U.S. results at Aachen, a mini World Championship, varied from great to poor (2)
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July 9, 2025
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By SARA CAVANAGH
AACHEN, Germany--Aachen is an annual mini-world championship, with competition in five disciplines, jumping, eventing, dressage, driving and vaulting.
U.S. winning Nations Cup teamThe U.S. had teams competing in jumping, eventing and dressage and individuals in driving and vaulting with varied results, ranging from the best of the best to very close to the worst.
This year might have been a preview of what's to come, as the World Championships next year will be held in Aachen.
For the U.S., Jumping was the best of the best, winning five classes, including the Nations Cup, and finishing second and sixth in the Grand Prix.
The team of Kent Farrington, Lillie Keenan, Laura Kraut and McLain Ward won the Nations Cup over eight top teams, Fsrrington won a jump-off class, Kraut won a speed class in pouring rain and was second in the Grand Prix, Ward won a speed class and Keenan won the Youngster Cup and Best Young Horse well as being one of only five to be double clean in the Nations Cup.
"No one can remember any country ever winning five major classes including the Nations Cup at Aachen," said chef d'equipe Robert Ridland.
"This was a positive week looking forward to next year," said Ridland. " It's a good preview for the World Championships."
THE EVENTING team of Will Coleman, Phillip Dutton, Boyd Martin and Caroline Pamukcu finished second to New Zealand in the UBS-Cup CCIO4-S*.
U.S.Eventing team is second in AachenThe high point was the U.S. being the only country to have all four of its team members finish the cross country course with no jumping faults.
The only U.S. individual rider, Dutton on his second horse, was also clean in cross county jumping.
The U.S. had mixed results in show jumping, with three clean rounds, but Pamukcu had eight faults and Dutton on his team horse had four faults.
But the dressage results weren't as positive, with the team finishing fourth behind Great Britain, New Zealand and Germany.
We're very happy with the result and know there's more potential as we work towards next year's championships here," said chef d'equuipe Leslie Law.
The dressage team was close to the worst, finishing second to last as the eighth of nine teams in the Grand Prix Nations Cup.
Germany was easily first, finishing on 232.065, with Belgium second on 219.804 and Sweden third on 216.935.
Great Britain was fourth on 215.892, followed by Denmark, 215.631, Netherlands, 212.826, Portugal, 212.478, U.S., 206,436, and Spain, 204.521.
Kasey Perry-Glass on Heartbeat WP finished 16th, Benjamin Ebeling on Bellena was 18th, Jennifer Williams on Joppe K was last of the 34 in the Grand Prix, and Kevin Hohmann on Dunensee was eliminated.
In the Grand Prix Freestyle, Perry-Glass was 14th, and she was 13th in the Grand Prix Special, while Eberling was 16th in the Freestyle and 18th in the Special.
Those close to the team say that the riders are more interested in beating each other than working towards winning individually.
U.S.riders can't even win on home soil, having been consistently beaten in Wellington, Fla., last winter.
Although the U.S. has never won a gold medal in Olympics or World Championships, its teams were consistently silver or bronze medalists for many years, but recently things have been poor.
Christine Traurig finally took over as chef d'equipe, and recently USEF announced that Olivia LaGoy Wentz and Guenter Seidel have joined the dressage program as Dressage Assistant Pathway Coaches.
But there's little hope they can change things in a year.
Only individuals competed in Driving and Vaulting.
In Driving, Chester Weber was the only U.S. representative, and he finished an uncharacteristic eighth after apparently having trouble in the final obstacle on the Marathon.
Weber was second to eventual overall winner Boyd Exell of Australia in dressage, but was 20th in the Marathon, a phase in which he is usually among the top group, and then finished seventh in cones.
The U.S.has never excelled in Vaulting, which is a discipline apparently only competed in in California in this country.
But in Aachen, the individuals did quite well, with two Americans, Kimberly Parker and Tessa Divita, finishing in the top 10, sixth and eighth respectively.
Ara Schult was 118th, Emma Milito was 19th and Caroline Morse was inside the top 25.
In the male division, the only two Americans competing also finished in the top10, with Daniel Janes placing 6th and Jace Brooks ninth.
The 2026 FEI World Championships will be held in Aachen, Germany from Aug. 11-23, 2026, and feature the six international disciplines of Eventing, Show Jumping, Dressage, Driving, Vaulting, and Para Dressage .
The FEI World Championships are held every four years, and were formerly held with all eight international disciplines together in one location.
The other two disciplines are Reining and Endurance, and they will be held separately..
For the U.S,, in the Olympic discipline of Eventing, this championship will serve as one of two Olympic qualifying events ahead of the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic & Paralympic Games.