“I really hope he will go down as a legend of our time and a legend of the sport, not only for the performances he gives, but his character as well. He is an unbelievable horse to have at home,” she said of Archie and Michele Saul’s 13-year-old British Sport Horse gelding (Birkhof’s Grafenstolz TSF—Cornish Queen, Rock King). “He absolutely thrives on these occasions. I could have dropped the reins and waved at the crowd for 15 minutes and he would just have thoroughly enjoyed himself. I don’t think there are many horses in the world that would do that.”

To help put the pair’s latest victory into context, we turned to the folks at EquiRatings. When words fail, go to the people who can describe the pair’s feat in numbers.

Canter and Walter also won at Burghley in 2024—on a record low score, nonetheless—which already puts them in elite company. Only two other horses have been repeat winners at the event—Priceless, ridden by Ginny Leng of Great Britain, who won in 1983 and 1985; and Avebury, ridden by Andrew Nicholson of New Zealand, who won in 2012, 2013 and 2014.

But Walter is the only horse to have been a repeat winner at both Burghley and the Mars Badminton CCI5*-L, which he won in his two consecutive appearances, in 2023 and 2025. (They did not contest the event in 2024; focusing instead on the Paris Olympics, where they were part of the gold-medal British team). Carter is one of just six riders to win Badminton twice on the same horse, and the first to do it in more than 20 years. The others repeat winners are Frank Weldon on Kilbarry (1955 and 1956), Sheila Willcox on High And Mighty (1957 and 1958), then-Lt. Mark Phillips on Great Ovation (1971 and 1972), Ian Stark on Sir Wattie (1986 and 1988; the 1987 event was canceled) and Pippa Funnell on Supreme Rock (2002 and 2003).

Only one other horse has won consecutive Burghley-Badminton-Burghley events: Priceless, ridden by Leng, who won Badminton in 1985.

Walter’s win at Burghley last year set a new record-low final penalty score: 23.6. Amazingly, they matched that feat over the weekend, scoring 22.4 in dressage and adding 1.2 time penalties in show jumping to finish on the exact same final score. Their winning margin of 9 penalties over Ireland’s Austin O’Connor and Colorado Blue was the largest in the modern era of the event, since roads and tracks and steeplechase were dropped in 2006.

Walter has never had a rail in show jumping at the five-star level, and his only cross-country time penalties came during a particularly muddy and challenging year in 2023, where their 11.6 time penalties were still the second best of the day, behind only O’Connor and Colorado Blue, who had 10.6 time penalties and went on to finish third that year.

Both this year and last, the pair sat second after dressage, but took the lead after cross-country. In 2024, Walter was second (22.0) to Canter’s other ride, Izilot DHI (19.9) who retired on cross-country after a run-out. In 2025, Canter and Walter were just 0.4 penalties behind dressage leader Oliver Townend and Cooley Rosalent (22.0), who had a glance-off at a corner and finished 12th.

Canter and Walter were the only pair to make the optimum time on cross-country at this year’s event. Thirty pairs completed the course from a field of 50 starters, with 19 clear rounds.

Being in the pole position after cross-country at Burghley is a good place to be, as every leading pair but one since 2013 went on to win the event.

With the Burghley win, Walter has now completed five five-stars, never placing worse than second. And in that first Badminton appearance, where they finished second to Tokyo Olympic team gold medalists Collett and London 52, Walter still performed faultlessly, finishing on his dressage score of 26.0. Canter confirmed that she plans to head back to Badminton in 2026. For the record, no horse has won Badminton three times … yet.

The post Lordships Graffalo’s Unprecedented Burghley Win, By The Numbers appeared first on The Chronicle of the Horse.

Fylicia Barr may be a five-star eventer now, but she got her start in the sport aboard the most unlikely of mounts. Her first event horse was a gray Arabian gelding named Zanzibar, with whom she did a bit of everything: 4-H, barrel racing, English and western pleasure, and even a little reining. A painting of him—dished nose, delicate ears and kind eyes, standing in a field of flowers—graces the cover of this month’s issue of the Chronicle. 

When Barr, 30, first met “Z,” he was an emaciated, rough-looking youngster at a low-end auction in western New York. Barr was just 10 years old, and she had a total of three riding lessons under her belt. Barr’s mother, Shannon Barr, bought Z on an impulse, despite the fact that neither she nor her young daughter had the requisite skills or experience at that time to manage an unknown horse from auction.

However, in the years to come, Z (named by Fylicia in honor of the main equine character in the “Phantom Stallion” series) would pay back his rescuers in dividends. Not only did Fylicia ultimately event him through training level, he carried multiple young riders to 4-H competitions, and later came out of retirement to become the first event horse for Chronicle cover artist Josie Buller, who took him all the way to the 2021 USEA American Eventing Championships.

“It felt like he just wanted to do right by us,” Fylicia, of Unionville, Pennsylvania, said. “We saved him, and I think he knew that, and he always tried to do everything he could for us. There were definitely moments where he could have said no, but he gave us everything he had. We both did a lot for each other.”

We Meant To Buy A Saddle…

On the day Shannon and Fylicia met Z, they had gone to the auction with a friend, intending to buy a saddle. Instead, they bought a horse with an unknown past, paying just $800 for the gelding—one dollar a pound.

“We saw him, and he was so sad, and so thin—he just looked at us, and we knew we had to try to make something happen,” Fylicia said. “It was truly the blind leading the blind. At auction, you don’t get much info on them, and we saw him with a saddle on and assumed he was saddle broke.”

But when they got him home—to a facility Fylicia describes as a “backyard barn sort of set up,” they found out Z was perhaps only 2 or 3 years old.

“He was young, and not really broke at all,” Fylicia said. “It was a bit of a set up for disaster. I didn’t know what I was doing, he didn’t know what he was doing, but we found our way, together.”

