by Nancy Jaffer | Apr 27, 2026
The big winners at last weekend’s Defender Kentucky 5-Star appropriately dominated headlines about the historic three-day event, but it’s important to recognize there are many other under-the-radar feel-good stories that also deserve your attention.
One of the most inspiring is the tale of Corvett, better known as Barry, who took his final bow at the level with an impressive ninth-place finish on 40.9 penalties, up from twenty-first in dressage.
Barry enjoys the distinction of having completed a 5-star at every venue in the Northern Hemisphere. Pretty special for a horse that couldn’t get sold, who no one but Emily Hamel could ride properly when the Holsteiner first came on the scene.
The Kentucky Horse Park is where the unicorn started his 5-star career, in 2021. His best 5-Star finish was a very respectable seventh place at Maryland in 2024.
He earned his final 5-star ribbon on his nineteenth birthday at the Horse Park’s biggest competition. While you won’t see him in any more three-days, perhaps he’ll be coming out as a show jumper or in arena eventing. After all, he demonstrated he’s still very fit.
Emily Hamel and Corvett at the Owl Hole. (USEA Photo)
His devoted rider said before cross-country (where he collected only four time penalties) “I really want his last one to be good” — and it was.
Afterwards, she noted, “I did hear some people cheering us on. I know you’re supposed to be focused, but I did hear some cheers, which helps,” Emily said.
Her feisty mount also was free of jumping faults in the final phase, collecting just 0.4 penalties for going slightly over the time allowed.
The Kentucky competition, presented by MARS Equestrian, was the 5-Star debut for another grey gelding and 21-year-old Braden Speck, the youngest rider in the competition. He finished a proud twentieth on his Connemara cross, BSF Liam, moving up from twenty-seventh in dressage.
Braden Speck and HSF Liam. (USEA Photo)
“We made a couple of mistakes along the way, but you know what? We persevered, we got through and that’s what matters.,” he said.
After he lost three horses – one to an aneurysm, another to colic and the third to a tendon injury — Braden became inspired by the veterinarians who cared for them and decided to become a veterinarian himself. He will attend vet school at the University of Pennsylvania.
He got his horse through Annie Goodwin, who died in 2021 after a cross-country schooling accident, yet another tragedy he endured in his short life.
Asked how Annie would have reacted to him finishing in the top 20 with Liam, Braden said, “I think she’d be laughing right now. It means so much that she’s looking out for me. I’m sure she’d be loving every second of watching us go around. I’m glad we were able to do it for her.”
The Wofford award, given to an up-and-coming rider in memory of the late, great Jimmy Wofford, went to Alexander Conrad who rode the thoroughbred Malibu Preacher to nineteenth place, moving up from twenty-eighth after a very lively dressage test.
As always at a big competition, Alexander was wearing his grandfather’s World War II dog tags. The rider believes they have kept him safe, just as they kept his grandfather safe. His grandfather, with whom he was very close, passed away when Alexander was in college. But prior to that, he helped his grandson buy “MP” six years ago.
The dog tags also keep Alexander’s grandfather with the rider during competition, and after finishing cross-country with no jumping penalties, Alexander said, “I bet he’s pretty happy.”
Caroline Martin Pamukcu, second in the 5-Star on HSH Blake, revealed her interesting backstory while discussing her decision to make horses her career, even before she had finished high school. Her parents had put down a non-refundable deposit for her junior year at boarding school ,just before she made a life-changing trip to the North American Young Riders Championships in 2013.
Caroline Martin Pamukcu and HSH Blake. (USEA Photo)
After winning team and individual gold, “I was enjoying it so much,” she said, that she decided not to go back to school but take classes on line instead.
“I remember my dad was absolutely furious,” she mentioned.
“But I told him,`I promise you I’ll do horses and be good at it and make your money back.’”
Instead, the 2024 Olympian noted cheerfully, she has just spent money, whether it belongs to her father, the owners of her horses or her husband. However, she has a successful sales business, so she is paying her way.
