Contrary to previous championship cycles, US Equestrian did not mandate that the selected squad members heading to Aachen, Germany for the FEI Eventing World Championships for Seniors next month compete at a dedicated competition before traveling overseas. Historically, a Mandatory Outing has been set out for the squad, including alternates/reserves, however the Federation opted to loosen the requirement this year, instead allowing the riders to choose their own adventure for their finishing touches.
The U.S. presents its own unique challenge for team riders looking to come together; geography presents a challenge, with riders based all over the country (and some overseas). And over the last few cycles of leadership, US Equestrian has also leaned into the approach that the riders should be able to stick to their own meticulously-curated programs. This remains true with current Eventing Chef d’Equipe Leslie Law.
Two primary options emerged for the U.S.-based riders heading to Aachen: some heading to the Horse Park of New Jersey in Allentown, NJ for an Advanced/Intermediate and others opting to go down to Tryon International in Mill Spring, NC for a specially put on mini trial. Riders such as Tamie Smith, Hallie Coon and Tiana Coudray, who are based overseas currently, opted for final runs at Aston Le Walls and Upton House.
“We feel it was best for the riders to prep their horses, with what they felt would be the best runs, and some some of them were some of them were keen to do [New Jersey] and others wanted to do [Tryon],” Leslie said. He attended both Tryon as well as New Jersey over the weekend to have eyes on the squad members. “The size of the country, wherever you decide to have a Mandatory Outing, somebody’s going to have to travel. So is it a one size that fits all that works? I think no. I mean, even if you look if you look at the Brits, they were running in different competitions. Laura Collett was running at Aston Le Walls with hers, and Tom McEwen was running at Upton House with his. They don’t even have that [distance] challenge, and yet they’re still choosing to to run at specific events to specifically prep their horse, basically. I think that is a big part of it, but I think it’s also about the riders knowing what’s the right thing to do for their horse and having them ready for Aachen.”
Caroline Pamukcu and HSH Blake. Photo by Amy Dragoo Photography.
Several riders opted for the Horse Park of New Jersey’s offering, where extra ground preparation and watering was done on the Morgan Rowsell-designed cross country track and a show jumping course designed by Chris Barnard was laid out on grass (show jumping will also take place on grass at Aachen).
Phillip Dutton brought both his top horse Possante as well as his reserve Denim, who won the Advanced/Intermediate. He was joined by Caroline Pamukcu and HSH Blake, alternate pair Jennie Brannigan and FE Lifestyle as well as our Antipodean friends Sophia Hill (AUS) with Humble Glory and Monica Spencer (NZL) with Artist, both of whom will be making the trek to represent their respective countries in Aachen. Boyd Martin also ran his Luhmühlen podium finisher and alternate horse, Shanroe Cooley, in the Open Intermediate at Jersey and opted to just do a combined test and not run cross country.
“I thought they did a good job at the Horse Park,” Phillip said. “The footing was really good, and the course was not overly strong, but it [had] good little questions to practice on. Generally, I feel the ground there is pretty good. It’s got a component of sand in it as well. I thought that it was pretty good conditions to have a last run.”
Monica Spencer and Artist. Photo by Amy Dragoo Photography.
Monica Spencer has gotten the science of preparing Artist for this type of event down pat at this stage, typically opting to not put a huge amount of runs on the Thoroughbred gelding leading up to a five-star or a championship. She chooses to let his experience and base of fitness speak for itself, so this run was just about finding relaxation so that the horse is feeling mentally at ease for the challenge ahead.
“[Artist] went to Kentucky in the spring, so he didn’t need too much of a prep – just get him out and tick all the boxes, and [we’re] feeling ready to go,” she said. “[We] had a nice little quiet run the Intermediate so that he’s feeling confident heading into Aachen. Just a nice slow run because the last event I did was Kentucky, where we went fast. So you want their brain to be relaxed heading into the start box at Aachen. So we just go for a no-pressure run.”
Both Humble Glory (Sophia Hill) and Artist will fly to Belgium alongside the U.S. horses the first week of August — from there, they’ll decamp for their various final destinations before move-in day at Aachen the following week.
Will Coleman and Diabolo. Photo by Rette Solomon for Tryon International.
Meanwhile at Tryon International, a special event was put together thanks in many ways to the legwork of Defender Kentucky champion Will Coleman and Tryon International Director of Marketing (and of course, an eventer in her own right) Jimmie Schramm. The result was a one-off schooling type event, where riders such as Will with his team horse Diabolo as well as his direct reserve horses Off the Record and Very Dignified, Boyd Martin and Cooley Nutcracker and alternate pairs Sydney Elliott and QC Diamantaire as well as Emily Hamel and Corvett opted to compete.
