s journey towards stardom, World of Showjumping spoke with Scott Brash, as well as Marie Laure Deuquet from Elevage de Nantuel, Marc Dilasser – who bought Folie as a two-year-old from her breeders, and Shane Breen – who handed the chestnut mare over to Brash to create what looks destined to become an iconic partnership.

“Our stud was created around the mare Royaltie III (Kaolin de Lyre x Alize X) in the 1980s,” Marie Laure Deuquet, the daughter of Claire and Jacques Gouin, who founded Elevage de Nantuel, tells about the history of the successful French stud. “My father Jacques also acquired other mares which created very interesting maternal lines. Together with my two children Elliott and Arthur, I bought my father's stud farm in 2020, striving to continue to promote the Nantuel-name in the best national and international competitions.”

Folie's mother Thara Nantuel – a grand-daughter of Royaltie III – was a real warrior 

- Marie Laure Deuquet -

“Folie's mother Thara Nantuel – a grand-daughter of Royaltie III – was a real warrior and enabled my son Arthur to progress in the junior category,” Deuquet continues. “She had a lot of energy and a desire to do well, which she passes on to her foals. My father crossed her with Luidam, because he was looking for a good son of Quidam de Revel. Folie has always been a very expressive mare with lots of energy and character, but not always very sociable with other horses. She has a very similar temperament as Thara and Océane de Nantuel, Thara's sister.”

“We jumped Folie for the first time at the age of two with Marc Dilasser, who wanted to buy a foal from Thara following the Fences Auction in 2015 where our stallion Candy de Nantuel had caused a sensation as a three-year-old and was sold to GFE,” Deuquet tells. “Folie understood the game straight away, showing the same energy and elasticity that we see today with Scott. As a youngster, she always jumped very high though and had to learn to measure out her efforts.”

Folie understood the game straight away, showing the same energy and elasticity that we see today with Scott

- Marie Laure Deuquet -

“Folie is not our first five-star horse, but she makes us dream,” Deuquet says. “She's ridden by one of the best riders in the world and their connection is a sight to behold. Folie is really the description we would give of the modern top-level horse we wanted to produce. She was very lucky to fall into the right stables at the right time: Marc did an extraordinary job of training her before she went to Shane Breen, who preferred to send her to Scott. Their two silver medals at the European Championships, after winning her first five-star Grand Prix at the start of the year and doing her first Nations Cup in France, make us – especially my father – very happy. We never expected this; Folie has surpassed our expectations.”

For both Marc Dilasser and Shane Breen, it was Folie’s full-brother Candy de Nantuel that led them to the chestnut mare. Candy de Nantuel – by now a well-known stallion in both breeding and sport – was acquired by the GFE in 2015, and went on to be produced by Thomas Rousseau, before Penelope Leprevost continued to develop him all the way up to five-star level.

When I saw Folie jump, it was impossible to ignore her

- Marc Dilasser -

“I had fallen in love with Candy when I saw him as a three-year-old,” Dilasser explains. “His breeders at Elevage de Nantuel are very good friends of mine, so I told them that if they ever had another sibling of Candy, they should let me know. For me, the mobility Candy had in the back was unusual. He is so strong, yet supple – and I think it comes from Quidam, another horse I love.”

When Folie was two, Dilasser bought her. “When I saw Folie jump, it was impossible to ignore her,” he recalls. “I had to find people to help me buy her, because she was not cheap. I bought her with Kreisker Stud and Start Up Stable, and that is how our story began.”

“As a young horse, Folie was a super nice mare with lots of blood and a bit of character,” Dilasser tells. “She is a lovely mare, and a real fighter. Her only challenge as a young horse was that she would jump a 50 centimetres fence as a 1.50m fence – always. It was impossible for her to do less. We took our time and jumped very small fences, with no pressure, so that she would stay quiet and confident on the fences."

