Here at the USEA American Eventing Championships, presented by Nutrena Feeds, it’s a full week of celebrating not just the professional high performance riders, but also the amateur riders who truly are the backbone of our sport. This week on EN, we’ll be highlighting some of our favorite pairs and their stories. Enjoy our first batch, and if you want to send us a tip for a great story, send it to us at [email protected].
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Close friends Jackie Braybrooke & Angie Leihy traveled to volunteer at the AEC from Australia and Maryland.
Angie Leihy & Jackie Braybrooke: Volunteer Gold Medalist A Long Way From Home
When Galway Downs confirmed their position as the host of the 2025 American Eventing Championships, it was a cause for celebration across the Midwest and West Coast eventing communities. With 12-plus-hour hauls to southern California seen as “only a day’s drive”, riders across the country prepared themselves for the journey. However, one pair of volunteers would prove to have some of the farthest journeys of all.
Angie Leihy came to Galway Downs from Maryland, where she is a regular presence at local events. “Carolyn McIntosh at the Maryland Horse Trials started the best place to volunteer on the planet,” she credits. “I’ve been volunteering all over Area II, sometimes in New York, sometimes in Florida — I go visit family and volunteer.”
Angie’s friend Jackie Braybrooke met her after moving to Virginia from California, where she’d previously volunteered at other local venues like Woodside and Twin Rivers. The two paired up to volunteer together across Area II, and stayed in touch after Jackie returned home to Australia two years ago.
“I have been jump judging and volunteering there [in Australia], and I’m also training to be an equestrian national-level steward,” said Jackie. “I was on holiday here and [Angie] told me about the American Eventing Championships, and I said, ‘I have to come, I have to come!’ I unfortunately can only do one day, but it’s been wonderful. You’re very well looked after here — a very well-run event. I feel very privileged.”
Angie jumped at the chance to volunteer on the other side of the country from her usual locale, and decided to make this vacation with Jackie a truly memorable one. “We always wanted to go to San Diego and I thought, ‘Well gee, the AEC is really close, let’s go!’”
Angie has far more to celebrate than just a beachy holiday however, as the AEC marks a huge achievement for her. “Tomorrow, I reach another level in the Volunteer Incentive Program: it’ll be the 2,000 hour mark.” The USEA will present Angie with her VIP Gold Medal and embroidered jacket tomorrow on cross-country day. “I got a bronze and a silver, but I’m going for gold tomorrow when I hit my 2,000 hours!”
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Long-time best friends Carrie Matteson and Sydni Cook with their horse Maestro de la Nuit.
Carrie Matteson & Sydni Cook: The Nation’s First Starter Horse “Syndicate”
We’re all familiar with syndicates for horse ownership in the upper levels of the sport, but have you ever seen one at the Starter level? When Carrie Matteson and Sydni Cook found Maestro de la Nuit — “the artist known as ‘Mochi’ to his fans” — they knew that he had the potential for dressage excellence, and decided to move forward in co-ownership as he began his competitive career in dressage. Thanks to Carrie’s trademark whimsical nature and carefree approach to life, Mochi’s ownership group was formed: the aptly-named “Wow. Cool Horse, LLC”, now complete with branded merch including hats, sweaters, and seltzer koozies.
Carrie serves as the secretary and “true brains behind the operation” of the organizing committee for the Event at Skyline, which hosts two of only three recognized events in the state of Utah every year. When she’s not spending countless hours running the ship in the show office or working towards the beginning stage of judge licensing with USDF’s L Program, she and Mochi often “take a jaunt” around the Starter level course at Skyline. For them, dressage is the world’s best job, but eventing is their hobby — even though they frequently bring home sub-20 scores in Amateur Starter divisions.
“We’re treating this as ‘Mochi Goes to College’,” said Carrie, referencing Mochi’s new account on Instagram. “He’s going to be famous among all his dressage friends as the classical dancer that dabbles in base jumping, or whatever the horse equivalent is.”
Sydni, on the other hand, is the head trainer at Winter Farms in Park City, Utah, vice president of the Utah Dressage Society, and a frequent dressage judge at Skyline’s unrecognized events each year. As Mochi and friends were driving through the desert to reach Galway Downs on Tuesday, The Dressage Foundation released the announcement that Sydni had just been named as the 2025 recipient of the $25,000 Debbie McDonald Fund for FEI Riders grant, which she will use to spend the winter in Florida training with coach Anne Gribbons.