To make this event happen, Jimmie Schramm helped put the pieces together: Jane Hamlin stepped in to judge dressage (which was done on grass in Tryon’s Derby Field), and Clayton Fredericks traveled out to set out a special Advanced cross country course for a good pipe-opener ahead of Worlds. The riders were also able to work into a 1.30m show jumping class over a course designed by Catsy Cruz. Will also noted that he wanted to put his horses into an atmospheric environment, and with Tryon running a busy jumper show alongside, it emerged as a strong option.
“The timing of championships is often kind of awkward for us here in the States because our season hits a lull in the summertime,” Will explained. “For all of us on the East coast, the weather and the ground conditions can be really challenging for finding a suitable run. In talking with some fellow riders, I felt like we wanted to see if we could organize something at a venue where we could utilize the WEG dressage test, jump a meter-30 or something equivalent in a real horse show setting with a high-level course designer, and run our cross country on some footing that could be sort of managed through the summer. And one venue that can do that really well is Tryon. Jimmie deserves a ton of credit — she was kind of our main advocate there, and she helped us arrange it.”
Team USA alternate pair Emily Hamel and Corvett. Photo by Natalie Suto.
For his part, Clayton Fredericks — who will be taking the reins on his first five-star design at Adelaide in 2027 — enjoyed setting out a cross country course for these riders. Since Tryon wasn’t running a traditional, multi-level event, he found he had additional room to play with some new lines and questions. His overall goal, however, was to set out a challenge that would somewhat mimic what riders will see on Giuseppe Della Chiesa’s course at Aachen and give the riders the opportunity to gather information and get one final blow-out done before travel. His previous experience as a World Equestrian Games and Olympic athlete added additional context to the task at hand.
“I just thought, well, if I was in the same situation, what would I want to practice over?” Clayton mused. “The combinations were technical, but not on the edge of being super strong because I didn’t want to cause a drama with the horses in the lead-up to their championship. I just wanted them to be able to jump around a decent-sized track on very good ground and be able to finish with confident horses and feeling good about their rides. So I set that out in a in a course that, in my mind, would have been the perfect setup for if I was doing it myself.”
“I was very very impressed with the course design,” Boyd Martin, who competed with Cooley Nutcracker, told me. “You know, I’ve only been to Aachen once, and the track sort of had that feeling with the lay of the land and a lot of the designs of the fences, layout of the fences, and even galloping across the bridges, that made it feel like what we’re going to encounter in a month’s time. I think it’s a good thing that the riders are given options of where to run their horses, and each rider has a different plan with their horse, and to have the opportunity to do what we think is best to prepare our animals.”
These final outings aren’t so much about training, per se. They’re about confirmation of training and fitness and, as Monica Spencer said, encouraging relaxation in the right moment. For Will Coleman, who like his peers has spent his career honing in on that system we speak of so often, outings like this serve their own purpose.
Boyd Martin and Cooley Nutcracker. Photo by Rette Solomon for Tryon International.
“The timing of this week was kind of nice. We have a few weeks now to kind of process how this outing went and see where you can clean up a few things in your dressage, or how your horse feels on the cross country,” he said. “It just gave me a lot of really good feedback and I think that’s probably the same for everybody. I think to a certain degree, our horses getting ready for Kentucky or whatever they might have done in the spring — that just feels like a long time ago. Any championship is going to sort of find the chinks in your armor, and I think you want to feel like you go in there really in command of all the material, feeling like you and your horse are in the same sort of form that you might have had in the spring, and that takes you have to prepare.”
It was a natural way for Jimmie herself to continue to give back to the sport she still calls home. “It’s kind of special for me,” she told me. “Obviously, I’m not totally competing at the moment, and so this was a really fun way for me to be able to support them. It was nice for me to be able to have an understanding of these events from a competitive and competitor standpoint, being like, okay, what type of prep event would I want, and how can I make that happen for them?”
The World Championships team riders will certainly be feeling topped off after these prep runs. The U.S. riders will next move into a private training camp stateside before the horses begin their journeys to Europe in early August. From there, the team will also meet in Belgium for additional prep and some downtime for the horses before move-in begins the week of August 10 at Aachen.
More news to come for this year’s FEI Eventing World Championships, so keep it locked right here on EN for the latest. EN’s coverage of these World Championships is supported by Kentucky Performance Products. To view all of our coverage to date, click here.
