The first success of the Haras de Florys was clearly the birth and then the approval in Ireland of Ialoubet de Florys, the only pony son in the world of the famous Galoubet A. In 1999, to send a male – with an unattractive riding horse name – to a vague acquaintance in a foreign country was a mad risk and a real adventure! Ialoubet was presented as a 3 year old at the Irish approval commission and was approved for life with the highest score of all the year’s candidates. He was broken there the following year, following which he stood at stud and he returned to France where he started competing as a 5 year old. At 6 years old he finished 7th in the final with a rider far younger than all the other riders placed ahead of her. 

The second success is without doubt Jimmerdor de Florys’ first participation in Grand Prix and his participation as a 7 year old at the French Championships in Grand Prix Elite.  With effect from the following year he was one of the pillars of the French team – a place he has not relinquished up until now. He finished 3rd in the French Championships in Grand Prix Elite and achieved the best French performance during the European Championships at Pratoni del Vivaro, despite his size which had always undoubtedly been a disadvantage for him in relation to that of his opponents on the French and international circuit.

At the CSIP at Bois le Roi in 2005 the Marseillaise rang out for the two brothers: Ialoubet won the petit Grand Prix on the Sunday morning and Jimmerdor, the Grand Prix in the afternoon.  A fantastic day for the Haras de Florys and a great tribute to the dam of these two stallions, the fabulous Nickie!

Ialoubet de Florys and Mon Linaro de Florys were approved the same day at Lamotte- Beuvron. As an anecdote, Mon Linaro was first of all adjourned, and then when I returned someone told me that there had been a mistake with the calculation of his scores and he had been approved after all! Two males of my stud were PFS approved, from different dams and origins, then afterwards Galienny d’Haryns, Hennyblue La Claie and Jimmerdor de Florys. I was blown away! But it doesn’t stop there, because…

At the approval session of Français de selle stallions in August 2006 at Lamotte-Beuvron, the Commission accepted all five of the candidates presented by the Haras de Florys!
- Montot Nabor La Claie de Florys
- Meeping Cha de Florys
- Lennicha de Florys
- Micky de Florys
- Narcos de Florys

Meeping Cha de Florys won the 6 years old D Championships in 2006. Never Glove de Florys was crowned Vice-Champion of the 6 year old D’s the following year.

During the 2006/2007 season for the first time, Jimmerdor de Florys was ranked first on the computer list for Grand Prix, a position that right up until the end he shared with no one; for several weeks Meeping Cha de Florys held the second place!

The 2007 French Championships will undoubtedly remain in the annals of the Haras de Florys, despite still being a young stud having bred only a modest number of ponies. Jimmerdor was crowned Vice-Champion of France, show jumping in Grand Prix Elite (2.5 points away from the gold medal! ). Meeping Cha was placed fifth (and joint first with Jimmerdor in the finals), a position which no other 7 year old has held up to the present day. Then Mon Nantano de Florys won the French Championships eventing in D1 Elite (with the top score in dressage, including Grand Prix Elite as it was the same test) as well as the French Dressage Championships in D2 (the objective of a D1 Elite title in this discipline having been abandoned during the season due to the clash of dates with the D1Elite eventing Championships). Finally, the dam of Mon Nantano, Ira Glove de Florys, was crowned Champion of France in the D3P Benjamin category. What a harvest!

The 2007/2008 season saw no less than five ponies from Florys on the Grand Prix circuit: Jimmerdor de Florys, Lennicha de Florys, Montot Nabor La Claie de Florys and Meeping Cha de Florys in show jumping and Mon Nantano de Florys eventing.

In this way, of the five M’s (born in 2000) D ponies bred at the Haras de Florys, no less than three are competing at CSI(O)P/CCIP level: Meeping Cha de Florys, Montot Nabor La Claie de Florys et Mon Nantano de Florys! And each of the three has very different maternal bloodlines to from the others.

How satisfying it was, when working on the 2007 pony breeders awards for the breeder’s bible the Hors Series de l’Elevage 2008, to find out that the Florys had won the title, having been placed 10th in 2004 and 4th in 2006, amidst long-established studs and/or studs producing substantial numbers of ponies. The three top products of the 2006/2007 competition season who allowed us to reach the first place were the Français de Selle stallions Meeping Cha de Florys, IPO 167, Jimmerdor de Florys, IPO 156 and Mon Nantano de Florys, IPC 153.

If the 2007 Championships remain in the annals of the Haras de Florys, those of 2008 left nothing wanting: Jimmerdor de Florys was crowned, with Baptiste Lecompte, 13 years old, Champion of France show jumping in the As Excellence (Ace Excellence), with a total of 4.25 faults over four rounds, when the second and third had clocked up 20 faults!!! The same day, Leeping Why de Florys  won the D2 Excellence show jumping at the French Championships with Maxime Bidaut, the only ones with four clear rounds during the competition.  It was certain to have been a Championship within reach, as the couple had started the season successfully in D1 and D1Elite, before the pony injured herself and had to take three months of work from February to April 2008. And yet, if there had been a gold medal more or less in the bag it was that of Mon Nantano de Florys in the Championnat des As (Ace Championships) eventing.  The pony had won all the phases of the Tournée des As as well as the CCIP** at Moulins-Coulandan, but like all the other ponies in the French team for the European Championships at Avenches, they were not allowed to compete in the French Championships as the dates were, apparently, too close to those of the Europeans

“I dreamed that my life as a breeder would one day give me the chance to witness one of my ponies, why not a stallion, take part at a European Championships; the dream incredibly became reality more quickly than I could have imagined for one of the first ponies bred by me, an approved stallion no less”.  For the European Championships at Avenches, in July 2008, two of the stud’s stallions were part of, pillars of, the French team.  Jimmerdor de Florys in the show jumping and Mon Nantano de Florys in the eventing.  Extraordinary…! What can I add, after an individual silver medal for Mon Nantano and 11th place in the final for Jimmerdor at his first participation at these Championships with his 13 year old rider?

