Above: The "Spanish walk" (a sort of goose step for horses) which made Le Huppé famous in Chartres when he performed it in the Place des Épars (a still from an animated sequence illustrating the walk). See also page 66 for Rachel and her horse Pascal demonstrating the Spanish Walk.
Source: "Spanish Walk" (Wikipedia).
Above: Place des Épars in Chartres in the 1930s (postcard).
Source: Facebook, posted by Chartres entre Hier et Demain (Chartres between Yesterday and Tomorrow), November 5, 2020.
Above: "Afternoon ensemble trimmed with gray fox fur," by House of Worth. "For summer afternoons, the most elegant dresses – for garden parties, casinos, private clubs, golf, pigeon shooting, and polo – are often made of georgette crepe and cr├¬pe de chine...."
It's hard to imagine this ensemble shouldering a pigeon gun or swinging a golf club or polo mallet, but it would definitely create an stylish audience for these activities.
Source: Art, Goût, Beauté: Feuillets de l'élégance féminine (Art, Taste, Beauty: Reflections on feminine elegance), July 1, 1928, p. 13-14. National Library of France (via Gallica).
10. Barcelona, 1929
In the middle of August, 1928, Rachel announced her intention to take a thousand-kilometer ride, from Paris to Barcelona. As she told Paris Midi:
"I had promised myself," she told us, "that I would no longer undertake long journeys on horseback. But, you see, one should never say never. The friends I meet at horse shows and at the pigeon shooting ranges I frequent regularly ask me the same question:
"'When is your next trip?' So, stung in my pride as an equestrian, I've decided to get back in the saddle.
"I will leave on September 2nd for Barcelona, ​​via Chartres, Poitiers, Angoulême, Bordeaux, Biarritz, Pau, Tarbes and Perpignan. I plan to cover an average of 75 kilometers per day.
"I have faith in my dear old horse, Le Huppé. He'll get me to my destination safely. He's seventeen, but he's got real blood. He's an Anglo-Arabian, whose sire belonged to the King of Serbia.
"I'll wear men's clothing. Riding sidesaddle tires the horses. It makes their backs sensitive.
"Experience has also taught me that you shouldn't carry too much luggage. So I'll send an evening gown to Biarritz, where I'll stay for two days. I'll use the diplomatic pouch to send the rest of my wardrobe to Barcelona, ΓÇïΓÇïwhere I'll be staying for about a week." The most surprising revelation was Rachel's interest in pigeon shooting, which meant live pigeons rather than clay pigeons. The sport was increasingly frowned upon but it remained fashionable among aristocrats and the well-to-do, which is what likely attracted Rachel. The high-toned fashion magazine Art, Goût, Beauté (Art, Taste, Beauty) even recommended an outfit suitable for attending pigeon shoots (left).
The Spanish newspaper La Voz de Aragon, in anticipation of Rachel's arrival, printed a lengthy article about "La Raquel" illustrated with a large photo of her in Brussels (page 31). The article quoted Paris reporters who interviewed Rachel about her trip to Barcelona and also provided another glimpse into her private life.
"Parisian journalists have interviewed the remarkable horsewoman at ChattamΓÇÖs restaurant [i.e., Hôtel Chatham] where she frequently goes accompanied by her little white dog:
"'How did it occur to you to choose this route?'
"'I donΓÇÖt know! I want to get to know Spain, and the name Barcelona sounds nice. Besides, the exhibition... '" The "exhibition" was the 1929 Barcelona World Fair which was held from May 20, 1929 to January 15, 1930.
"'Will you be staying for many days?'
"'No... Eight or ten. Of course, I'll return by train; no, I'll do as I did on the rides from Berlin to Bucharest, where I rode back on horseback, taking a total of seven and a half months....'"
"Oh! Seven and a half months on horseback! What a modern woman! What a masculine young woman!"
"This is what those who are unaware will say – but when speaking of Raquel, we are not referring to a muscular woman who breaks records reserved for athletes of the opposite sex, driven by some exotic fever for modernization.
"No; Raquel is an almost shy girl with long hair, styled in the Spanish fashion, with a small, dark fringe. She doesnΓÇÖt smoke; she doesnΓÇÖt have a radio at home, and she doesnΓÇÖt dance the Charleston.
"She plays Viennese waltzes on the piano and has books, so many books! ... including quite a few poets.
"'What a letdown!' The featherweight 'ecuyere,' with her elegantly long legs, a 'record-holder' in grueling equestrian trials, is almost like a ridiculous, sentimental little girl."