Her only challenge as a young horse was that she would jump a 50 centimetres fence as a 1.50m fence – always

- Marc Dilasser -

"I started to compete her myself when she was six, and she always jumped clear. She did not compete much though, because I really wanted to take care of her. She jumped so high that I was terrified that she could injure herself.”

From she was young, Folie attracted attention wherever she went. “Everybody was asking about her, but in the end, nobody wanted to buy her,” Dilasser says. “People kept questioning her front legs, her scope, her size… Big names tried her, but did not believe in her enough. I tried to find someone help to secure her for me, but I didn't succeed. I have worked with Shane Breen for a long time, so I asked him to come and jump her at home. He bought Folie when she was seven.”

“Marc Dilasser sent me a video of Folie when she was two years old. She was jumping in an indoor, just a small fence, but the way she jumped it was unbelievable,” Shane Breen recalls about the first time he laid eyes on Folie. “Marc knew how much I liked Folie’s full-brother Candy; he had been bidding on him for me in the Fences Auction – that is why he sent me the video of Folie. However, I didn't have time then to go and see her, so Marc and a friend of his bought her.”

The way she propelled herself into the air was abnormal

- Shane Breen -

Eventually, Shane went to try Folie and ended up buying her when she was seven. “I thought she was pretty amazing. She was quite interesting to ride, she had a lot of blood and her own way of doing things, but when you got to the jump, it was like there was a springboard in front of each fence,” Breen tells about the trial. “The way she propelled herself into the air was abnormal. It was because of the jump that you kind of accepted everything else.”

“I remember one day doing a jump-off with her, there was quite a tight turn. In the air, I was thinking about doing the turn – and she was already doing it,” Breen tells about his time with Folie. “She was very, very reactive and I think that's what makes her a real fighter. She's very strong minded, a real athlete and a real winner. She's naturally quick, she’s got incredible scope and she is unbelievably careful. She's just a real sport horse. And when you see her offspring, she is also a great mother: Loveur de Startup and Let’s Go de Startup – two of Folie’s sons – are both approved stallions.”

As Breen himself needed to take a step back from showing to recover from an injury, he sent Folie to Brash – initially to show her for a few weeks. “I've known Scott for many years, and he’s a very good friend of mine. He's an absolute professional and a top-class horseman,” Breen says. “I called Scott to know if he would take Folie to some shows while I took some time off. I thought he would be a really good fit to Folie. Scott took her to some shows and when I was back competing, we actually did a Grand Prix together in Chard, where he won with Folie, and I was second. We had been in discussions about whether Scott’s owners would buy Folie for him and eventually they did.”

Folie is fantastic, she's opinionated and she's a fighter – she's a hell of a horse

- Shane Breen -

For Breen, it has been a joy to witness Brash and Folie forming such a brilliant partnership. “I'm very proud and delighted,” he says. “With the businesses that we have – the Breen Auction, and the Brilliance Auction with William Funnell and Roger McCrea – I enjoy selling horses. I get a real kick out of watching them go on and be really successful. It's not that I look at it and think ‘oh that could have been me’. I'm very proud that the horses go well for the next owner. Folie is fantastic, she's opinionated and she's a fighter – she's a hell of a horse. Scott does a great job riding her because she's not simple, she takes a bit of riding. They're a great partnership, and like all great success stories are; a horse finds a rider, a rider finds a horse – and it is magical to watch.”

Scott Brash first spotted the remarkable mare when she was six, while Dilasser was competing her in Fontainebleau. “I went to watch, and I remember really liking her, but I just didn't do anything about it back then,” Brash recalls. “It’s funny how it has come about and that we have ended up together.”

“Shane bought Folie from Marc probably a year or so after I had first seen her,” Brash continues. “Shane and Michael Quirk both told me about her, and that she maybe could suit me.”

