SHARON HOPKINS SPENDS `FAIRY TALE' SUMMER IN FRANCE

Sharon Hopkins of Marble Hill trained this horse over the summer in France. From left to right; Connie Collins, president, Appaloosa Horse Club; Jennifer Castor, Miss Appaloosa America, Secret Bull, horse; Sharon Hopkins, trainer and exhibitor; Hugh Williams, judge; Lois Whitener; Pascal Dunod, French owner of Secret Bull; Larry Edwards, judge; Bod Spedden, judge. (photos courtesy Sharon Hopkins)

While in France, Hopkins visited several horse shows. From left; Jacques Bonabeau, secretary, French Appaloosa Horse Club; Hopkins; Michel Pouzol, treasurer, French Appaloosa Horse Club; Jean Roure, president, French Appaloosa Horse Club and Marie Lore Roure.

Hopkins was asked to judge the French Appaloosa National Championships. Here, she judges one of the many horses that entered with Ring Steward Hedi Dessureault.

One of the Dunod's horses, Perla Impress and Hopkins' friend, Lois Whitener at the European Championships.

Hopkins stopped in on her long-time pen pal in England. From left, Hopkins' husband, Bill, Sharon Hopkins, Elizabeth Ashley and her daughter, Georgina Ashley.

Pascal Dunod stands with his horse, Secret Bull, the winner of the European Championships; kneeling, from left, are Sharon Hopkins and Lois Whitener.

Sharon Hopkins of Marble Hill calls her summer in France a "fairy tale come true."

The main reason she refers to it this way is because she was largely responsible for training a horse that ended up winning the European Appaloosa Grand Championships in Paris.

Hopkins, who has been training and judging horses for the past 15 years, became interested in taking a summer job in France when a friend pointed out an ad that appeared last year in a magazine on horses called The Appaloosa Journal.

The ad said a Frenchman, Pascal Dunod, wanted an American horse trainer to come to France for several months in the summer to train some horses he had bought. He was hoping to be able to enter them in the French National Horse Show.

"It sounded really attractive to me to spend a couple of months on the Riviera and get paid for it," Hopkins said. "Plus, I wanted to get first-hand experience and learn what was going on in France as far as horses were concerned."

So Hopkins wrote Denod. Having been born in the French-speaking province Quebec in Canada, her letter may have looked more impressive than the other American applicants -- hers was in French.

"We conversed for a year," she said. "He wanted me to stay for three months over the summer, but I could only swing two."

She said Dunod agreed. So on May 25, Hopkins boarded a plane for France. She stayed with Dunod and his wife, Dany, and their three children in Grimaud, a village near the town of St. Tropez.

After she met Denod, she said he told her of his love for the American west, and how enchanted he had become with the Appaloosa horses.

Two days after arriving she began working with the horses. She said she was pleased with the quality of the horses that she had to work with. But she knew she had a lot to accomplish before the French Nationals.

While there she went to a couple of horse shows and met the French staff of the Appaloosa Horse Club.

They asked her to give a few seminars, and she agreed. She gave the seminars on western discipline, which entails riding and showing horses.

She then met with the president of the Appaloosa Horse Club and he convinced her to come back in the fall and judge the French National Horse show.

This caused a problem for Denod. Since Hopkins had trained his horses, Denod was no longer eligible to enter them in the French Nationals. They couldn't very well be judged by their trainer, could they?

But Hopkins offered him a better plan: "I told him I would come back for anther month to train his horses some more and enter them into the European Nationals."

She said this horse show is for the best horses in all of Europe. Denod heartily accepted this proposal.

So Hopkins judged the French Nationals and came home to the U.S. A month before the European event she returned to France, this time taking a friend, and fellow horse trainer, Lois Whitener.

They worked with the horses for several more weeks, and had them "cut." She said this takes the "silliness" out of them.

Secret Bull, now a gelding, was entered into the show and, much to everyone's surprise "won the whole thing."

She said everyone was shocked, perhaps most of all Pascal Denod.

"He had never been involved with horses before," Hopkins said. "He had purchased these horses with little knowledge.

"But whatever he did when he bought them, he did it right."

But a lot of the credit must go to the trainer, who spent many hours of many weeks getting the horse ready for the big event.

And when they won, "I couldn't believe it," she said. "It was the kind of thing that happens in story books. I probably didn't need a plane to come home on."

She gives credit to the winner, too -- the horse. She said he had tremendous discipline.

"In three months, he learned how to ride like a horse that had been riding for years.

"He was ready to do something. He was very willing. Every time I'd teach him something new, he was ready to learn it."

One of the other horses, Perla Impress, did well, too. She won Best of Color Class, and a third in her division.

"It was like living a dream and doing everything you've never done before," she said.

But she didn't spend all her time training those horses and entering horse shows.

During her second visit, Whitener's and Hopkins' husbands went to France for a "mini-vacation."

They visited many of the local points of interest, including the Eifel Tower. And she said she was very impressed by the Europeans.

"All the Europeans I met loved Americans," she said, dispelling the myth given by the media. "The people were so warm and friendly."

She said people were always inviting them to dinner. She said it wasn't just because she knew French either; Whitener didn't speak a word of the language and they treated her just as friendly.

"And the French are so polite," she said. "They really are an exceptional group of people.

"I was so impressed."

While in Europe, Hopkins visited England where she met an old friend she had never met face-to-face.

She stopped over in London to visit her life-long pen pal, Liz Ashley.

"We were tickled because we never dreamed we would meet."

And what of the Denods?

"They're actually thinking of moving to Cape Girardeau," Hopkins said. "Pascal has always dreamed of owning a cattle ranch."

She said the Denods are going to visit the area in May with hopes of finding a place to resettle.