She called Young Riders a “turning point” after learning there that “Eventing was such a team sport…it’s bigger than just me, it’s representing your country. That was the day I decided to do this as a career. Thank God it kind of worked out.”
Five-Star winner Will Coleman took a different role on the ground during the dressage competition, having been “suckered” into working with the dedicated Pony Clubbers who march in synchronized style to open and close the white gate to the ring.
Will Coleman in gate-closing mode.
“Give those Pony Club girls credit; that job is not easy,” Will revealed.
“It’s a lot of choreography and really carrying yourselves well out there,” he continued, citing the need for “military precision” in the process.
“I was pretty impressed. That was kind of fun. The girls were great coaches, they knew their jobs. They were able to cover up for my, uh…I think I felt more nervous about moving the board out of the entrance than I did about actually riding my tests. It was fun, they were cute kids.”
And their leader “was not afraid to tell me what to do.”
Liz Halliday watching the action at the Kentucky Horse Park.
One of the most feel-good stories was the return of Liz Halliday to the arena. While she did it on foot, rather than on a horse, everyone was so happy to see her on the scene once more.
“I am overjoyed and so grateful to finally be back in the sport I love,’ she stated.
Liz, you’ll remember, suffered a traumatic brain injury in a cross-country fall at the Kentucky Horse Park a month after riding on the U.S. team in the Olympics. She has spent the time since then in hospitals and rehab facilities.
Liz, who just sold her Ocala farm, has others riding her horses as she continues working at getting stronger, with an eye on competing in Para Dressage.
At Kentucky, she watched Boyd Martin guide her Olympic mount, Cooley Nutcracker, to eleventh place, finishing with a double-clear in show jumping.
All our coverage of Defender Kentucky is on this website. Find stories on the main page and in the On the Rail section, or go to the Previous Columns link on the front page to find others.
Click here for the 5-star results
by Nancy Jaffer | Apr 26, 2026
Moments after winning the Defender Kentucky 5-Star Three-Day Event on Diabolo Sunday afternoon, Will Coleman said “I wake up most days and I feel like a pretty lucky guy, but I feel extraordinarily blessed today, not just for this horse, but for the opportunity to ride here at this event and to represent all the people who made something like this happen for a rider like myself.”
Still a bit stunned at how his efforts of many years paid off in big way before a stadium packed with thousands of fans, he observed, “It’s an incredible moment, I’ve dreamed about it, but now that it’s here, it still feels a little bit surreal. Today, I feel a little bit extra lucky, I guess.”
Will obviously is humble as well as hard-working, so it’s important to emphasize it was more than luck that earned him the top honor at the USA’s only 5-star eventing competition this year. The key ingredients were skill, dedication and determination to achieve something that – in hindsight — seemed destined to be. At some point.
He had been hovering on the brink of victory with Diabolo, who was competing in his first 5-Star. Will describes the mount he imported from Australia three years ago as a horse who “has a real conscience. I always feel like Diabolo wants to do his best.”
That gives Will “tremendous peace of mind, knowing he will come in and really try for you.”
The pairing wasn’t quite fault-free in the show jumping that wrapped up the competition at the Kentucky Horse, adding 0.8 time penalties over the Guilherme Jorge-designed course to their dressage score of 27.3 penalties, which had held up through a double-clear trip on cross-country.
As he left the Rolex arena, with a score of 28.1 penalties, Will took his feet out of the stirrups and seemed relaxed, despite waiting to see how things would go for the leader in the standings, New Zealand’s Monica Spencer on Artist.
She had been in the same position last October at the Maryland 5-Star, but had two rails down in show jumping there, which put her in second place at that competition.
This time, it didn’t go as well. She enjoyed only a one-rail margin and the option of a time penalty or two over Will, but in the end, she didn’t come close to the podium. Her “spare” fence vanished at the fourth obstacle, the horsehead oxer, and it was downhill from there, with toppled poles at the liverpool and the B element of the triple combination. She wound up seventh with 36.7 penalties on her thoroughbred, a star in dressage and cross-country. Show jumping needs work.
