Mena and Quatre-Quarts à L'Orange Win 3* Grand Prix at 2026 CDIO Fontainebleau

-- Text and Photos © Astrid Appels - NO REPRODUCTION ALLOWED (no screenshots for social media!)
This article expresses Eurodressage's' eye-witness account and opinion about the competition.

Spanish Olympian Jose Antonia Garcia Mena defies the expression "you can't eat your cake and still have it too."  Aboard the chestnut Quatre-Quarts à L'Orange - the French word for orange pound cake - he gets to fully enjoy training and competing the mare. 

The duo won the 3* Grand Prix at CDIO Fontainebleau on Friday morning 17 April 2026. They bested a field of 32 competitors that were judged by Trimborn, Halsall, Verbeek, Christensen, and Nivelle. Noone in the class was able to crack the 70% marker as too many mistakes were made or some fundamental training issues still popped up in the tests.

While Jose Antonio Garcia Mena has a very intersesting horse to ride in Jens Thorsen's Quatre Quarts A L'Orange (by Quaterhall x Royal Blend)  and won the class with 69.304% the main issue in their ride was straightness. The horse was consistently flexed  or tilted to the left and required more suppleness in the neck and top line. The zig zag was a highlight though.

"It has been a very enriching experience. We continue to collect data in search of our best version," Mena commented. "It's the first time we have competed together outside Spain, so I'm delighted with the great result. My mare is still young but she keeps showing she has a lot of talent and that's really encouraging."

German Evelyn Eger and Christian Bergmann's 9-year old Oldenburg Global Power (by Grey Flanell x Don Frederic) were a close second with 69.217%. The pair rode big powerful trot extensions, but lost the clarity in the rhythm of the collected walk. The young Grand Prix horse still needs to develop better self carriage in piaffe and passage, but the two tempi changes were executed very nicely. 

French Pierre Volla and the 10-year old Portuguese crossbred Malcom X de Massa (by Galopin de la Font x San Amour) landed third place with 69.195%.  Volla last rode on the French team in 2017 with his career making horse Badinda Altena and since then has not truly re-connected with the top of the sport despite producing two more horses to international Grand Prix level (Sir Piko, Silvermooons Mariechen). Furthermore he sold his rising GP horse L'Espoir de Massa to Austria. However now with Malcolm X and L'Express de Massa he seems to have two new irons in the fire. Pierre rode Malcolm X in Fontainebleau and presented a horse with a very correct piaffe. The extensions, however, both in walk and trot, did not achieve sufficient overtrack.

"I didn't have the chance to ride at the Olympic Games in the gardens of Versailles, so I'm really happy to be here in this almost identical setting! Malcom has shown that he has some great qualities," Volla commented. " He's a very well rounded horse, but he still needs to get a bit stronger. He felt at home in the arena this morning."

-- Text and Photos © Astrid Appels - NO REPRODUCTION ALLOWED (no screenshots for social media!)
Eurodressage took photos of all big and small tour riders, Under 25 and pony riders.

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