United States Eventing Association

There were 70 young horses who contested the 2020 USEA Young Event Horse (YEH) 5-year-old Championships between the East and West Coast Championships which were held in Elkton, Maryland, and Paso Robles, California, respectively. Following 2020’s YEH finale, many of the graduating class of the 2020 USEA Young Event Horse Championships have worked their way up through the rankings as they establish themselves as upper-level event horse prospects.

This well-established program has seen many horses go through its doors, but more importantly, there are several horses that have fulfilled the program’s mission to become a successful upper-level event horse. The 2020 YEH 5-year-old graduate horses who have since gone on to compete at the CCI4* levels include: King’s Especiale, HSH Blake, Kismet, Quiberon, Beautiful Storm, Redtail Penumbra, Cash Point, Pascal, and Bamford CF.

King’s Especiale, formerly known as Redfield King, now owned by the Redfield King’s HX Group, was the overall champion of the 2020 USEA 5-year-old YEH Championship with an impressive final score of 93.52. “King” is still being campaigned by his YEH rider, Caroline Pamukcu, and has actively moved up the levels since his 5-year-old year. The Warmblood gelding (Connect x Cha Cha Cha Special) moved up to the four-star level in 2023 at The Event at TerraNova (Myakka City, Florida). He was third in the CCI4*-S at The Maryland Horse International that same year, won the CCI4*-S at Great Meadow International (The Plains, Virginia) just a month later, and finished second in the CCI4*-L at Morven Park (Leesburg, Virginia) in October. In 2024, he completed four CCI4*S events, including at Millstreet (Ireland) on the silver medal-winning U.S. Nations Cup team. He concluded his 2025 season in seventh in the CCI4*-L at The Event at TerraNova.

Pamukcu also still has the ride on the 2020 overall Reserve Champion HSH Blake, who competed under the name of Redfield Galway Blake that year. The Irish Sport Horse gelding (Tolan R x Doughiska Lass), owned by Sherrie Martin, Mollie Hoff, and Pamukcu, has had a phenomenal career since his final year in the YEH program, representing the United States on an international stage several times, including at the 2023 Santiago Pan American Games and the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. “Blake” recently made his five-star debut at the 2025 MARS Maryland 5 Star where he finished in fourth with Pamukcu in the tack.

The 2020 third-place horse Kismet, owned by Nina Gardner and ridden by Jennie Brannigan, also has shown his heart for the sport over the past five years. The Warmblood gelding (National Anthem x Ularinka) made his FEI debut in 2021 at the two-star level, eventually working his way up to three-star in 2023. In 2024 the pair finished in third at the CCI3*-L at Bromont (Quebec, Canada) and had a few other three-star outings before having their first outing at Advanced in the spring of this year at Fair Hill.

Following another run at the Advanced level, they contested their first CCI4*-S at The Maryland International in June where they finished sixth. One month later, they gave their first CCI4*-L a go at the famed Event at Rebecca Farm (Kalispell, Montana) and added a fifth place finish to their resume.

The Oldenburg gelding Quiberon (Quite Easy x Avalon) finished in 12th overall in 2020 and made his FEI debut in 2022. The U.S.-bred gelding was owned and ridden by Doug Payne from his YEH years through 2024, and the pair had a top-10 finish in their first CCI3*-L in May of 2022 at Tryon International (Mill Spring, North Carolina). In 2023 they saw similar success, finishing in second in the CCI3*-S at Stable View (Aiken, South Carolina) in April and seventh in the CCI3*-L at Tryon in May. They made their four-star move-up in September at The Fork at Tryon that year.

In 2025, Quiberon transitioned to his new owner and rider Charlotte Collier, and the pair spent this year getting to know one another and working their way up to their two-star debut together at the Bouckaert Equestrian H.T. International (Fairburn, Georgia) this summer.

Jan Byyny has produced the Thoroughbred gelding Beautiful Storm (Get Stormy x So Beautiful) from his YEH years to today. In 2021 they ran the CCI2*-S at Great Meadow as their FEI debut together, and they moved up to the three-star level the next year at the same venue. 2023 saw them moving up to the four-star level, and in their most recent four-star outing, they placed within the top-20 in the CCI4*-L at Morven Park in October.

