Boyd Martin and Shanroe Cooley Crowned Adequan Advanced Champions at USEA AEC

August 28, 2026

Boyd Martin and Shanroe Cooley. Photo by Sally Spickard.

Boyd Martin hasn’t had a rail with the 11-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding Shanroe Cooley in five starts at the four-star level, and he’s a consistent show jumping rider in general. With a rail’s cushion in hand after cross country at the USEA American Eventing Championships, presented by Nutrena, it would be safe to say that Boyd came into Rolex Stadium, ablaze at the end of golden hour and buzzing with a packed hospitality tent, feeling buoyed by confidence.

Clear rounds had been hard to come by in the 18-horse field to that point. Bobby Murphy set the courses for our AEC competitors this weekend, and a technical track that kept horses and riders on their toes with most fences set after a turn as well as the complicating factor of the setting sun exerted influence. Two pairs — eventual second-place finisher Mary Bess Davis (Imperio Magic) and Elisa Wallace (Lissavorra Quality) — secured double clears, and just three others had left all the poles where they belonged but incurred time penalties.

Boyd Martin and Shanroe Cooley. Photo by Sally Spickard.

So that rail in hand may have come in handy, should Boyd have needed it. But he didn’t. One second’s worth of a time penalty was added to his overall score with Shanroe Cooley, who is owned by Dallas LLC, but not so much as a pole was touched on their trip around, giving Boyd another Adequan Advanced Championship and the lion’s share of the $60,000 prize fund. He and “Dallas” end the weekend on a score of 40.5.

“He’s brilliant. I mean, he’s a fantastic jumping horse,” Boyd commented. “At all the the big shows that are really important, he seems to prance out there and jump like a stag. I felt like he jumped the course really well. We had a good warm-up, and [I’m] very pleased with him tonight.”

Shanroe Cooley already has a five-star podium finish under his belt, earned at Luhmühlen earlier this year. The maturity event horses often leave their first five-star with is something Boyd feels is evident in Dallas now. “I just think he’s evolved and and matured and developed a lot since Luhmühlen five-star, and I think that was a great turning point in our career,” he elaborated. “Sometimes when you do those big five-stars, it can rattle the horse, [but] in this case, it’s made him stronger and and more seasoned. So I must say, all three phases this weekend with Dallas, he just felt like a more established, mature horse.”

Liz Halliday joins Boyd for the prizegiving. Photo by Sally Spickard.

The evening was complemented by a special appearance by Dallas’ former rider, Liz Halliday, for the prizegiving ceremony. In fact, the first thing Boyd did upon exiting the stadium was to call Liz and tell her to scoot her boot down to the prizegiving. “We need her in there,” he told her team.

Photo by Sally Spickard.

It’s bittersweet, to be honest, seeing Liz now. It’s overwhelmingly incredible to see how well she is doing, but the shadow of the accident she had here at this event two years ago nearly to the day still lingers. I admire the strength she has (which is, of course, utterly unsurprising, if you know Liz at all) and the pure joy she feels when she’s around the sport now. We can all learn a thing or three from her, her embracing of life as it is. And you’ll be unsurprised to hear that she’s already planning her LA28 Paralympics campaign, so this is certainly not the last we’ve seen of Liz in an arena.

Above all, it’s nice to have her back, here with us. We won’t ever stop being grateful for that.

Mary Bess Davis and Imperio Magic. Photo by Sally Spickard.

Mary Bess Davis capped off a weekend of redemption by jumping her way up from fourth into second (44.3) thanks to that aforementioned double clear with her own Imperio Magic. I wrote a little yesterday about Mary Bess’ journey back from a nasty injury that, while not the most serious injury she’s ever had was certainly among the lengthiest in terms of recovery. It was discouraging enough that Mary Bess briefly considered hanging it up for good. “I told my husband I’m quitting, I’m tired of hurting, and he’s like ‘let’s just give it time’ — he always says that — and of course, like two days later I was back in with everything, planning where I wanted to go.”

Between that and the niggling little inconsistencies she’d experienced with this horse over the past season or so, Mary Bess came into the weekend armed and ready.

Her secret weapon? The one and only Karen O’Connor, who has been in Mary Bess’ corner for many years, but has been present more recently. “I called Karen and told her I wanted her everywhere with me,” Mary Bess said. “She talked to me coming into this [weekend], and she said ‘you’ve got to learn how to win. You’re competitive. You have to learn how to win,’ and I was like, well, that’s important. And so we came into this and really focused hard on every aspect of the show and performance, and it really paid off. It was really important that she had that conversation with me, and then we applied it all week.”

Mary Bess laughs when she thinks back on her clear round, which she describes as “a little wild.”

Mary Bess Davis and Imperio Magic. Photo by Sally Spickard.

“He’s just an amazing little horse, and he goes in there and he knows that he wants to perform and show everybody what he’s about,” she said. “And you have to hold on because he gets wild, and he’s like, ‘Hold on, mom!’ I didn’t have time to shorten my reins. I was like, ‘This, this is getting wild!’ and he was just like, “Girl, I’m taking you for a ride!’”