Nursing Z back to health required nothing more than correct, basic care. Over the next several years, Fylicia slowly got him started under saddle. Although she took occasional lessons on other horses, she didn’t have much help with Z; looking back, Fylicia admits she made many mistakes.

“Now, as an equestrian professional, I’m horrified at some of the things he put up with,” Fylicia said. “But he never complained. He used to buck me off for sport, but he gave me a really good seat that I still have to this day, and it was always with a smile on his face. It was a game for him, more than him wanting to hurt me. He’d just sit and wait for me to get back on.

“He made me fearless,” she continued. “He made me feel like I could ride anything. He was always a really, really good boy.”

When Fylicia learned about eventing, she was instantly hooked. She and Z debuted in U.S. Eventing Association competition in August 2011 at the Erie Hunt and Saddle Club Horse Trials (Pennsylvania), where they ran beginner novice. At the same competition a year later, they competed at training level. By then, Fylicia was 17 years old and had acquired a mare named Galloway Sunrise, whom she purchased off Craigslist as a semi-feral 2-year-old. Fylicia began thinking it might be time for Z to step down a level as she continued her own progress forward.

“At training level, the jumps got a little big for him,” Fylicia said. “So we leased him to a couple of young riders that did 4-H shows with him. He was the perfect babysitter.”

Although he was sound and in good health, when his final 4-H lease ended, the Barrs took advantage of an opportunity to retire Z to a farm in western New York. For several years, he lived “his best horsey life” there, while Fylicia continued her own eventing journey with “Sunny,” eventually making it all the way to the five-star level. She attributes her tenacity in working with the quirky mare, and other challenging mounts, to the lessons she initially learned from Z.

“He taught me not to give up on the difficult ones,” Fylicia said. “If you put enough time and effort into trying to understand the tricky horses, you can come out the other side with a really quality partner—if you’re patient, and take the time to understand where they’re coming from.”

It was after Fylicia relocated to Unionville and established her business that she met 12-year-old Buller, who wanted to get started in eventing—but who didn’t have a horse. Fylicia immediately thought of Z.

“When Josie came into my program and needed something to ride, I thought, ‘Let me see if the old man has got a little bit left in the tank,’” Fylicia said. “And he absolutely gave her everything.”

From Starter To The Bluegrass

Buller is now an 18-year-old freshman at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, but she still vividly remembers the day six years ago when Z and his friends moved into the new home of Fylicia Barr Eventing.

“People were putting up white boards by the stalls with the horse’s and owner’s names, and Z’s little white board had my name listed below his, even though I was not the owner,” Buller, of Coatesville, Pennsylvania, remembered. “Fylicia very generously let me do a free lease on him, and act like he was my own horse. The stars kind of aligned, and Fylicia knew Z would be the best teacher for me—and he really was.”

Buller had gotten her start taking lessons a local hunter/jumper program, but when she learned about eventing, decided to shift her focus. Working with Fylicia and Z, she went from being a “rusty” crossrail rider to competing at novice. After gaining mileage at the starter level in schooling horse trials and learning the basics of dressage, the pair moved up fairly quickly. In June 2020, after eight years away from sanctioned competition, Z returned to the sport at the Plantation Field Horse Trials (Pennsylvania) at beginner novice —with Buller in the irons.

“I made a lot of mistakes—I got left behind plenty of times—but he was so, so tolerant,” Buller said. “I always felt untouchable on Z. He’s just the best partner, and we had lots of fun. I’d never really shown, so I did all my ‘firsts’ on Z.”

When Buller was 15, she decided to set a big goal: to qualify for and compete at the 2021 AEC.

“It can get pretty competitive in Area II, and Z, being an Arabian, would stick his head up in dressage, and I didn’t always quite know what to do,” Buller said with a laugh. “But we got a second place at Bucks County [Pennsylvania], and we got to go to AEC.”

Buller describes the experience of competing Z at the AEC, held that year in Lexington, Kentucky, as “magical.” She admits he even was “a little wild” on cross-country after being stalled for so many days. The pair finished 31^st of 38 in the junior novice, 15 and under, championship—and earned the best-scoring Arabian award.

“He was the only Arabian in the class,” Buller laughed. “Some people would say, ‘Oh, you ride an Arabian?’ Well, he’s the best cross-country horse you’ll ever find. A horse you truly care about will always give 110% to you.”

Watching her first horse gallop over the Kentucky bluegrass with Buller made Fylicia feel as if Z’s story had come full circle.

“Obviously, Z and I did not make it to the Kentucky five-star,” Fylicia said with a laugh. “That was my dream growing up, even though I was a 10-year-old kid on an Arabian pony we’d bought for nothing. But watching him and Josie go down the ramp into Rolex stadium, and gallop through the Head of the Lake—that was so special. He made her dreams come true, and my childhood dreams came to life through them at that moment, too.”

Although Buller and Z competed one more time that season, the AEC proved to be their swan song together. 

“We don’t know his exact age, but he is 20-ish, and he had held himself together,” Buller said. “It felt like he was trying really hard, and he didn’t need to keep competing, where I wanted to keep moving up.”

Inspired by her trainer’s work in producing her own horses, Buller moved on to a former Thoroughbred race horse named Lee, whom she competed through training level. But Z remained in Fylicia’s barn, and Buller would still trail ride him once in a while just for fun.

“Most of the time, I didn’t even bother putting a saddle on him,” Buller said. “I’d just hop on, and we’d get going.”

Behind The Cover Painting

As Buller neared high school graduation, she knew that her time with Z was drawing to a close. Fylicia had made the decision to send him to enjoy a final, official retirement with her mother in western New York, and Buller was preparing to head to college. When she painted a watercolor and gouache portrait of him standing in a field of flowers, which she included in her senior gallery, it was intended as a dedication to the horse who changed her life. 

