It’s likely the best is yet to come for the U.S. in eventing at the FEI World Championships, where the team stands sixth among 16 teams on the first day of competition in Aachen, Germany.
After half the field competed on Thursday, New Zealand and Great Britain were tied for the lead on 55.9 penalties, with Germany third on 59.9. If you were in a betting mood, those were the short-odds favored teams going into the title meet.
On Friday, as eventing dressage wraps up, strong pairings will show their hands, including medal machine Michael Jung with fischer Chipmunk FRH for 2025 European champion Germany and 2025 European Championships individual gold medalist Laura Collett on London 52 for Britain.
Representing the U.S., Paris 2024 Olympian Boyd Martin will be up with Cooley Nutcracker and Will Coleman rides Diabolo, who missed Paris due to injury. (Tamie Smith will ride Lillet 3 as an individual, not part of the squad).
You can expect a boost in the U.S. standings, but it’s not just the three leading nations that will put on the pressure. Switzerland (61.6) and France (64.1), in fourth and fifth place, are just barely ahead of the American total. But there’s also seventh-place Ireland to keep an eye on. It’s a mere 0.1 penalties back on 65 penalties.
However, chef d’equipe Leslie Law is optimistic, predicting “we should have a really good day,” considering that Boyd and Will’s horses have been “going absolutely great” in the training leading up to the title meet.
Individually, the lead at this point belongs to Britain’s incredibly experienced pairing, 2025 Europeans bronze medalist Tom McEwen and JL Dublin at 26.6 penalties. If your mind, like mine, is still a bit in Grand Prix Dressage mode after yesterday’s team competition in that discipline, “Dubs’ ” score would translate to 73.40 percent.
Caroline Pamukcu, first to go for the U.S. on her normally stalwart HSH Blake, stands fourteenth on 32.3 penalties. As Leslie referenced her ride, he cited “a couple of little mistakes I thought she did a really good job to save, especially when her horse picked up the wrong lead instead of the counter-canter. She used all her experience to save that and then get the next marks from her horse.”
Recounting her performance, Caroline said, “I have a lovely horse (she even named her baby after him last year!)
“He’s a very, very special guy. Obviously, I’m disappointed. I could do better, not him. I didn’t give him the ride I wanted to today. I’ll go back and reflect. Sometimes it just falls short. He picked up the left lead instead of the right lead. That was a stupid mistake; stuff happens.”
Phillip Dutton is fifteenth with 32.6 penalties on Denim, who last month was named as a substitute for Possante, with whom Phillip originally was selected.
Assessing his performance, Phillip called it “pretty much mistake-free. He was real professional in there.”
The test itself, “the Olympic Short Test,” which does not require an initial halt as Grand Prix dressage does, from my spectator viewpoint doesn’t really flow. Its four flying changes often seem awkward.
According to Phillip, “It’s a hard test. Once you get one change, the next one’s coming up pretty quick. You don’t have much time to regroup. I was pleased without being ecstatic. The better horses are going to score better. You need a horse with nice impulsion.”
He will be the U.S. pathfinder for cross-country, which takes place on Saturday.
“It’s a tough course, a lot of turning,” Phillip said.
“The time’s going to be hard to get. There are probabaly three or four places that are proper 5-star questions,” Phillip remarked.
He noted it will take “a lot of thought going into the options because there are so many different choices if something’s going wrong. I’ll have to do a lot of studying tomorrow.”
But he has confidence in Denim, saying “he’s a good jumper and efficient.”
Caroline called the route designed by Italy’s Giuseppe della Chiesa “a lovely course. They’ve done such a great job with ground conditions. It’s like an oasis, green, lush and beautiful, and then everywhere else in Germany is like a barren desert. They’ve done a great job for horse welfare.”
The European heatwave has taken its toll. With temperatures set to soar on Friday, the dressage Grand Prix Special will be having a two-hour, 15-minute break mid-day, and start at 8:30 a.m. (2:30 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time) earlier than originally scheduled to avoid the hottest temperatures.
There have been no changes so far in the schedule for the second segment of eventing dressage. That test is shorter and less intense than the Special.
Click here for individual standings. Click here for team standings.