Will got not only a sterling silver trophy, but also the $130,000 victor’s share of the $400,000 prize money as the payoff for his faith in Diabolo.
“I knew he’d get there, his route was unique,” mused Will, noting his last 4-Star Long was two years ago.
He and his wife, Katie; the horse’s owners “and all people involved all had a high opinion of this horse and felt like he had a high ceiling,” Will reported.
“He struck me as a winner the first time I laid eyes on him. The horse has a real eagerness to him.”
Will knew he was capable of big things “if we could channel it the right way.”
There were many disappointments along that way, not the least of which was the possibility of being on the 2024 Olympic team which didn’t happen when the horse came up with a hoof abcess before the Games. Obviously, they bounced back.
“Every time I’ve been in a rough patch, I’ve always found a way to become a better person and a better horseman,” said Will. “Those kind of down spells have been what helped me become a better version of myself. I always look back on those with a tremendous amount of gratitude.”
He also observed that “Winning a 5 -Star is one of the hardest things to do, if not the hardest, in equestrian sports. I feel like we all deserve the win.”
Just as the weekend’s 4-Star Short winner Tamie Smith enjoyed a unique double, also having been victorious in the 5-star in 2023, Will achieved a similar feat but with the same horse. Diabolo took the 4-star in 2024, while Tamie rode two different horses to her record. So we had a double-double at this event. (Read about the 4-star at this link, or go to the second feature on this page.) Or depending on how you look at it, we could say Will had a triple at Kentucky, because he won the 4-Star in 2025 as well with Off the Record.
It’s worth noting that prior to Tamie’s win three years ago, the last U.S. rider to take the 5-star at Kentucky was Phillip Dutton on Connaught. in 2008. This year, at age 62, he finished eighth with a double-clear in the show jumping on Possante.
Will had only a half-penalty margin over second-place finisher Caroline Pamukcu, who did make the U.S. Olympic team with HSH Blake, her best friend and the namesake of her baby daughter.
Third place went to Great Britain’s David Doel, like Caroline, double clear in the show jumping. He rode the speedy Galileo Nieuwmoed, who, like Will’s horse, made the time on cross-country. His total was 30.8, so everything was close at the top, with less than a one-rail penalty separating the three best.
Click here for results
by Nancy Jaffer | Apr 26, 2026
Victory in the Cosequin 4-Star Short was well-deserved for Tamie Smith on Sunday at the Kentucky Horse Park, where she was the lone competitor among 31 starters to go clear in the show jumping phase and clinch the title after leading through every segment of the event.
Tamie Smith and Lillet 3 were elated over their Cosequin 4-Star victory.
The Californian became the only rider ever to win both the 4- and 5-Star on what is known as “The best weekend all year,” having topped the 5-Star in 2023 with the now-retired Mai Baum. Tamie has had only one rail down in 23 show jumping starts with Lillet 3, the lone horse to make the elusive 75-second time allowed on the course designed by Guillherme Jorge in the Rolex Arena.
Tamie didn’t think the time was achievable, but she and her coach, Scott Keach, were inspired to go for it. Then Lillet beat the clock.
“She was super I couldn’t have asked for her to be better, ” said Tamie, who ended on Saturday’s cross-country score of 31.3 penalties. Will Coleman moved up with only 1.6 time penalties on Very Dignified to be second with 37.4 time penalties. Next-best timewise, with only 0.4 penalties against the clock was Mia Farley and Invictus, owned by eventing legends Karen and David O’Connor. Invictus had a 38.3 total.
The show jumping was a milestone for Mia, who often has had trouble in that phase.
“I felt normal today,” said Mia,
“I just decided I wanted to ride the best I could. Sammy answered everything, he jumped really well and high. I was impressed with him. It was also nice to hear myself also answer those questions.”