“He absolutely is my heart horse,” Buller said. “Middle school was a pretty rough time for me, and having Z … I went to the barn every day after school, and I felt like I had him in my corner all the time. If I had a really bad day, and I got off the bus in tears, we’d just go out for hours and hours on the great hacking trails around the barn. I kind of felt like every time I stepped into the saddle with him, I got to leave everything on the ground.”

Buller loves floriography, a tradition which looks at the symbolism of flowers and colors. In her tribute to Z, each flower she painted in the field he’s standing in was chosen specifically to convey Buller’s appreciation for all that he means to her—the sweet peas at the front mean “thank you for a lovely time,” the zinnias symbolize everlasting friendship, the heather is for protection, and the Queen Anne’s lace for sanctuary.

When the Chronicle put out a call for submission to its annual Junior Art Gallery (see more submissions from young artists here), she sent it in. Chronicle staff chose the piece to grace the cover of the 2025 Young Rider issue. 

“I’m so happy it got on the cover, because if any horse deserves to be on the cover of the Chronicle, it’s Z,” Buller said. “He has given so much, to so many people. He was Fylicia’s first horse, and now she’s a five-star rider. He helped me through so much in middle school and made me into the rider I am today.

“I think it is so important, on so many levels, for all people to know that every single horse deserves a second chance,” she continued. “Horses always seem to give back, especially those who get into a really good situation after having been in a not so great one. They give you their whole heart, and there is a lot of value in having a horse you’re just really close with. With the right people, no matter what their breed, a horse can do anything.”

The post From Rescue To Ribbons: Chronicle Cover Horse Made Dreams Come True appeared first on The Chronicle of the Horse.

Phillip Dutton has helped a remarkable number of horses and riders reach the top ranks of eventing over the years, but it was a poignant reunion between two of them that the Olympian orchestrated at a local schooling show which got the horse world talking most recently.

Two graduates of Dutton’s True Prospect Farm—Maryland 5 Star at Fair Hill Competition Director Joanie Morris, who first connected with Dutton as a teenaged working student, and Z, his former world championship and Olympic partner—cantered steadily around a 2’11” show jumping course in a video shared recently on Dutton’s social media.

The video documents a homecoming of sorts for both horse and rider: For Z, a return to competition after a lengthy rehabilitation following an injury at the 2023 Pau CCI5* (France) that forced his retirement from eventing, and for Morris a return to the Chester County, Pennsylvania, area that helped propel her into a multi-faceted career in the sport.

Those involved said Z’s new partnership with Morris felt like kismet, as they both enter a new stage of their lives. The connection felt even more special given Z’s history with Morris’ late husband, show jumping trainer Richard Picken. 

In late 2023, Dutton announced Z’s retirement, explaining that it wasn’t in the best interest of the Zangersheide gelding (Asca Z—Bellabouche, Babouche VH Gehucht Z) owned by David and Patricia Vos, Ann Jones, Suzanne Lacy, Caroline Moran, Thomas Tierney, and Dutton’s wife, Evie Dutton, to return to the intense training required at the top level. The gelding had sustained a significant injury on the cross-country phase at Pau that October.

Z joined Phillip’s string 11 years ago, as a 6-year-old, and quickly rose through the levels. Together, they represented the United States at the 2018 FEI World Equestrian Games (North Carolina) and the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games. The gelding notched five top-10 placings at the CCI5* level over his career and became a fan favorite along the way.

“He had a pretty significant suspensory injury, so he needed plenty of time to heal if he was going to have a good life afterward,” Phillip said. “Z spent the winter after his injury rehabilitating at Furlong’s Soundness Center in New Jersey. From there, we brought him back very slowly. We started by just legging him up, and eventually he reached the point where he could begin flatwork and some small jumping.”

Around the time Z began easing back into work, Morris returned to live in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, after years spent in Kentucky working various roles within the sport, including almost a decade spent as U.S. Equestrian Federation’s managing director of eventing. 

“I was a working student for Phillip when I was 18 and have been in and out of his program ever since,” Morris said. “I’d lived here before, so I already had a lot of friends in the area, and it’s closer to my parents in Maine. It felt like a good place to land and made sense for my career change.”

Morris recently leased out her own CCI2* partner, Pioneer Archibald, after a busy travel schedule made it difficult to ride him regularly. 

“Archie loves to work and go to events,” she said. “I leased him to a fabulous kid in Kentucky, and she just did her first prelim with him.”

That opened the door for Morris to ride at True Prospect again, where Phillip asked her to ride Z. 

“In April of this year, I let Phillip know I’d love to come over—there’s typically not a shortage of horses over there that need to be ridden,” Morris said. “Luckily, [Z] was able to return to some low-level work around that time. Z has the best owners who gave him everything he needed for a chance to come back.”

From the start, the partnership felt special because of her late husband’s connection to the horse. Picken had been a fixture on the U.S. Equestrian Federation’s eventing and show jumping circuits, earning respect as a top coach and trainer, and had been an influential figure in Phillip’s career with horses including Z.

“When Phillip first asked me to ride Z, I appreciated how special he was to him and how much Richard thought of him—we’ve all been through a lot together,” Morris said.

“Joanie’s been part of our team on and off for probably 25 years,” Phillip said. “The timing worked out perfectly for her to take Z over. It’s a truly special partnership, as her late husband was a friend and coach who helped me a great deal with Z early in his career. In a way, it feels like Richard is still overseeing things from above.”

Picken was Phillip’s go-to show jumping coach and worked with him at events. He started working with Z around the time the horse was moving up to the advanced level. 