“Really we just think he should get famous enough to meet Post Malone,” Sydni commented, referencing the pop/country artist’s recent move to their home area of Summit County. “He can ride him in a music video; Mochi is his biggest fan.”
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Matt Preysz, daughter Sloane, and OTTB Snifter’s Spirit after Sloane’s dressage test in the Novice Junior Championships at AEC.
Matt Preysz: Horse Show Dad and “Cheftokeep”
At GPH Equestrian from Lehi County, Utah, they don’t just have Horse Show Dads — they have a management team. Matt Preysz, husband to amateur eventer Kacie and dad to Sloane, who is riding in the Junior Novice Championships this weekend, has showed up and proved himself at enough events that he earned a promotion at Galway Downs this week.
Matt is known for his perfectly-timed boot shines, prowess with a hoof pick pre-cross-country, and his curated collection of dad shirts (pictured above in one of his favorites: “What part of [insert crazy dressage movements diagram] don’t you understand?). After his promotion to chef d’equipe “Cheftokeep”, he proceeded to use his new position to promote other members to his team, including son Junior Puppy Wrangler Brooks Preysz and Executive Brushing Assistant Jordan Erickson (dad to Emry, competing in the Beginner Novice Junior Championships).
Mostly though, the title just comes with motivational (and sometimes begrudgingly supportive) messages to the team’s group chat.
Matt’s text to the Team GPH group text the day they arrived at Galway Downs, when the temperatures were stifling in the high-90s.
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Jenna McEwan and Divine Smite. Photo by Sally Spickard.
A First Time AEC for a Newfound Eventer
When Los Angeles-based Jenna McEwan first met her former Irish racehorse, Divine Smite, her first instinct was to cross him off her list. The Thoroughbred gelding in a plain bay wrapper was for sale with pro 4* rider Kaylawna Smith-Cook, and he’d been spotted by pro photographer and former pro event rider Atalya Boytner, who passed the listing along to her longtime friend.
But Jenna balked.
“Atalya sent me the listing on Facebook, and I thought, ‘it’s a Thoroughbred — too fast, too young, everything I don’t want!’ And she said, ‘I really think you should go try him.’”
Jenna took her friend’s advice and didn’t regret it. “Oh my God, I love him,” she said to herself after that first ride.
It was a pure temperament match. Atalya could see that the gelding, now nicknamed “Cairo”, had “very good boy” energy, and knowing her friend needed a horse that would give her confidence to try new things or be a versatile partner for whatever she wanted to do, she made the match.
“I tried to hard to find something wrong,” Jenna laughs. “I thought the vet check would go wrong. I sent the videos to Deb Rosen and asked her to find something wrong. Instead, it all went perfectly. I thought Atalya was a crazy person, but she was spot on.”
Prior to teaming up with Cairo, Jenna had not done much eventing. Earlier this year, she brought Cairo out for their first events together at Galway Downs and Shepherd Ranch. After just a handful of events, the pair were qualified for the American Eventing Championships — but Jenna didn’t know about AEC until one of her students told her about it.
“I said, ‘What is that?’ It feels like a big deal thing that I didn’t even know existed. If you have the opportunity, why not do it?”
Now, Jenna and Cairo are here at Galway Downs and ready to tackle their first Championship together. It’s a sentimental journey for her after losing her father in 2022. After his death, when Jenna sold his home, she had some extra money left over, which was used toward the purchase of Cairo. “I had this extra money I wasn’t expecting, and I thought, ‘I’m going to buy a horse.’ To say he’s a present from my dad — I love that.”
At home in LA, Jenna and her business partner, Vivian Hall, own and operate Over the Moon Equestrian, a riding school born during COVID that focuses on accessible riding and inclusivity. “We put the kibosh on the ‘I show and you don’t’ attitude and any drama,” Jenna said. Finding a community within eventing has inspired her to cultivate that same culture within her own barn. “I found eventing to be so much more welcoming and inclusive. I am such a believer that there is space for everyone in horses, no matter what you want to do.”
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Stay tuned for more stories from USEA American Eventing Championships coming your way all week here on EN, and don’t forget to visit our coverage sponsor, Kentucky Performance Products, and thank them for their support of our stories from California!
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