Of Lillet, Tamie noted, “She didn’t get too tense or tight. She just keeps going from strength to strength she was so rideable and tried her heart out I don’t think she touched a rail, she jumped so well.”
What’s next for Lillet, the Holsteiner who came from Germany more than two years ago as an 8-year-old from Andreas Dibowski?
As Tamie noted about the Kentucky 4-star, “everyone considers it like a 5 (Star) Short (format). She’s already done two four longs (4-Star Longs) so i think she’s ready for a 5-star.”
A 5-star certainly looks like the natural step up for the mare, owned by Molly Duda.
After dressage, Tamie led with the 17-yeer-old Danito, but retired him on the cross-country course Saturday when things didn’t go as planned at the fifteenth fence. But Lillet moved right into the top spot after cross-country to take her stablemate’s place on the leaderboard.
Tamie was emotional when fellow eventer and friend Liz Halliday came out to the ring to present an award to her for being the top-placed U.S. competitor in the 4-Star division.
“We always had this thing, we were going to win medals together on teams,” Tamie recounted wistfully about the 2024 Olympian who suffered a traumatic brain injury in an August 2024 fall in Kentucky and has been dedicated to recovering ever since.
“It really was awesome to see how far she’s come. It’s virtually a miracle,” Tamie said.
Liz already has her sights set on competing in Para Dressage, but as Tamie noted “it’s bittersweet,” thinking what might have been.
Click here for 4-Star results
by Nancy Jaffer | Apr 21, 2026
An application by Select Event Group to run the Maryland 5-star in October 2027 is “actively” being prepared, with Paris Olympics 2024 cross-country course designer Pierre Le Goupil on board for the eventing competition, as he was for the 2025 edition.
David O’Connor, the U.S. Equestrian Federation’s chief of sport, said the group in May will be presenting a proposal to the organization for resumption of the event next year. The FEI also would have to approve it.
The 2026 competition was cancelled after key personnel departed the organization and the state of Maryland indicated funding would not be available for it.
The event, the first autumn 5-star held in the U.S., ran for five years at a new facility, the Fair Hill Special Event Zone, which also hosts horse racing. The organizing team now is headed by Marissa Melzer, who was the number two person in charge of presenting the 5-star previously.
Boyd Martin, Felix Vogg and Monica Spencer on the podium at the 2025 Maryland 5-star.
“Select is eager to build on the momentum created over the past several years and to thoughtfully broaden what this event can be,” said Alex Corgan, president of Select Event Group, which is the lead organizer for the effort to “reimagine” the event. Select has been involved with the Preakness Stakes, Maryland’s leg of racing’s Triple Crown.
“Our goal is to expand the aperture of supporters and participants — from longtime equestrian fans to new community partners — creating more opportunities for people to engage, contribute, and feel invested in the event’s success. By bringing together a strong team and welcoming all those willing to help make this a success, we believe that we can deliver at Fair Hill an experience that is both world-class in sport and deeply rooted in community.”
He added, “Select intends to expand opportunities for participation from other regional jurisdictions, partners, and organizations both within and beyond Maryland.”
Select already has submitted to USEF an application for presenting the 3-star and Young Event Horse competition that ran with the 5-star. If approved, those fixtures would be held this October as Select partners with Cecil County on the project.
The iconic crab fence has become a symbol of the Maryland 5-star.
County Executive Adam Streight said, “Cecil County is pleased to see the 3-star event continue this year, ensuring the tradition of world-class eventing at Fair Hill remains strong.
“We look forward to working with Select Event Group, who understand the importance of including Cecil Countians and local businesses, along with our partners, to deliver a successful 2026 competition and welcome the return of the Maryland 5 Star in 2027.”
Tim Gardner, a member of the organizing team, said Select is “very motivated to keep this event as an asset for Maryland and believes in it as a business opportunity.”
He noted Corgan “sort of rallied some of the other Maryalnd vendors.”