“Z has always been a fabulous jumper—it just came naturally to him—and Richard loved that horse,” Morris said. “He did a ton of work with him on the show jumping phase.” 

Morris still recalls some of Picken and Z’s time together, such as a video that resurfaces on her TikTok. 

“The video is of Richard putting Z in the start box at the Kentucky Three-Day,” Morris said. “He did the same for another of Phillip’s horses, Mighty Nice, because they could both be pretty excited at the start. The video is just Richard hanging on for dear life—it always makes me smile. He loved developing all kinds of horses, but Z was special to him. Even after Richard passed in 2022, it felt like his influence was still there. The fall after he passed, Z jumped the most beautiful clear round at [the Maryland 5 Star at Fair Hill, where he finished fourth]. He had matured significantly—his rideability and composure continued to improve.”

While Morris knew Z had a reputation for getting excited at events, she said he’s been wonderful to ride at home. 

“He’s quiet and really sweet,” Morris said. “I started riding him here and there, then we added in a little jumping. When I’m in town, I get to play around with him, and it’s worked out well—it’s been a lot of fun.”

“Z was always a bit hot and nervous, so it’s nice to see him relaxing and mellowing out now,” Phillip said. “Joanie’s done an excellent job with him.” 

Recently, while Morris was in town, Phillip suggested she take Z to his first competition—a local schooling show—since 2023.

“Phillip asked if I wanted to compete with him at Lanefield Farm, and I said, ‘Sure—what level?’ ” Morris said. “He told me just to show jump around in the novice and see how he was. I didn’t really know what to expect, but if it was stressful for him or if he got too worked up, then we would decide whether it was worth continuing. He doesn’t need that kind of pressure in his semi-retirement life.”

Fortunately, Z appeared to enjoy his return to the show jumping ring with his new partner.

“He was so cute,” Morris said. “I was mostly worried about the warm-up because it’s small, and there were green horses everywhere. I thought it might be a little much for him, but he handled it well. When we went into the ring, he puffed up like he’d grown a hand, and I laughed and told him, ‘Buddy, look at the size of these jumps.’ You can see in the video how happy he was. 

“He never felt wound up, and he just seemed to enjoy himself,” she added. “Afterward, people recognized him and came over to pet him. He really loved the whole experience.”

While they are taking things one day at a time, Phillip added that Z will likely remain in the jumper ring only. 

“I think Z’s future is for Joanie to continue riding him—or maybe someone else down the line—and enjoy him at the lower levels for the next couple of years,” he said. “I don’t really want him to event again, though, because he used to get so wound up on cross-country. I think that could risk him re-injuring himself, so keeping him in show jumping is the better option.”

Z’s comeback resonates not only with the people he’s closest to but also with the many people he touched throughout his career.

“Phillip works harder than anyone, and Z is a testament to that,” Morris said. “But Z’s one of those horses who’s touched a lot of people—his group of owners, the people who care for him every day, and the fans who followed his long career. When Phillip posted that video, I couldn’t believe the responses. People were just thrilled to see him looking well, and that meant a great deal to them. Horses like Z create those connections, even for people who’ve only ever seen him gallop by at the Kentucky Three-Day or Maryland 5 Star. That’s what makes his return to the show ring so special.”

The post Kismet—And Phillip Dutton—Reunite True Prospect Grads Joanie Morris And Z appeared first on The Chronicle of the Horse.

Tommy Greengard and That’s Me Z carried a 16.3-point cushion into the final phase of the $60,000 Adequan USEA Advanced Final at the USEA American Eventing Championships on Saturday night. It was more than enough cushion, and even with two rails down on William Roberston’s show jumping course at Galway Downs, their early lead remained untouchable to earn a wire-to-wire win in the top division.

Greengard, of Malibu, California, said that the Zangersheide gelding (Take A Chance On Me Z—Veneita, VDL Indoctro), who was the youngest horse in the class at 8 years old, has continued to surprise and impress the rider with his athleticism.

“He was wild,” he said of the gelding’s energy going into the final phase, even with temps in the high 90s. “I rode him a little bit this morning, and he was wild. My coach [Andrea Pfeiffer] texted me and said it looks like he’ll be ready for a four-star long sometime next year. So it bodes well for the future.”

Greengard came across “Z” in a social media post in 2022, and says he and Pfeiffer were immediately drawn to the gelding. “He’s been exceptional from day one,” Greengard said of Z, who he co-owns with Andrea Pfeiffer. “He picked us. The universe sent him to us, and I can’t tell you why.”

The pair did their first novice horse trials in October 2022 and moved quickly up the levels. In 2024, Greengard won the USET Foundation’s Amanda Pirie Warrington Grant, which he used to attend the 2024 FEI WBFSH Eventing World Breeding Championships (France) with Z, where the pair finish 16th.

The pair was trailed by Karen O’Neal and Clooney 14, who held strong in second place through all three phases. O’Neal has been incorporating hunter derbies and 1.20-meter jumper classes into her show schedule to make Annika Asling’s gelding as competitive as possible in the show jumping phase. 

“I’ve been doing a lot of jumpers, and I think it’s really helped me because it’s giving me more confidence to just know him. Because when we event, we get one shot,” O’Neal said. “It feels like it’s paying off, and it feels like both of us are more confident at the height now.”

O’Neal also dropped a rail on a course that saw no double-clear rounds, finishing on a score of 59.1.

“I don’t always like long, related distances,” O’Neal said. “I like to turn and use my eye, and so that was probably more of a challenge for me. It pushed me a little out of my comfort zone.”

Of the six riders in the advanced final, only Megan McIver and 12-year-old Igor B were in their comfort zone, as the only pair to jump clean, notching 3.2 time penalties. Their round bumped the pair up from fourth to third place. It was no coincidence that McIver successfully navigated Robertson’s course without touching a rail; she’s a veteran of his courses. 