“McColl” doesn’t have the most traditional jumping form, but he certainly doesn’t typically come close to touching a rail, reminding us a little of Emily Hamel’s Corvett in this phase. For Mary Bess, who only has this one horse at the upper levels and not really any others, aside from a few client horses, this result is all about becoming more consistent. Allowing the horse to be who he is is a part of that, and the partnership she’s established with him enables her to keep chipping away at those little one-percent details.

“I want to be consistent everywhere I go, and I don’t want to have any of these mountains and valleys that I’ve kind of been having on and off,” she said. “I want to have a full season of competitive success, so that’s our goal, and hopefully we’ll just keep on.”

“I think all the time about when I was younger and I had three Advanced horses at the same time and I could not get it wrong — I was just on fire,” she had told me yesterday. “And so I think about that a lot, but I will say if you’re going to be on something you would want to be on him because he’s just so careful and I’m so confident with him. I know him so well now and he makes it easy for me to trust and believe.”

Maya Clarkson and Maks Mojo C. Photo by Sally Spickard.

Maya Clarkson didn’t quite have the jumping round she hoped for tonight with her own Maks Mojo C, lowering two rails but finishing within the time allowed for third place and a score of 51.1, but she remained pleased with the improvements she did feel across phases this weekend. “Maks” is a bit more of a one-rail horse, if he’s going to have a rail, so two tonight was disappointing — and something Maya takes the responsibility for — but the weekend served its purpose as a set-up for Maya’s yet-to-be-finalized fall plans.

“The rails where my fault, and I was bummed about them, but that’s okay,” Maya said. “It was our both of our first time actually jumping in this ring together, so I was pleased. He jumped the same he does in every other ring, and I was a little bit just not quite on my game, so that was on me. But he was fantastic both yesterday, and dressage was probably the best test he’s ever done, even with a couple mistakes. And then the cross country, he made it feel so easy. Advanced on him, in the past, has been not always that easy. The horse has the biggest heart of anything I’ve ever ridden, and will just find the flags regardless of what position I’m in. But it was nice to have pretty much all of the round feel really smooth yesterday. So I was really proud of that and proud of him today.”

The recipient of the 2026 Wilton Fair grant, Maya has yet to finalize her plans for whether she’ll go overseas this fall or hold off. She’ll also be eyeing a five-star move-up at some point in the coming seasons, so her ongoing production of Maks Mojo C will be done with this larger picture in mind.

Katie Lichten and HTS Jensen R. Photo by Sally Spickard.

Here’s a look at our final top 10 in this Adequan Advanced Championship:

Keep scrolling for further updates from #AEC2026! I’m signing off from the Advanced division, but will be bringing you end-of-day round-ups from our remaining two days of competition, which will finish off our Starter through Novice divisions.

USEA AEC, $60,000 Adequan Advanced Final, and ATC Finals (KY): [Website] [Schedule] [Program] [Entries/Ride Times] [Scoring] [USEA AEC App] [Volunteer] [CrossCountry App XC Maps] [Live Stream] [EN’s Coverage]

Many thanks to Ride EquiSafe, Freejump (both here on site at the Ride EquiSafe trailer on the back side (facing the barns) of Vendor Row!) and the American Connemara Pony Society for their support of EN’s 2026 AEC coverage!

Friday at #AEC2026

Novice riders took on cross country on Friday. Photo by Sally Spickard.

Here’s a look at your full leaderboard for the divisions still running on Friday:

ARMA USEA Training Amateur Championship: Jane Musselman and Corleone Tops (27.8)
ARMA USEA Training Horse Championship: Meghan O’Donoghue and Chepfly (27.6)
ARMA USEA Training Junior Championship Winner: Caden Carter and FE Santos (29.2)
ARMA USEA Training Rider Championship Winner: Catherine Ramsey and Cakewalk (30.0)
USEA Novice Amateur Championship: Hannah Reeser and Ltl Ireland Summr Soldier (24.3)
USEA Novice Horse Championship: Chris Talley and HTF All Eyes On Me (25.6)
USEA Novice Junior Championship: Elliot Bizjak and N’Pressive (28.7)
USEA Novice Junior 15yo & Under Championship: Emmeline Tinsley and RL Horus (27.6)
USEA Novice Master Amateur Championship: Jane Musselman and Cayr Della Caccia (24.5)
USEA Novice Rider Championship: Kirsten Wood and Sophia Tharseo (25.3)
Marshall + Sterling USEA Beginner Novice Amateur Championship: Ashley Anderson and Global Jedi (25.9)
Marshall + Sterling USEA Beginner Novice Horse Championship: Megan Correia-Bittner and Lamborghini (22.5)
Marshall + Sterling USEA Beginner Novice Junior Championship: Lauren Collett and Cozywing (26.6)
Marshall + Sterling USEA Beginner Novice Junior 14yo & Under Championship: Skylar Ragsdale and Finnegan’s Irish Dream (28.1)
Marshall + Sterling USEA Beginner Novice Master Amateur Championship: Kendra Moss and Presidential Nominee HU (27.3)
Marshall + Sterling USEA Beginner Novice Rider Championship: Madeline Bletzacker and Drummer Boy (27.7)
USEA Starter Amateur Championship: Kirsten Hiles and Beatrix SWF (25.3)
USEA Starter Junior Championship: Shelton Repetto and Accordingly (25.8)
USEA Starter Rider Championship: Katrina Davis and Paint Misbehavin’ (23.9)