United States Eventing Association

Lexington, Ky.—Aug. 28—The ARMA USEA Training Championships came down to one final test on Friday at the 2026 USEA American Eventing Championships (AEC) presented by Nutrena Feeds as competitors entered the show jumping arena with championship titles on the line. After three days and three phases of competition at the Kentucky Horse Park, the final rails determined who would rise to the top of their respective divisions and earn the honor of being crowned an AEC champion.

ARMA USEA Training Rider

The 2026 ARMA USEA Training Rider Championship belongs to Catherine Ramsey, who added nothing to her dressage score of 30.0 to win on her own Cakewalk (Coeur d’Amour x Rubinstein WOR).

Two years ago Ramsey and "Cake" were show jumping for a ribbon in the Novice Championship division at the AEC but a rail down crushed those dreams. This year, despite Ramsey admitting she’d been awake since 2:30 a.m. agonizing over her ride, they jumped clear to win.

Ramsey bought the 8-year-old Oldenburg mare, bred for dressage, when she was a 4-year-old and only jumping cross rails. Ramsey promises she wasn’t looking to buy a horse, but her trainer suggested she ride her while her Thoroughbred recovered from an injury, and although she assured her husband it was just one ride, four years later they’re on the podium together.

“I took a couple lessons on the sales horse, and basically fell in love with her, like off the bat! It was just amazing, like how many buttons she had, and how just the feel that she gave you, even like as a 4-year-old”.

Since then they’ve been progressing through the grades and learning together. "I never did anything above Beginner Novice before her. So yeah, we've been moving up the levels together, and she's just the best thing. I can't gush about her enough," she said.

Riding, Ramsey said, is her happy place, and after a particularly stressful year personally she was grateful to have an outlet. “There were days where I just took [Cakewalk] on a hack in the woods, or days where I galloped her to get out my emotions, and she carried me through all of it.”

Cakewalk now gets a week and a half off. “I think she’s sick of me,” Ramsey said with a laugh. Next they’ll be moving to Morningside Farm in Virginia to train with Skyler Voss and hope to start tackling some Modified level events.

Kendal Smith rode Jennifer Smith’s Fernhill Cool Confection (Sligo Candy Boy x Princess Cool Diamond) to a close second on 30.3.

Kendal is a linguistics student at the University of Kentucky and keeps "Cool" at Double B Farms here in Lexington where she trains with Maddie Temkin and Beth Brown. Temkin and Kendal found "Cool" in Ireland together at Carol Gee’s Fernhill base, and since they imported him about a year ago, Temkin has been helping Smith bring him along.

“He's just been such an amazing horse,” Kendal said. “We got him, and it was his first year of eventing, he was a show jumper before that. Maddie Temkin has taken him around a bit the last year, and has really trained him up really well and all the work has shown off because he's just such a good boy, and he's such a fun ride.”

Smith, originally from Seattle, is expecting to graduate this year, but has enjoyed being on the UK Eventing team during her college career. "It's been really fun. Definitely the highlight of it is the Intercollegiate Championships that happen every May, and it's just such a great team. It's really nice, especially a lot of people are out of state, so it's really nice to come to college and immediately have that community there with you.”

Back in February, Ruth Rosendaul was lying in hospital, recovering from surgery to fix a brain bleed, and wondering if and when she would even ride again, let alone compete. She used the down time to work on her mental resilience, and fast forward a few months to today and she and her own DePino Grigio GSF (Der Graf x Confetti) moved steadily up the rankings over the three phases to finish third on 34.2.

“I was off for about six weeks of no riding, no horses, just resting. I couldn't move. I couldn't move my neck, my head was swollen, my neck was swollen,” she recalled. “I remember I was on social media, and I was so jealous of everyone, and it was really really hard for me to not be jealous. Then I started coming back into work, and I realized that the break I had was all I needed. I came out better.”

Rosendaul is based with Hannah Sue Holberg, and started doing the Limitless Academy with Natalie Hummel as part of her recovery. “I wasn't grateful it happened,” she mused, “but I'm grateful that I learned from it, and it built me up as a better rider.”