“William is an excellent designer, and so he designed a really proper track,” McIver said. “I’m lucky enough to be based at the Horse Park at Woodside (Redwood City, California), and William often times designs the show jumping shows at our place, so I’ve had my William practice.”

McIver has been riding “Rupert” for about a year and a half. While she typically prefers to produce horses herself, Rupert had already been produced to the four-star level in England by Kristina Hall-Jackson when she took him on. Although she had to adjust to a horse trained to another rider’s style, the pair has since jelled.

“We’re still learning each other, but I feel like this weekend really solidified that we have a partnership,” she said of the 12-year-old Dutch Warmblood (Vittorio—Erica B, Carabas Van De Wateringhoeve). “Now he feels like my horse.”

A hairy moment on cross-country put the strength of their relationship into perspective. After a miscommunication up a bank, McIver ended up “laying on his neck,” she said. Instead of backing off, Rupert locked in on the next jump and gave her time to recover.

“I thought to myself, ‘OK, I’m going to take the 20 [penalty points] here,’ and I look up and he’s already taking me to the chevron,” she said. “That’s a partnership, you know, where he just kind of took the wheel for a moment. And that was, like—I’ve never actually felt that on a horse before.”

In the AEC’s first running in California, the advanced field was made up entirely of West Coast-based riders. Molly Duda and Disco Traveler placed fourth, Taren Hoffos and Master Class took fifth, and Bec Braitling and Caravaggio II landed in sixth.

See complete results here.

Be sure you’re following the Chronicle’s coverage of the 2025 USEA American Eventing Championships on Facebook and Instagram @Chronofhorse. 

The post Greengard And That’s Me Z Are Untouchable In $60,000 Adequan USEA Advanced Final appeared first on The Chronicle of the Horse.

Amid a lineup of horses in the junior novice awards ceremony at the USEA American Eventing Championships, Michaela Smith’s palomino pony Cashmaker was easy to spot and, despite his size, impossible to beat. The German Sport Horse was the only pony in the ribbons, but it didn’t surprise his 13-year-old rider that the 14.1-hand pony was able to win the division over his big-strided competition. 

“Even though he’s small, he is very energetic and—when he’s jumping—he has the spring of a horse,” Smith said. “He can jump pretty big and he can make a lot of the horse strides.”

Smith met “Cash” he was 8 and she was 9, and both the pony and rider’s experience at the time was limited to the  hunter/jumper rings. When Smith took an interest in eventing, she didn’t know how game Cash would be for the sport, but he took right to it, especially cross-country. 

“He loves to go fast,” she said.

Over the years, Cash has kept pace as his young rider has become better and braver. At last year’s AEC, she said that the pair had a time penalty on cross-country, so she planned to add some speed this year. But Cash upped the ante. 

“I was like, I’ll go fast in the beginning and then I’ll slow down at the end and get closer to my minute marker,” Smith said. But when the rider asked him to slow, the pony (Casino Royale K—Golden Princess) had a different idea. 

“I didn’t have many brakes, so I came in at 4:32,” she said. “My speed fault was 4:32, so if I was one second faster, I would have had speed faults.”

Smith and Cash went last in the show jumping today, a finale that solidified their lead with a clear round and secured the win on their dressage score of 24.2. Smith says that adding dressage to the former hunter/jumper pony’s repertoire was easy with the help of her trainer, Taya Perry, the assistant trainer at Soleil Equestrian in Portola Valley, California. 

This week at the AEC, Smith had the added challenge of tackling the championship without her trainer, who missed the competition while to go on her honeymoon. Throughout the week, Smith has been supported by her mother, sister and the Soleil team, but when she went clear over the last jump in the stadium, there was one person she wanted to call.

The connection with Perry was glitchy, but on the other end of the line Smith caught just enough: “good” and “job.”

The USEA American Eventing Championships continue through Sunday at Galway Downs in Temecula, California. The highlight of today’s action will be this evening’s show jumping in the $60,000 Adequan USEA Advanced Final, beginning at 6 p.m. Pacific Time (9 p.m. ET).

Be sure you’re following the Chronicle’s coverage of the 2025 USEA American Eventing Championships on Facebook and Instagram @Chronofhorse. 

The post Pony Outpaces The Horses For Junior Novice AEC Title appeared first on The Chronicle of the Horse.

The first time Chloe Smyth brought SR Myconos to a show, she had an eerie moment in the warm-up. Looking up from her ride, it took her a moment to realize why all eyes were on her—or rather, why they were on “Myco.”

The unusually colored Argentinian Warmblood (R.S. Morgan—Tres Coronas Betelgeuse, Magnus Lucky Lord Z) who just won the novice horse division at the USEA American Eventing Championships always draws a lot of attention. Smyth jokes that a horse like him requires a rider with a “big social battery,” because she gets so many questions from people who can’t believe he’s just a warmblood with a very flashy genetic anomaly. It’s a good thing she enjoys talking about the 7-year-old pinto stallion almost as much as she enjoys riding him. 

Myco’s owner, Michelle Donaldson, imported the horse from Argentina after falling in love with him over video. When he arrived, Smyth and Donaldson were delighted to find that he wasn’t just beautiful, he was also an especially easygoing stallion. 

“I tell him, it’s week by week,” Smyth said. “As long as you act like a gelding, you’ll get to be a stallion. So far, he’s been really good.”

So good that the horse rarely gives a second look to mares and is kid-safe on the ground. 

“At Rebecca Farm [Kalispell, Montana], I was in the training three-day, and I had all these 12-year-olds doing his vet box and everything,” Smyth said. “He was, like, Mr. Cool.”