His involvement, “gets it into the hand of a professional event producer and gives us a really bright future not dependent on state money. It’s a great solution. We’re pretty optimistic.”
by Nancy Jaffer | Apr 25, 2026
In the Cosequin 4-Star Short, Tamie Smith ended cross-country Saturday where she began it after dressage — in first place, but with a different horse.
Tamie retired her leader from the first phase, Danito, on course after a problem at the fifteenth fence. But she rose from third to first with the fastest round of the day, aboard Lillet 3.
No one among the 34 finishers in the section made the optimum clocking of 6:37 on the route designed by Derek di Grazia, but Tamie came closest with just 1.6 time penalties. Of her mare, the Californian enthused, “She’s like a magic carpet.”
While Tamie noted, “it’s taken us a little time for us to get to know each other,” she said that now, “She’s thinking for me and I’m thinking for her. She’s such a fighter, and she’s so fast. She answered all the questions.”
Tamie noted Derek ihas done a “masterful job” of using the park’s rolling terrain for the test.
And Lillet was more than up to tdealing with that task.
“She keeps growing. In horses, you’re hoping they’re comfortable in their job,” said Tamie, and Lillet ha arrived at that place after a careful training journey.
Tamie described the mare as a queen, saying she has “such an elegance about her and a very sure way of going.”
Click here for 4-Star results
by Nancy Jaffer | Apr 25, 2026
Monica Spencer’s lead in the Defender Kentucky 5-Star Three-Day Event increased to a more comfortable level after the cross-country phase, not only because of her perfect trip Saturday within the 11:05 optimum time, but also because her closest rivals simply couldn’t match the caliber of her performance with the swift thoroughbred, Artist.
The New Zealander and her mount were a picture of fluent speed and agility over the route designed by Derek di Grazia at the Kentucky Horse Park.
After Friday’s dressage, she had an edge of only 0.3 penalties over her countryman, Tim Price on Vitali. But he dropped down to fifth place with 9.2 time penalties.
Thus her main worry going into Sunday’s stadium jumping finale is the USA’s Will Coleman with Diabolo, a fancy horse making his 5-star debut. He was also within the time, so he heads into show jumping on his mark from dressage, which is 27.3 penalties. That gives Monica, with 22.3 penalties, the luxury of being able to have one 4-fault knockdown over the painted rails. But will that be enough?
She is not going to take no for an answer in her Kentucky quest. Not after having moved across the globe to the U.S. with her family to pursue her sport at the highest level. Winning the $400,000 event would go a long way to making the mighty effort worthwhile
“You’re always questioning; everybody sacrificed; I face a lot of pressure to make it work,” she revealed.
And she can almost see the rainbow, with only a show jumping course between her and the view. But she thinks she is on track for what has to be done.
“We’re doing positive reinforcement. The podium is the dream, so we’ll try to stay there,” said Monica, who was second last autumn in the Maryland 5-star.
Monica Spencer and Artist simply took flight in a dramatic leap. (Equestrian Sports NZ/Shannon Brinkman Photography)
Will, the highest ranked U.S. rider so far in the competition, praised the efforts of his mount — who is fueled by a half-pint supplement of blueberries daily.
“I felt pretty good about where the horse was coming into the event,” he noted, and Diabolo didn’t disappoint.
“I adore the horse,” Will said. “I’m just thankful to be here. It’s an awesome event. A lot of the world’s best are here and it was a fantastic day of competition.”
Will Coleman and Diabolo. (U.S. Eventing Association Photo)
In third place is 2024 U.S. Olympian Caroline Pamukcu with HSH Blake, her Paris Games mount , a horse she loves so much that she named her daughter after him.
She had just two time penalties, so standing on a score of 28.6, Caroline is also a threat to the two riders in front of her.
click here for 5-star results
And if you want the blow-by-blow about every horse on cross-country, click here to get it from the U.S. Eventing Association.