ARMA USEA Training Horse

The competitive ARMA USEA Training Horse Division scores were tightly packed going into the final phase, but the experienced top two riders, Meghan O’Donoghue and Allison Springer, held their mettle and kept their cool to produce clear rounds and keep their places on the podium. O’Donoghue and her fiancé Will Duhring’s 6-year-old Holsteiner gelding Chepfly (HB -I Chepetto x Startlyght) was named the 2026 ARMA USEA Training Horse Champion, finishing on their dressage score of 27.6.

Chepfly caught Meghan’s eye as a "raw, underdeveped" 5-year-old at Dirk Schrade’s yard in Germany last December. “I could feel just the natural ability and the raw ingredients. I mean, you kind of have to have some rose-colored glasses in the moment,” she said with a laugh, “but I think he feels like he's got a lot of really good things.”

Sure enough, with plenty of time and patience this “quirky and sensitive” horse is developing into an exciting prospect for Meghan. “I was very, very slow with him all Florida season,” she explained. “I worked a lot with Tik Maynard; I really respect what he does with the horses, developing that language on the ground with them, and just that confidence, bringing out their curiosity and introducing things that make so much sense to the horse from the beginning, so I did a lot of that.”

Meghan spends the winter in Ocala so she was able to take Chepfly over to work with Maynard once a week, and in fact, she added, Maynard worked with Chepfly again three times this week while they’re both here at the Kentucky Horse Park.

"He worked with him this morning," she said. "Tik said he has endless curiosity and stamina when he works with him, and I find that riding him too. He loves to train, he loves to work. He doesn't want to be in the stall; he wants to be doing something, and he's really happy doing something with people, which is I find very interesting as well.”

Meghan is thinking about moving Chepfly up to the Modified level and perhaps a one-star in the near future. "I just want to keep making him stronger and develop him. From a training standpoint the competitions are for me right now, in his 6-year-old year they're more just fun than they are important to me right now”.

Allison Springer finished a fraction behind Meghan on her dressage score of 28.2 on Francis Robinson’s Nadira 34 (Van Gogh x Insa), a 6-year-old mare that Meghan actually found for her on one of her scouting trips to Europe last September.

Similarly, Springer took her time with the mare. "She's awesome, but she definitely gets high; she's extra! You can see it in her jump, and you can see in how she reacts to certain thing, but also she's very smart. She's actually a very personable mare, but she's very aware and careful.”

Springer started competing Nadira in Florida in February but when Springer was injured in March she sent her to Meghan. “Meghan's been the one kind of keeping them going,” Springer said. “You know, she's done a fabulous job. I cannot thank [her] enough for everything [she’s] done”.

Springer has no firm plans for Nadira’s future. “It's just about her,” she said. “I think she's very special, and so this year is all about it being fun and relaxing. I think she really dealt with this week well”.

Anna Cummings piloted Sarah Ingham’s 10-year-old Dutch Warmblood mare Fernhill Primrose (Drogba Z x Hollinea) into the third spot, adding zero penalties across both jumping phases.

Cummings, based in Colorado, imported "Prim" from Carol Gee three years ago in Ireland, and the travel logistics worked out in such a way that she enjoyed her first ride stateside on her right here at the Horse Park at the 2023 USEA AEC. They hadn’t been back since, and this is Cumming’s first time riding here as a bonafide competitor.

“It's been so fun,” she beamed. “It's been great, really really fun. She's been fantastic. I wasn't sure how she'd be in the bigger environment because she definitely is a little bit atmosphere sensitive, so I was just very interested to see how she did, and she impressed us all weekend.”

ARMA USEA Training Amateur

Louisville rider Jane Musselman is no stranger to the Kentucky Horse Park, or the USEA AEC winner's circle and today she added another jewel to her crown, taking the ARMA USEA Training Amateur Championship on her own Corleone Tops (Tinka’s Boy. Unatame De Hus). Musselman and the 14-year-old French-bred gelding jumped a confident clear in the Rolex Stadium to seal the deal, adding this title to the Novice Championship they won here two years ago.

Musselman trains with Phillip Dutton, who sourced Corleone Tops about two and a half years ago, and since then they have been solidifying their form at this level and Modified. Martha Lambert helps Musselman locally and Lexington Grand Prix dressage rider Reese Koffler-Stanfield is her dressage coach. Musselman has three other horses competing here this weekend.