She’s excited for the young horse’s progress in the two years she’s worked with him. Right now, she’s taking care to move slowly with the horse as his body and brain develop and says that he’s “coming into himself” this season.

“We’d love to take him to the FEI level,” she said of his future. “Right now, we’re just kind of building a good, solid foundation, getting him going, getting him fit. I think they’ll definitely go there and do that. He’s got all the potential. He jumps well. 

“It’s just the maturity thing at this point,” Smyth continued. “It’s kind of tough, because sometimes it’s almost too easy for him. He’s like, ‘What’s that horse over there doing? Oh yeah, I was supposed to jump this one.’ ”

This week, focus doesn’t seem to be an issue for Myco. He and Smyth won the novice horse division at AEC on their 24.9 dressage score. Smyth is happy to see the horse is making an impression based on more than his color. 

“You’ve got to get to know him,” she said. “Because he gets better and better the more you watch him. You go, ‘Wow, look at that color.’ Then you go, ‘Wow, look at him move.’ And then you go, ‘Wow, look at him jump!’ ” 

The USEA American Eventing Championships continue through Sunday at Galway Downs in Temecula, California. The highlight of today’s action will be this evening’s show jumping in the $60,000 Adequan USEA Advanced Final, beginning at 6 p.m. Pacific Time (9 p.m. ET).

Be sure you’re following the Chronicle’s coverage of the 2025 USEA American Eventing Championships on Facebook and Instagram @Chronofhorse. 

The post SR Myconos Turns Heads But Stays Focused To Win At AEC appeared first on The Chronicle of the Horse.

Tommy Greengard and That’s Me Z widened their lead in the $60,000 Adequan USEA Advanced Final today after delivering the fastest round of the division over Clayton Frederick’s course at Galway Downs. 

Greengard, who led the seven-horse field after Thursday’s dressage on a score of 29.6, widened his lead on “Z”, an 8-year-old Zangersheide gelding (Take A Chance On Me Z—Veneita, VDL Indoctro) owned by Andrea Pfeiffer, with a clean, quick cross-country round that accrued 7.2 time penalties to put them on a score of 36.8 heading into Saturday evening’s show jumping finale.

“I think he has tremendous faith in the partnership. He’s a little funny about, like, you can’t just let anyone hop on him to have a hack,” Greengard said. “He’s really a creature of habit and routine, and the more we’ve been able to dial in what makes him feel secure, he’s really rewarded us by understanding his job and bringing more and more to the table.”

Their round was good enough to put them 16.3 penalties ahead of second-placed Karen O’Neal and Clooney 14, who jumped clean but notched 22.8 time penalties for a Day 2 score of 53.1.

“He was taking me to everything,” O’Neal said of her cross-country round on Clooney 14, which put the pair in second going into show jumping. “I even left a stride out in one of my lines, which is not like me at all. I was like, ‘I see it, I’m going, it’s there; I’m not going to pull.’ The balance was there.”

O’Neal said that she’s looking forward to tomorrow’s phase, because she and “Cloonbear” are at home in the show jumping ring.

“He’s a good boy out there if I ride the plan,” she said.  

The most influential jump on the advanced track was Fence 15, the second of two tables set on a 90-degree turn, where two horses activated the frangible safety pins on the fence, accruing 11 points each. First, Molly Duda and Disco Traveler had an awkward jump there where the horse tried to bank off the top of the fence, activating the frangible, and later in the division five-star veterans Bec Braitling and Caravaggio II hit the fence on take-off, also activating the frangible device. 

With the second-fastest round in the division (8 time penalties) Duda moved up from fifth place to a close third behind O’Neal, despite the frangible penalty. She heads into show jumping on a score of 54.0.

One pair, Taren Hoffos and Regalla, placed second after dressage, retired after an early stop on course, meaning six pairs will head into show jumping Saturday with $60,000 on the line. The advanced show jumping final is scheduled to take place from 6-6:30 p.m. Pacific Time (9 p.m. Eastern) and will be livestreamed on Equestrian Plus and Horse & Country TV.

If you’re competing a cool horse or pony or have overcome the odds to make it to the AEC, email Hannah Sherk at hsherk@coth.com for a chance to be featured. Be sure you’re following the Chronicle’s coverage of the 2025 USEA American Eventing Championships on Facebook and Instagram @Chronofhorse. 

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Marilyn Schackner isn’t a daredevil, although you wouldn’t know it by the teen’s two passions: piloting airplanes and riding cross-country. What draws her to both isn’t the thrill, she said, but the steady, level-headed focus required of both.

“She’s very structured and calm,” said her mother, Layla Schackner. “I know it doesn’t make sense—but it does. Because she plans, she’s not reactive, she thinks things through.”

This week the 18-year-old is competing her Zangersheide gelding Georgie Z (George Z—Peggy), in the modified rider division at the USEA American Eventing Championships at Galway Downs. The pair is currently sitting at the top of the class with a 28.2 after dressage and cross-country before their final show jumping phase today.

Marilyn balanced the road to qualifying for the AEC with her busy schedule as an undergraduate student at Jessup University in Rocklin, California, where she’s studying aviation with the goal of becoming a commercial airline pilot. 

She didn’t grow up knowing she wanted to be a pilot, like many of her college classmates, she said. She graduated high school early and knew she wanted to stay close to home. Browsing the programs at the nearby university, she had only middling interest in their offerings until she came across aviation. She enrolled the week before the start of school and hasn’t looked back. Once she actually sat in the cockpit, she said, things clicked.

“I started flying and was like, it’s actually really similar to riding a horse in a weird way, because you control which way the plane is facing with your feet and the roll of it with the yoke,” Marilyn said. “It’s a similar feel to your inside leg and your outside rein. It really felt kind of natural and like, ‘Oh, this is something I’d actually want to do long-term.’ ”

While her mother describes Marilyn as logical, they both admit that horse shopping for “Georgie” was anything but that. Marilyn was about 15 years old when she began searching for an eventing partner who would be easier than the pony she was riding at the time. 

