Julien EpaillardOlympian

About Julien Epaillard

Julien Epaillard (born 24 July 1977 in Cherbourg, Manche) is a French showjumper, the 2025 FEI Jumping World Cup Final champion and an Olympic and European medallist. Long celebrated as one of the fastest riders in the sport — earning the nicknames 'the Flying Frenchman' and 'the Speed King' — he converted two decades of speed-class and Grand Prix success into a late-blooming championship career, reaching a verified career-high of world number two in 2023. He and his wife Susana Epaillard García Cereceda run Haras de la Bosquetterie at Le Pré-d'Auge in Normandy, the deliberately small breeding and sport operation behind the d'Auge suffix.

Epaillard grew up in a horse family near Cherbourg, where his parents ran a large equestrian centre, and began riding at about three. He was French Cadet champion at twelve, left school at sixteen to turn professional, and won European Junior team gold in 1996 followed by European Young Rider individual gold and team silver in 1997 and team bronze in 1998. His development drew on his parents, trainer Hubert Bourdy and periods observing the stables of Rodrigo Pessoa and Eric Navet. For much of his senior career he was regarded primarily as a brilliant speed specialist: horses such as Cristallo A LM, the homebred stallion Safari d'Auge and Toupie de la Roque made him a prolific winner, and Usual Suspect d'Auge became the family programme's first five-star Grand Prix winner with LGCT victories in Paris in 2017 and Doha in 2019. From 2018 the support of the Sadran family, and later other owners, deepened his top-level string.

The judgement that his horses did not fit championship demands was overturned from 2022. At his first senior championship, the 2022 World Championship in Herning, he won the opening speed competition with Caracole de la Roque, led the individual standings after two days and finished sixth with the team, standing sixth in the individual classification before electing not to start the final. With Dubai du Cedre he took individual bronze at the 2023 European Championship in Milan on 4.61 penalties, then finished runner-up at the 2024 World Cup Final in Riyadh. At Paris 2024, making his Olympic debut at 47, he won team bronze alongside Simon Delestre and Olivier Perreau and finished fourth individually, recording the fastest time of the final but with one rail down.

The 2025 World Cup Final in Basel brought the defining title of his career with Donatello d'Auge, the gelding bred by his wife at Haras de la Bosquetterie: he won the opening Table C, deliberately declined the second competition's jump-off to preserve the horse, and held on by three penalties from Ben Maher — becoming the second French winner of the Final after Bruno Broucqsault in 2004 and the first in 21 years. Donatello finished 2025 as the WBFSH world number one jumping horse with 1,911 points, while Susana Epaillard was named Longines-WBFSH Jumping Breeder of the Year for a second time. At the 2025 European Championship in A Coruña, Epaillard finished seventh with the French team and chose not to contest the individual final when a medal was remote, closing 26th in the official classification. Dubai du Cedre had meanwhile been sold to the Iron Dames programme in September 2024 and on to Saudi Arabia in 2025, where she competes as Diriyah.

As at mid-2026 Epaillard stands eighth on the Longines Rankings (list 306, 1 July 2026) with 4,569 FEI starts and 525 wins recorded since 1 January 2010. He won the Amsterdam World Cup qualifier with Donatello in January but chose not to travel to Fort Worth to defend his Final title, and in April won his first French Pro Élite championship with the emerging Hard'Rock Queen HJD. He is on France's long-list for the 2026 World Championships in Aachen with Donatello d'Auge, Fringan de Vesquerie and Le Coultre de Muze, though the final French team had not been announced at the start of August 2026. His riding is defined by economical lines, decisive turns and an unusual sense of pace, tempered by a horse-first management style — including a willingness to forgo jump-offs and finals when another round would not benefit the horse — that also shapes the patient young-horse production of the family stud.