Redtail Penumbra is a homebred German Sport Horse mare (Cevin Z x True Dynamite xx) bred by the Alex and Ellie O’Neal. She is now owned by the O’Neals and James Devanney, Christy Parsons, and Barbara Lightner. Since her YEH career came to a close, Redtail Penumbra has been hard at work, moving up the levels with Alex in the tack. She finished in the top-10 on the East Coast as a 5-year-old and made her FEI debut the following year in the CCI2*-S at The Event at TerraNova where she finished third.

Immediately following that event, she successfully completed her first CCI2*-L at Tryon. Her first CCI3*came in early 2022, and she has had five top-10 finishes at the level since including a seventh place finish in her first CCI3*-L at the MARS Maryland 5 Star in 2022 and a sixth place finish in the CCI3*-L at Bromont in 2023. She first tackled the four-star level at Stable View Oktoberfest in September of 2024 where she had a seventh place finish. Her last four-star run was at the Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event this spring where she finished 12th in the CCI4*-S.

Savannah “Woodge” Fulton has had the ride on Nelson Warnell’s Cash Point since his 10th place finish on the East Coast in 2020. Fulton and the Hosteiner gelding (Cashandcarry x Up to Date 15) gave the two-star level a go in 2021 and concluded their season finishing eight in the two-star young horse division at Morven Park that fall. The move up to three-star came early in 2022 and the gelding successfully completed four three-stars that year, including the CCI3*-L at the MARS Maryland 5 Star. They moved up to the four-star level at Great Meadow in August of 2023, where they finished in sixth place. They then tackled the CCI3*-L at Maryland again that year, adding a third place finish to their resume. Since 2023, Cash Point has had eight runs at the four-star level, including three successful runs at the CCI4*-L level.

Alexa Lapp produced the Holsteiner gelding Pascal (Pasco x Z-Corrada I) from his YEH years to the three-star level before Jennie Brannigan took over the ride in 2023. Now owned by the Pascal Syndicate, Brannigan expanded on Pascal’s already successful FEI career by adding four more three-star finishes to his record, including a win in the CCI3*-L at The Event at Rebecca Farm. Their first four-star came in June of 2024 where they had a top-10 finish at Bromont, followed by another win at Rebecca Farm, only this time it was in their CCI4*-L division.

Bamford CF has been under the guidance of Autumn Schweiss since his YEH years. The Oldenburg gelding (Bon Balou x Tanzpuppe), owned by Julie Schweiss, had his first two-star run in 2021 and his first three-star run in 2023. In 2024, the pair moved up to the four-star level at Bouckaert Equestrian in March where they had a top-15 finish to start their season. They’ve had two four-star completions since.

In addition to these horses, the USEA would like to recognize the class of 2020 YEH graduates who have worked their way up to the three-star and Intermediate levels as well:

• FE Caspian, an Oldenburg gelding (Monti Obolensky x Cinderella's Girl), owned by Plain Dealing Farm and ridden by Lucia Strini

• Arden JuJu, an American Sport Horse mare (Future Gravitas x Little Julia), owned by Anita Antenucci and ridden by Kim Severson

• Mystic Faire ERE, a Thoroughbred mare (Mystic Replica x Fair Fiona), owned and ridden by Emily Jackson

• Nite Life, a Thoroughbred gelding (Blaur Vogel x Happy Hour), owned and ridden by Chloe Smyth

• Fernhill Karamba, a Dutch Warmblood gelding (Carambole x Dharma B), owned and ridden by Shanon Baker

• Kamara CFF, a Dutch Warmblood mare (Negro x Damara), owned by Kamara CFF LLC and ridden by Woods Baughman

• Excel Star First Class, an Irish Sport Horse gelding (Valent x Cruising), owned by Virginia Arneson and ridden by Barbara Crabo

• Creffino PJ, a Hanoverian gelding (Cristallo I x Acrod II), owned by Patricia Cone and ridden by Eliza Farren