“I had to fight just to finish,” she said of that difficult partnership. “It was either, I get the perfect horse, or I’m not going to ride anymore.”

“The funny part is she had this list,” Layla said of the teen’s criteria for her next partner. “She said, ‘I just don’t want anything too big; I don’t want something like a plain bay; and I want something that’s been-there-and-done-that so I can just have fun.’ ”

So, of course, Marilyn ended up with a 17-hand, 6-year-old bay gelding with no show record. Although the horse was big and green (and bay), his personality told her he was the right match. 

“He’d never shown, and he had no steering or brakes, but he was so kind,” she said. “And I just needed something that was going to take care of me.” 

Between her undergrad classes and flight schedule, Marilyn occasionally takes lessons with Andrea Pfeiffer and Tommy Greengard. The trainers helped her put the pieces together with the now 9-year-old gelding. She’s landed on a program that works for her and Georgie, striking a balance of keeping him fit without adding too much mental pressure.

“Honestly, I feel like schooling for him is a little counterproductive,” she said. “He knows his job.”

While she initially didn’t want an inexperienced horse, she’s now glad they’re able to tackle new experiences together.

“He’s been fantastic,” Layla said. “She continues to learn from him, and he learns from her, and they kind of catch up. One of them moves up, then the other meets halfway, and then they start over again.”

Update: Marilyn Schackner and Georgie Z finished with a clear show jumping round on Friday afternoon, earning the modified rider championship on their dressage score of 28.2.

If you’re competing a cool horse or pony or have overcome the odds to make it to the AEC, email Hannah Sherk at hsherk@coth.com for a chance to be featured. Be sure you’re following the Chronicle’s coverage of the 2025 USEA American Eventing Championships on Facebook and Instagram @Chronofhorse. 

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When Karen O’Neal was helping her client Annika Asling long-distance horse shop over video from Europe, she found herself nixing option after option. Asling wanted to import a German horse that would make a preliminary eventing partner, but nothing was standing out. 

“She showed me all these videos, and I was like, ‘Nope, no, no. Don’t like that one; don’t like this one,’ ” O’Neal said. 

O’Neal advised her student that they hold out for something special.

“ ‘If we’re going to actually get it from there, I want it to be really spectacular for you,’ ” O’Neal told her.  “And then she showed me him, and I just said, ‘Buy him!’ ”

The Westphalian gelding (Captain Jack—Zauberfee, Cefalo) on the video was just 3 years old and unbroken, but O’Neal could tell from his free jump and movement that Clooney 14 was the something spectacular that they’d been waiting for—the clear “yes” after so many nos. They shipped him home to O’Neal’s barn in North Bend, Washington. 

“He had a beautiful canter. He’s very uphill,” she said. “And he just has this presence about him. He’s just a lovely horse. And he’s the sweetest animal that I’ve ever been around.”

That sweetness allowed Asling to start the youngster herself, putting hours of groundwork into the gelding before handing him over to O’Neal to begin under saddle. 

“He was the easiest thing to start but very lazy, very behind the leg,” O’Neal said. “It was exhausting to keep him going. I was like, ‘He’ll be a good prelim horse.’ ” 

His barn name, originally “Finn,” soon lost out to “Cloonbear,” a nickname he earned with his teddy-bear personality. Although quiet on the ground and sometimes lazy under saddle, O’Neal also began to see that the young horse had a spooky side. 

“I rode him quite a bit,” O’Neal said. “He did quite well throughout—except for our first beginner novice, when we got eliminated because he wouldn’t go through the start flags because he was spooking so hard. But after that, he was good!” 

Cloonbear did well at the lower levels, especially excelling in dressage. But for all his willingness and talent, his sensitivity under saddle and intimidating size—he’s over 17 hands—didn’t quite add up to the prelim horse they’d hoped for. Asling had just had babies—now 2 and 5 years old—so she suggested that O’Neal keep going with the horse and see how far his talent would take them. 

This week, it takes them to their second USEA American Eventing Championships, where the pair sits third in the $60,000 Adequan USEA Advanced Final at Galway Downs after earning a 30.3 in dressage Thursday. Advanced cross-country begins at 9:08 a.m. Pacific Time (12:08 Eastern) today.

At last year’s AEC in Lexington, Kentucky, O’Neal and Cloonbear had a simple goal for their first time at the championship. “We jumped around, went slow, jumped everything, and that was really fun,” she said. “It was a good experience to see how it was at Kentucky.”

With this trip, she hopes to go clean, make close to optimum time and log more experience at the advanced level.

“I’ve had a few advanced horses—I’ve had probably five advanced horses—but I still feel green at the four-star advanced level,” O’Neal said. “They’ve just made it more and more technical. I’m always learning. I’m always trying to get better.”

For O’Neal, progress can also mean stepping outside her comfort zone. This year, she tested the 11-year-old gelding in a new venue, and he proved himself to be as versatile and adjustable as she’d hoped. The pair attended a couple of horse shows in their home state of Washington—the Cascade Open in June and the Evergreen Classic in July—and finished second in hunter derbies at both.

“He’s very rideable,” she said. “He’s very trained. He’ll do what I tell him. I’ll say, ‘Can you put your head a little lower and go around more like a hunter?’ And he will.”

The gelding’s eventing background also gives him an extra edge in the hunter ring. “He’s brave, so he can do the tight turns for derbies,” O’Neal said. 

While Cloonbear may not have been the preliminary horse Asling had hoped for, he has been talented beyond expectation. But the biggest surprise is that the gelding, for all his power under saddle, really excels as a family horse. 

