The Open Weekly: Five Qualifiers to Go, Fourth in Aachen, and the Freestyle Top Ten

Eventing Five Qualifiers Left, and Tryon Restarts the Run

Julie Wolfert & SSH Playboy hold the most recent qualifier win in the eventing Series. They took The Event at Rebecca Farm in July, a comeback result for a combination that had been out of action, and it has stood as the last word on the Series for six weeks.

With the World Championships done and dusted, the Series will soon pick back up. Five qualifiers remain before the Final at Morven Park in October, and the first of them is The Fork at Tryon on September 10. Entries are not yet closed but there are currently twelve names on the list. Wolfert & SSH Playboy are among them.

The Fork drew 31 starters last year, clearing the 25-starter line and putting the qualifier on the bigger 50-point scale. Boyd Martin built a chunk of his campaign on it, banking points from second, third and fourth. Will Coleman competed there with Very Dignified. Caroline Pamukcu did the same with HSH Tolan King.

Twelve months on, some of these names are pointed elsewhere. Coleman and Pamukcu take Very Dignified and HSH Tolan King to Burghley, which lands on close to the same dates. Boyd Martin is just back from Aachen. His plans from here aren't confirmed, but the championship cycle is reshaping the Series year to year. The points don't sit where they sat in 2025.

For the twelve entered, that is an opening. A field under 25 starters runs on the 40-point scale, but the competition for those points is thinner than it has been at Tryon before. Riders still filling counting slots have five chances left to do it.

The American Eventing Championships get underway at the Kentucky Horse Park today. Hundreds of competitors are entered across the levels, and although the AEC sits outside the Series calendar, it is where a large share of the US eventing population will be for the next few days.

Jumping Ward’s Clear Anchors USA to Fourth in Aachen

Steve Guerdat & Dynamix de Belheme are World Champions. The Swiss pair finished on 0.86, the time penalty they picked up in the opening speed leg, and never touched a fence after it. Four rounds, no faults added. Thibeau Spits & Impress-K van’t Kattenheye Z took silver on 5.60 for Belgium. Harry Charles & LT Holst Freda took bronze on 7.17. 

The Icon Global US Jumping Team went into the final evening in silver medal position and came out fourth on 16.85. The first round of the final was the high point. Laura Kraut & Baloutinue, Katie Dinan & Out of the Blue SCF and Lillie Keenan & Fasther all jumped clear, leaving the team on zero for the round.

Round two ran the other way. Kraut had one down in the triple, Keenan collected eight after a rail at the first, and Dinan retired. That left McLain Ward & High Star Hero as the anchor, and they delivered the clear that held fourth place. Germany took gold on 4.48, Belgium silver on 11.69, Great Britain bronze on 12.98.

Kraut & Baloutinue came into Sunday 12th and needed a clear to make the top 12 cut for the final round. A foot in the water added four and dropped them to 14th, closing out Kraut’s fourth World Championship. Ward & High Star Hero made the final round on 6.62 and added two rails to finish 21st. Keenan & Fasther were 32nd.

Two combinations known from the US Equestrian Open Jumping season were in the mix in Aachen. Nina Mallevaey & Dynastie de Beaufour finished eighth on 10.93 for France. Shane Sweetnam & James Kann Cruz were 15th for Ireland. Both jumped in Wellington earlier this year on the road to the Rolex US Equestrian Open Final.

Dressage Simonson Twice Inside the Freestyle Top Ten