‘My horse has two or three hearts’: meet the Badminton rider who works in a stationery shop and his home-bred partner

French rider Arthur Marx will be looking for redemption at the Mars Badminton Horse Trials this year, following a fall halfway round the cross-country in 2023 aboard Church’Ile. The 30-year-old is riding the same horse this year, a 12-year-old homebred Selle Francais he has produced through the levels.

“My father, Philippe and I bred this horse,” says Arthur, who finished 23rd in the combination’s first five-star at Pau in 2022. “He is a good boy – he likes kisses. When you want him to be, he can be crazy and he will never stop – he has two or three hearts and is fantastic.”

Arthur explains that he is careful in managing Church’Ile’s enthusiasm on a day-to-day basis.

“Every day I ride him for 20 minutes and then he goes out in the field. We don’t work him a lot and you can’t tell him what to do.”

Church’Ile is by Grafentolz, who is also the sire of Ros Canter’s five-star winner and European champion Lordships Graffalo and William Fox-Pitt’s Grafennacht. He is out of Ile D’Ohe by Apache D’Adriers – a grand prix showjumper son of Double Espoir, while Philippe evented the dam and the grandam.

Arthur Marx: “I would like to change my morning job”

Arthur Marx is based in Hermeray, 60km south-west of Paris, where he runs his own yard and works in a stationery shop.

“I work in the shop every morning and then I go to my stable and ride 11 horses,” explains Arthur. “In the future I would like to change my morning job to work as a jumps racehorse trainer and then ride my event horses in the afternoon.”

Arthur and Church’Ile scored 43.1 in Badminton’s dressage this morning (10 May).

“I’m not really happy because we can do a lovely test,” he reflected. “He’s the master for me for the cross-country on Saturday though – as long as I ride well, he is the best and very fast.

“I walked the course with Mark Todd, who is the best trainer. It’s big with a lot of corners, but the ground is good and it will be a good spectacle.”

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