Elizabeth Welker-Ebeling and her own Santana II (Camax L x Hofdame H), a 16-year-old Oldenburg mare, stalked the leaders through all three phases, and finished the division as Reserve Champions. They are an experienced pair, Welker-Ebeling has ridden Santana for 8 years.

“She took me up through CCI3*-S and Intermediate, which is the first time I've ever been up there,” she smiled. “With her age we're slightly backing down on what we're doing, so we mostly do dressage and show jumping. But AEC is such a fun experience that I love to bring her out to do the Training here just for fun. I would say she's very much a horse that rises to the occasion. She does so much better in the big environment than the small environment.”

Welker-Ebeling plans to do some 1.20-meter show jumping classes and would like to try to get her bronze medal next.

Sea of Clouds (Malibu Moon x Winner’s Ticket), the universally beloved 15-year-old OTTB previously campaigned at four-star level by Olivia Dutton and five-star by Phillip Dutton, returned triumphant to the Kentucky Horse Park to finish third in this division with his new rider, Marina Cassou.

Cassou only picked up the ride a few months ago, qualifying at the last minute at Fair Hill. “It just kind of happened,” she explained. "I got to ride this amazing horse, and it's been a joy to ride him!”

Cassou trains with Lillian Heard, and Sea of Clouds is still owned by the original Sea of Clouds syndicate that supported him when he was ridden by Phillip. Cassou hopes to get a little more experience at Training level, and maybe more, with him.

ARMA USEA Training Junior

The ARMA Training Junior Division kicked off the action in the Rolex Stadium Friday morning, navigating Bobby Murphy’s track as their final phase to decide the placings.

Overnight leader Caden Carter and her own FE Santos (Silberschmied x Fedora) didn’t have a rail in hand but jumped an assured clear round within the time allowed to emerge the Champion on a score of 29.2.

Carter has been riding FE Santos for about two years now. “He's a wonderful horse,” she enthused about the 15-year-old Hanoverian gelding. “Everything that I've accomplished is thanks to him and I'm so grateful to have him.”

FE Santos is a big, impressive horse, and Carter says he has character to match. “He has the biggest personality,” she laughed. “I mean, you love it when you have a big horse, but when they’ve got a big personality it can be intense, but he's so good. He loves other horses; he loves people. He's just basically a lap dog, but he's too big, but he loves everybody. He's so good, and he's just happy to do his job. He loves to get out there and have a big environment”.

The USEA AEC was always a goal for Carter, who is based in Dallas, Texas, with Rebecca Brown, and from here they’re planning to tackle their first Modified at Stable View [Aiken, South Carolina]. If that goes well, to contest the one-star at Terranova [Myakka City, Florida] this fall. Beyond that, Carter has lofty goals.

“It’s always been my plan to move up the levels with him," she said. "I wanted to do the AEC, and hopefully my accomplishments here can help me continue to move up the levels and pursue this wonderful sport, I think I'd hope to continue to Advanced as an amateur, because Jeez, you’ve got to be like the best of the best! But I would love to keep doing this and keep moving up the levels.”

Valentine Jie capitalized on an efficient clear round within the time in the iconic Rolex Stadium to move up a spot and bag the Reserve Champion award. Jie piloted her own HSH Afterglow (Hype x Ringwood Venus), a 7-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding, onto the podium with a score of 32.9.

She revealed that after sourcing him about a year ago from Caroline Pamukcu, it was a pleasant surprise to qualify for the USEA AEC, and to now find themselves on the podium. “We just were really just trying to get to know each other first, and then we just got to know each other so well, and we had such a great partnership, and I'm just so happy to be able to come to the AEC.” Jie trains with Holly Payne and will be aiming for the one-star at Plantation Field [Unionville, Pennsylvania] next.

Mckenzie Spain and her own Irish Sport Horse gelding The Fernhill Fox moved up one spot in the final phase to round out the top three in this division on 33.2.

Spain is based in Fort Worth, Texas, but spends her summers in Newnan, Georgia, with Julie Richards who sourced The Fernhill Fox for her. Previously an Advanced horse, Spain has confidence that he would look after her this weekend.

"I was a little nervous just because I was hoping to do well, of course," she said. But I know Fox just so well, he's so experienced, and he took care of me out there which was wonderful.”