The 2009 French Championships blew me away once again with the second consecutive win of Baptiste Lecomte and Jimmerdor de Florys* in the French Championships for As Excellence: not a single pole fell during the four rounds of their competition. Thanks to this feat they form part of the history of these Championships and join the three other couples who have been crowned multiple French Champions at this level since they started in 1992: Simon Delestre/Panama du Cassou in 1994 and1995, Adeline Lemens/Martinique in 2000 and 2001 and Julia Dallamano/Black Devil in 2005 and in 2006. During the same period the niece of Politica de Florys*, having won as a 6-year-old in D2P and D1P, finished 6th in the French Championships show jumping in D1 P, being the only 6-year-old finalist!

I was once again a happy breeding during the 2009 Cycle Classique finals thanks to:
- Politica de Florys, 0+0+4, 3rd of the Championships,
- Relcome de Florys, Vice-champion of the 4-year-old D’s,
- and Quettino de Florys SL, 4+0, rounding off a season with 7 clears from 7 rounds.

2010: annus horribilis!

We all know that breeding is a thankless vocation, built on great successes, of pride and joy, in my case at least, but also of let downs, disappointments and pitfalls – even more so in the breeding of sport ponies which will always be in a primarily amateur context because the main players in the production of sport ponies tend to be children or teenagers.

In the meteoric rise of my Florys stud, 2010 was characterised by a run of bad luck:

→ Mon Nantano de Florys* was eliminated, no more no less, on the cross country at the French Championships, ending a season where a place on the French team for the European Championships at Bishop Burton was seriously within reach and sanctioned by the stubbornness of a short-sighted father of one of the riders, far too sure of himself, and my nauseating frustration at having cost this stallion no less than two years in his sporting career at the top level;

→ Jimmerdor de Florys*, had never been in better form at the start of the season as he was in the autumn of 2009, but our hopes for a great European Championships in Great Britain for the couple he had formed with a mature Baptiste Lecompte were brutally ended at the beginning of 2010 when his partner was injured, stopping him from riding from one day to the next.. and possibly for good. I had to urgently find a new rider close to the yard where the pony was based as I didn’t want to move him: Antoine Laye therefore took the reins of the pony, but very young, without experience at the top level and awkwardly lacking in some of the basic riding skills, he had difficulty in forming a partnership as quickly, as Baptiste had done two-and-a-half years before him, despite his instinct: a 9th place in the Tournée des As at the French Championships showed what needed to be done to for the couple to become competitive;

→ Meeping Cha de Florys*, for the first time in his career, suffered an injury to his hind leg and had to stop work for five months, from April to September. For the third time since he parted with Syndie Rigaut, we made a mistake finding the right rider and home for him. What a waste and what a tragedy for all the time lost for this crack, it is awful to think of all the alternatives that were put forward at the time and which, with the benefit of hindsight, could have been better solutions;

→ Montot Nabor la Claie de Florys*, on his comeback to success in D1P and D Elite, started going less well, moving with discomfort, and then refusing when jumping or running off as if to avoid pain, when we discovered that a ligament on his hock was catching strongly and more frequently (to the point of finding him in his box with his hind leg stuck). He had to be operated on and was off work between June 2009 and January 2010, returning late in the season and unable to take part in the 2010 French Championships, the path to D1P, D Elite and even GP from the end of the year;

→ Leeping Why de Florys*, who should have been the future replacement for her dam Why Not at stud, died of colic several months after arriving in her new yard. A gaping hole from start to finish, a total rethink about the continuity of Why Not’s line and immense grief and upset were my feelings at that time;

→ Olympique de Florys*, despite going clear in the second round of the D Elite at the French Championships and the talent of his rider Camille Chauffard, confirmed his painful shyness in the first round which, at the totting up, relegated him to 46th place in the Championships;

→ Naborina de Florys*, I decided to stop in August 2010, confronted with the obvious truth that her chances of starting over sufficiently well to one day access the top level were very slim. There goes another whose career has totally passed her by. But the future looks bright for the stud career of the only living full sister of Nabor ….* (lien vers poulains attendus en 2011)

→ Texterina de Florys remained barren after five seasons exploited in the Netherlands to the famous KWPN stallion Heartbreaker… What a disappointment, despite the risk of failure given his notorious infertility problems, which his stud manager didn’t conceal, not to see this dream crossing work out;

→ Dolie*, having finally fallen in foal to Top Nonstop SL*, contracted uevitis, practically lost her eye and despite the care of the vet who ended up healing her, had undoubtedly suffered too much and ended up aborting;

And that’s the way it went, the disappointments which punctuated the year of 2010, even if at the same time there were certain satisfactions along the way: the lovely performance of Politica de Florys* at 7-years-old in the D Elite at the French Championships which had nearly ended in a podium place with Arthur Bénard (10th place in the final), the 15th place of Narcos de Florys* who jumped well in the D1 P at the French Championships, the 8th place of Ira Glove de Florys* in the D2 P Cadet 1 at the French Championships and the results of all my ponies in the Cycle Classique finals* (lien vers ces résultats).

Back up.