“He’ll go around cross country, and I’ll come back, and I can put the little 5-year-old on him with me. That’s how good he is,” O’Neal said. “He did a little leadline class with this 5-year-old kid right before he did a little grand prix.

“He’ll go to their stroller, and he’ll put his head in there and rest it on them and hold it perfectly still,” she continued. “They’ll just pet him, and he’ll close his eyes.”

If you’re competing a cool horse or pony or have overcome the odds to make it to the AEC, email Hannah Sherk at hsherk@coth.com for a chance to be featured. Be sure you’re following the Chronicle’s coverage of the 2025 USEA American Eventing Championships on Facebook and Instagram @Chronofhorse. 

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When Suz Harvey, who came up dabbling in hunters and dressage, began to think about breaking into eventing, she knew she didn’t have the right horse for the sport—or the budget to buy a made mount. But she did have something the scrappy amateur considered even better: a “heart horse” mare and the patience to develop whatever foal she might produce. 

“Everybody thought I was crazy,” Harvey said of the decision to breed her grade mare. “They said, ‘You’re crazy. You should just buy something on the ground already, because it’ll have straight legs. You won’t have any issues.’ I’m like, ‘I can’t. I don’t have the money, so this is my one shot—period.’ ”

After three attempts to breed Poison Ivy, the mare finally came up pregnant in 2015 by an Irish Sport Horse stallion, Bridon Beale Street, and Harvey began to think of the foal in utero as her “miracle baby.” The Bay Area rider turned the pregnant mare out at a farm in the nearby Central Valley to graze and rest until the foal arrived. 

Harvey’s hopes for her future foal were specific: She wanted a mount that would be willing, talented enough for lower-level eventing and, above all, have a “good mind for an older woman.” Athleticism was secondary to fun. Harvey had cross-country and horse camping on her equestrian bucket list—right below training a baby. 

“She wasn’t bred to be a winner; she was bred because I wanted a safe, reliable horse where people can walk by and go, ‘Wow, that horse is awesome. She just stands next to the trailer all day,’ ” she said. 

When the mare dropped her foal months later, Harvey named the baby Killian’s Irish Pearl, a nod to her Irish blood. That first California spring day of “Killian’s” life, Harvey was concerned when the baby didn’t have any interest in getting up. What felt frightening at the time she later realized was an early sign of the content, safe and slightly lazy baby she’d hoped “Ivy” would give her. 

She didn’t know it then, but her worries were better placed with the mare. She lost Ivy to laminitis only a few months after she foaled. 

Mourning the loss, Harvey poured all her attention into Killian, who shared her dam’s bright red coat and blaze. Harvey, who works as a dog trainer, had never before started a horse, let alone a foal. She spent hours at the farm with Killian, sometimes just reading a book in her stall, sometimes practicing the halter-breaking basics.

“I had all the time in the world,” Harvey said of the slow approach she took with the foal. She used Clinton Anderson videos to shape her training. “I followed his step-by-step [plans], how to halter-break a baby, how to yield to pressure, how to tie.”

Killian was growing into a companion that was as up for adventure as Harvey. Boarding at an event venue, Lone Tree Farm, in Waterford, California, Harvey entered Killian in costume contests (she once dressed her as a mule, Harvey confesses) and jogged her as a yearling through hunter paces. 

“I would go over the jumps and have her trot over the jumps [in-hand], and I did that for three years, so she was exposed to horses, trailers and that whole environment,” she said. 

When the rider was finally ready to start the filly under saddle, first swinging a leg over as Killian stood quietly in her stall, the long-anticipated moment proved uneventful. By that point, the baby was “pretty well broke.” 

“I took 3.5 years to prepare for that moment,” Harvey said. 

From there, she developed Killian into the partner she’d had in mind back when she was still browsing stud catalogues. Without the funds for a regular trainer, Harvey made do with frequent clinics and one-off lessons from local trainers.   

“Anybody that had a clinic, I would bring my little chestnut mare,” Harvey said of the mare, who grew to 16 hands. “People ask me, ‘Is she a pony? Is she a Connemara?’ She’s kind of this heavyset mare, downhill. I mean, she has everything against a sport horse. 

“But she has unbelievable try and personality,” she added.

Harvey took care to bring the mare along slowly and carefully. She entered her first dressage shows and starter level events two years ago. She would have been happy to stay there, she said, but trainer Megan McIver urged Harvey to move up to beginner novice. When the pair took second place in the senior beginner novice division at Twin Rivers Spring International (California) this spring and Harvey realized she’d qualified for the USEA American Eventing Championships, she was “flabbergasted.” 

“This is a bucket-list trip, because it’s in California,” Harvey said of qualifying with Killian for the AEC. “We would never have been able to do this in our lifetime.”

The filly who helped heal Harvey’s heartbreak after Ivy’s death has become her steady partner, thanks to the rider’s own dedication and training. Whatever the ribbons bring this week at the AEC, which start with dressage on Friday for the pair, Harvey takes comfort in knowing that Killian is carrying on her dam’s heart-horse legacy. She’s grateful for the mare, and the people, that this sport has brought her.

“Everybody is there, and they have your back,” Harvey said of discovering the eventing community. “I felt that with eventers. You could have anything—it didn’t really matter what kind of horse you brought to the table at all, maybe a Mustang—it doesn’t matter, because we’re all there for the same goal, and that’s to have fun. That’s the appeal.”

If you’re competing a cool horse or pony or have overcome the odds to make it to the AEC, email Hannah Sherk at hsherk@coth.com for a chance to be featured. Be sure you’re following the Chronicle’s coverage of the 2025 USEA American Eventing Championships on Facebook and Instagram @Chronofhorse. 

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