BY AURORE FAVRE; SOPHIE LEBEUF
PHOTOGRAPHY: SOYAYA EXQUIS; GENEVIÈVE DE SEPIBUS; PEG PRIVATE COLLECTION; ALBAN POUDRET; TEAM REPORTERS; BUJARD;

The French expression “sentir l’écurie”, which loosely translates into English as “to be on the home straight”, has its origins in the equestrian world and describes the moment when a horse instinctively quickens their step as they near home, in their case the “écurie” or “stable”.

It is an expression that describes the feeling we have when a goal is fast approaching, as we redouble our efforts to get there and our impatience grows. It could be used to encapsulate the mood in the air at the CHI Geneva when autumn arrives, although if we’re honest in this centenary year, the members of the organising committee have barely let up in their efforts to prepare an edition that will do justice to that auspicious landmark. One hundred years! One whole century! And yet the desire to keep doing better remains intact.
Not surprisingly, there is still a lot to sort out between now and December, though we handed over the reins to you to some extent in mid-September, when tickets went on sale. After all, you are the ones who decide if an edition is successful or not. And, after all, it is you we are waiting for to bring the magic to the CHI Geneva. And 2026 looks like being even more magical than usual, judging by the speed with which you are snapping up those tickets, which says it all about your expectations ahead of an edition like no other.
So, what exactly do we have in store for you? Well, we have a few surprises up our sleeve, as you might expect, but in a nutshell, it’s a fine blend of nostalgia and world-class sport. It all plays out in the main arena at Palexpo on 9-13 December, with five whole days of international competition, a first in the modern history of the event, with the exception of the occasions when it has also hosted World Cup finals.
The programme will draw as much on the roots of the CHIG as on its ambitions for the decades to come. The Six-Barres returns after a nine-year absence, as does the Bareback Challenge, on what promises to be quite a night, with some riders letting slip to us that they have already been training for it. Meanwhile, Le Prix des Familles will celebrate the generational handover that is so unique to equestrianism. And then there’s the Challenge of the Century, a one-off event that will see the greatest riders in jumping take on some obstacles from yesteryear and before engaging in a jump-off over some altogether more modern fences. We simply cannot wait to see that.
This centenary doesn’t start on December, 9 however. It is already well under way, thanks to the release of capsule videos from the series Le CHI, d’un siècle à l’autre (“The CHI: From One Century to Another”), which you will find on the “100 years” tab on our website.
Next month, the CHIG will stage an exhibition at Les Automnales (November 6-15) retracing the event’s 100-year history, while Alban Poudret will release his new book on the recent history of the event, which should whet the appetite for what lies ahead. And while we’re on the subject of looking back at the past, this fourth newsletter of the year gives you a behind-the-scenes look at the big move to Palexpo at the dawn of the 1990s and speaks to two stars of those early years at the CHIG’s home for the last few decades: Markus Fuchs and Philippe Le Jeune...

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