Adams Horse Supply Training Adult Team Championship

The stars aligned for All Stars, No Stripes, who took home top honors in the Training division of the Adams Horse Supply USEA Adult Team Championships. Appropriately named because each of their horses sports a star marking, the winning team featured Catherine Ramsey and Cakewalk, Bekah Bartley and Zempat, Jessica Goldberg and America Runs on Duncan, and Kathleen Cannon and Global Ask.

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About the USEA American Eventing Championships (AEC)

The USEA American Eventing Championships (AEC) presented by Nutrena Feeds is the pinnacle of the sport at the national levels. Held annually, the best junior, adult amateur, and professional competitors gather to vie for national championship titles at every level from Starter to Advanced. This ultimate test of horse and rider draws hundreds of combinations from around the country to compete for fabulous prizes, a piece of the substantial prize money, and the chance to be named the National Champion at their respective levels. In fact, the 2021 AEC garnered over 1,000 entries and now stands as the largest eventing competition in North American history. The 2026 USEA American Eventing Championships presented by Nutrena Feeds will be held on Aug. 25-30 at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Kentucky. Click here to learn more about the USEA American Eventing Championships.

The USEA would like to thank Presenting Sponsor: Nutrena Feeds; Advanced Final Title Sponsor: Adequan; Platinum Level Sponsors: Bates Saddles, Marshall+Sterling Equine Insurance; Gold Level Sponsors: ARMA, Gallaghers Water, PulseVet, Schneiders Saddlery, SmartPak, Standlee; Silver Level Sponsors: Auburn Labs, Kerrits, The Jockey Club Thoroughbred Incentive Program, Rood & Riddle; Bronze Level Sponsors: 70°, Antech Diagnostics, Athletux, The Chronicle of the Horse, Devoucoux, D.G. Stackhouse & Ellis, Dubarry of Ireland, Equestrian Team Apparel, Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation, John Deere, Retired Racehorse Project, Ride EquiSafe, Santa Cruz Animal Health; Contributing Level Sponsors: AnimaSol, CrossCountry App, Foxhollow Farm, Georgetown/Scott County Tourism, Kentucky Equine Research, Kentucky Horse Park Foundation, Lexmark, LV Harkness, Only Fools and Horses, #WeRideTogether, YETI; and Prize Level Sponsors: ARRO Helmets, The Dad Den, Dandy Products, Equiluxe Tack, Equine IMED, FLAIR Equine Nasal Strips, I Love My Horse Boutique, The Infused Equestrian, Love Equestrian, Majyk Equipe, Mare Modern Goods, Natalie Hummel Coaching, Neighborly Tack, Outlaw Nutrition, Parkmore Supplements, Peak Performance Equine Spa, Poseidon Animal Health, Rachel Dory Fine Art, Right Path Equestrian, Saddle Bird Boutique, Sidelines Magazine, Strides For Equality Equestrians, STRIDER, Stylish in the Saddle, VTO Saddlery, and XLR8 Equine.

About the Adams Horse Supply USEA Adult Team Championships

The Adams Horse Supply USEA Adult Team Championships, which debuted in 2014, is the capstone event for the USEA Area Adult Team Challenges, providing adults the chance to compete as a team and represent their Area of the country in a friendly and fun environment. Historically, adult riders had three regional Team Challenges in which to compete with fellow adults in a team environment, with the locations changing each year. In 2013, the USEA Adult Rider Coordinators voted to move to support Adult Team Challenges taking place in all 10 Areas across the country, with the finale being the ATC at the USEA American Eventing Championships presented by Nutrena Feeds. Each Area can send up to nine teams and 39 riders for the BN, N, T, and M levels, plus an additional eight members if they are at the Starter level only. Adult Riders know how to have a good time, and there is no doubt that they bring an increased level of excitement and camaraderie to the AEC! Click here to learn more about the USEA Adult Team Championships. The USEA would like to thank ATC Title Sponsor, Adams Horse Supply, and contributing sponsors ARMA, Bates Saddles, The Chronicle of the Horse, FarmVet, FLAIR Equine Nasal Strips, Gallagher’s Water, Kerrits, Marshall+Sterling, Nutrena Feeds, PulseVet, Schneiders Saddlery, Sidelines Magazine, SmartPak, and Santa Cruz Animal Health for sponsoring the Adult Team Championships.