Impossible to miss. Since Thursday, or even a little earlier, social media has taken on a serious cotton-candy tint. Pink everywhere. On the fences, around the arena, in the flowers, the signage, the village… all set against the almost insolent green of Val Porée. Welcome to the Jumping International of Dinard, the CSI5* that probably boasts the most recognizable visual identity on the circuit. But why on earth pink on the Emerald Coast? Spoiler: it is not the result of a washing-machine accident.

Val Porée has put on its best outfit

There are shows you recognize by their grandstand. Others by their skyline, their castle, their mountains or their arena.

And then there is Dinard.

Dinard is the kind of place where you could almost remove the logo from the photo. A huge grass arena greener than Wembley, a few horses, plenty of flowers and an explosion of pink: normally, you have got it.

This weekend again, it was impossible to open Instagram without seeing it. The Stade du Val Porée had slipped into what the City of Dinard now very officially calls its “traditional pink outfit.”

And honestly, it pops.

It smells of summer, Brittany on holiday and top sport, with a slight garden-party feel that has clearly got a bit out of hand at the florist’s.

But this identity is no accident.

In the beginning was… green

To understand the pink, you first have to look at the green.

The green of Val Porée.

When the Mars family took over the reins of the show in 2013, through the Sport Concept association chaired by Danièle Mars, Dinard was still a CSI3*. The sporting ambition was clear: to bring this monument of French jumping back to the very top.

But it also needed a rebuilt identity.

Because Dinard already had history — the show dates back to 1912 — and an exceptional venue. What it still lacked was that little something that turns a beautiful competition into an instantly identifiable brand.

The Mars family found it in an imaginary pot of paint: pink.

Danièle Mars once explained the thinking very simply:

“Pink is what goes best with the green of the main arena.”

That’s it.

No need for a twelve-hour marketing meeting with PowerPoint, Pantone charts and a storytelling consultant.

Green. Pink.

It works.

Emerald Coast Versus Breton Sky

The story could, however, have taken another colour.

Given the show’s geographical setting, the Mars family had considered a shade that would echo the famous Emerald Coast more directly.

Logical enough.

Except that emerald on a huge arena that is already green is not exactly the boldest contrast imaginable.

Pink, above all, has another particularly useful quality when you are running a show in Brittany: it creates light. Holaaaa, all Bretons, calm down right away. Yes, the weather is lovely in Brittany too. Often. But not always…

Danièle Mars explained it again: the colour allows the Jumping to “remain bright, even when the sky is grey.”

A sentence that could almost be printed at the entrance of every sporting event in Brittany.

Because in sunshine, Dinard is spectacular.

But under clouds, the pink still does the job.

It catches the eye, lifts the fences out of the landscape, wakes up the green of the arena and gives the images that very particular brightness.

Photographers can thank the Breton weather.

And Then There Are the Hydrangeas

Dinard’s pink is not just about colour contrast.

It also tells a story about Brittany.

And especially about one of the flowers most closely associated with its gardens: the hydrangea.

“This pink also recalls the hydrangea, which we use a great deal and which is the emblematic flower of Brittany,” Danièle Mars pointed out.

That little nod has become a big one.

As the Jumping approaches, it is no longer just Val Porée that sees life in pink. The town itself gradually takes on the competition’s colour.

In other words, the show has ended up spilling out beyond its stadium.

A tradition that is actually only thirteen years old

That may be the funniest part of the whole story.

Looking at Dinard today, you might think pink has accompanied the event for a century.

Not at all.

The Dinard horse show was founded in 1912. Floral decoration and a search for elegance were already present in the event’s early years. But pink as a true visual signature belongs to the Mars era, which began in 2013.

And that aesthetic rebuild came alongside a sporting rebuild.

Taken over as a CSI3* in 2013, Dinard moved up a gear the very next year before earning CSI5* status in 2015.

Three short seasons to return to the top table.

And just a few summers for pink to become inseparable from Val Porée. Today, it is also a key stop on the Rolex Series.

The best logo? The one you no longer need

Thirteen years later, the bet has paid off.

Because a truly successful visual identity perhaps begins the moment you no longer need to put your name on it.

A grass arena. Hydrangeas. Pink fences. A large grandstand.

Some of the best horses and riders in the world in the middle of it all.

No geotag needed.

You are in Dinard.

In an international calendar where every show tries to produce ever more spectacular images, the Breton CSI5* has pulled off something much harder: being different without having to overdo it.

Well…

There is still quite a lot of pink, mind you.

(Photos © Rolex Series)