Over the barriers – Style – Kommersant

Last weekend in Paris, the show jumping competition Saut Hermes (“Jump of Hermes”) was held, which has been held annually by the famous French brand since 2010. The third time they were held in the temporary Grand Palace (Grand Palais Ephemere), which is built on the Champ de Mars opposite the Eiffel Tower.

Before the start of the competition, riders and riders lined up for an official photo on the field, still free of barriers that are placed by judges and created by Hermès decorators: there are Hermès’ signature H logos, and blue chess skates, and fragments of the facade of the headquarters of the house on Faubourg Saint Honoré.

Saut Hermes is not just a toy of a big rich brand. Or a toy to the extent that she generally loves fun and artistry. In fact, this is one of the stages of serious international competitions – the “grand slam” of show jumping. The Paris March days are rated five stars CSI5*, which guarantees the participation of the best athletes who earn points and places, delighting the audience. The arena for competitions is located in the main hall, where the bronze horseman, the hero of the First World Marshal Joffre, who has long settled in front of the building of the Military School, peers through the glass.

Jumping competitions have been held since the 19th century, they became an Olympic sport in 1900 at the second Games in Paris and have changed little since then. It is an eminently noble and traditional sport. The task of the riders is to overcome the chain of obstacles placed on the field. The winner is determined by the speed of passing the distance and the absence of penalty points. They are given for mistakes. There are fatal ones among them, for which you can fly out of the competition. If, for example, the rider violated the order of passing obstacles, did not stay in the saddle, or could not make the horse jump three times. There were practically no falls and blunders on Saut Hermes, and the participants scored a lot of penalty points – mainly for the bars dropped from obstacles. 4 points are deducted for hitting the top one, and no penalty for knocking down the bottom one.

Looking at the colored field, you understand why every now and then the stands freeze, holding their breath. The horse’s snoring and hoofbeats are heard, and sometimes the rider’s involuntary cry. Every jump is a test. The horse must gallop. This is the fastest run, almost 60 km/h. Imagine that you need to determine the direction in a split second, because the obstacles are not placed in a line. Understand which side to approach the fence. For this, obstacles are marked with colored flags: on the left – white, on the right – red. It is necessary to approach in the correct sequence to the desired number and, at the precisely chosen moment, spur the horse and send it into a jump.

In essence, not only riders compete on the field, but also horses. It is difficult to say which of them is more important – the winner of the first day Frenchman Julien Anquetin or his bay with a white “lantern” on his face Blood Diamond du Pont. “Everything depends on horses,” agrees my interlocutor, a rider with 20 years of experience. “You need to choose a horse that understands you and does not get angry with you. Some people enjoy working with women, and there are those who are more interested in male riders. It is said that in competition a horse thinks like a man. But she jumps, not me! I believe that the most successful rider wins because he can think like a horse.”

Quadrupeds are given royal honors here. Before the start of the show jumping, Axel Dumas, CEO of the brand, representative of the family of owners and the sixth heir of the founder of the house of Hermes, said that at this year’s competition they were seeing off the famous stallion Hermes Rayyan, who, under the saddle of the no less famous rider Simon Delestre, won Saut Hermes twice – in 2018 and 2019.

Saut Hermes is an excellent occasion for the brand to recall that it was born in the name of the horse, and horse harness items created its reputation. Hermes is still proud of its saddles, which are made by hand, 25 hours each. “It’s a long time,” says Dumas, “but we think it’s better to take your time, put your heart into the work and think about what we’re doing.”

Therefore, around the main arena in the Grand Palace, saddle masters settled down and showed that the brand remembers where it stands and even sits. A saddle is a special kind of luxury clothing, because it is intended not for patient fashion fans, but for restive horses.

It’s nice that Hermes decorates life not only with things, but also with hippy spring holidays, where everyone is a little horse and is very happy about it. “Horses are not an atavism, not a past that only competitions have left,” Axel Dumas told reporters. “At Saut Hermes we celebrate the unity of man and animal, an incredible fusion of beauty, pleasure and hard training. They teach us not to give in to an obstacle, not to bypass it, but to experience the joy of overcoming it.”

Alexey Tarkhanov