She is a typical chestnut mare, she doesn't want you to tell her what to do

- Scott Brash -

From day one, Folie has been very careful, and Brash has been thoughtful in the process of building her up the levels. “She has a technique of being quite long in front, but she is very careful,” he explains. “With these kind of horses, it's important not to overface them or bring them up too quick. I jumped national shows and took Folie out to a few two-star shows, taking my time producing her. In the beginning, you maybe would have questioned if she had the last scope, but when they're careful and want to do it as much as she does it's amazing what they can do as long as you take your time and produce them in the right way. Now, she's confident and it feels like she has great scope.”

“She is a typical chestnut mare, she doesn't want you to tell her what to do,” Brash describes Folie’s spicy personality. “She's got her own ideas, but within reason. She's quite lazy at home when you're working her, she can't really be bothered and doesn't feel like she needs to work. She loves her food, loves going out in the paddock – she's a great horse to look after. When you enter the ring, she comes alive and is keen to get on with the job.”

Brash started the year with Folie in Doha, Qatar. “To start jumping at a bigger height while being in the same ring all the time, helped her grow in confidence at a new level,” he explains. “I think going to Doha was a good experience for her. At the start of the year, I sort of felt like I had two very good 10-year-old mares in Folie and Hello Mango. That was one of the reasons I went to Doha, to produce them further. Folie won her first five-star Grand Prix there, but I wouldn't say I had the European Championships in my head for her back then. All I was focused on was trying to produce her and my other horses in the best way we saw fit.”

All I was focused on was trying to produce her and my other horses in the best way we saw fit

- Scott Brash -

As the year went on, Folie kept improving. “Seeing how well she grew into the higher level made me think that doing the Europeans could actually be a good thing in the process of building her up,” Scott says. “However, it wasn’t until after La Baule I was more certain about it. After La Baule, I decided Folie should go, and made a nice plan for her – or what I thought was the right thing to do. We took her to Aachen, and she jumped small classes there before going to A Coruña.”

Watching Folie and Brash at the 2025 Europeans, it seemed Brash left A Coruña with a different horse than he had arrived with; Folie grew into her role as first lady within a week. “That's the thing about championships,” Brash says. “Sometimes a championship can make a horse, I've seen it in the past. When Sanctos went to London in 2012, he came out a better horse – and that’s how I am feeling with Folie as well.”

Sometimes a championship can make a horse

- Scott Brash -

“Day one went to plan,” Brash analyses the week at Casas Novas that saw him and Folie jump home two silver medals. “I think the whole world knows what happened on the second day… She coped amazing through that triple and then carried on the rest of the round like nothing had happened. To come out the next day when it was even bigger and harder, that's where the test really was because of what happened the day before. Jumping that round as well as she did, I think that shows how confident she is right now and how much she wants to do the job. That was a great feeling for me to have.”

“However, I feel like there were things that were not great throughout the week as well, and there is a lot we can practise,” Brash points out. “She certainly proved that she can do it, and I feel like we're in a very good place coming out of A Coruña. However, there are still improvements that we can make.”

“I am so happy that Folie ended up with Scott,” Marc Dilasser says. “I think there are not many riders in the world who would be able to ride her at this level. At 1.50m for sure, but 1.60m and a championship is something else. Scott accepts everything about her, her front legs, her balance… They just make a great couple – and I think it's beautiful to see.”

“I think that with these kind of mares, horses that have top quality, you have to take your time when they are young and go slowly,” Dilasser continues. “Folie didn't go to the young horse finals because she was not ready for that. Some horses might be able to do it all, but I think that everything you take from the horses when they are young, you don't get back. I think Folie could be out of the sport by now if we would have tried to push her too early.”

“I believe Scott and Folie will become an iconic couple in our sport in the coming years. They are a couple that could win everything,” Dilasser predicts – and who would argue with that?

23.9.2025 No reproduction of any of the content in this article will be accepted without a written permission, all rights reserved © World of Showjumping.com. If copyright violations occur, a penalty fee will apply.