United States Eventing Association

Lexington, Ky.—Aug. 27—The Standlee USEA Modified Championships took center stage in the Rolex Stadium on Thursday at the 2026 USEA American Eventing Championships (AEC) presented by Nutrena Feeds, where three new champions rose to the occasion when it mattered most. With champion titles on the line, Charlotte Collier, Kyle Carter, and Olivia Jane Fry each delivered clear show jumping rounds to seal their victories—and all three finished the week without adding a single penalty to their dressage scores.

Standlee USEA Modified Amateur Championship

Charlotte Collier had never led an event from start to finish before, but this weekend, paired with her own Loughtown Cici ZA (CC Captain Clover x Castletown Diamond Clover) she added nothing to her winning dressage score of 26.7 to be crowned the 2026 Standlee USEA Modified Amateur Champion.

“I couldn't have been more grateful for the mare that I was sitting on,” said Collier, who was effusive in her praise of her 10-year-old Irish Sport Horse. “She made it better because I can trust her, and she's always there for me every second of the way. She jumped her heart out for me. Horses are everything in this sport, and riders are only good as the horse that they're sitting on, and she's amazing and I owe everything to her.”

Collier bought the gray mare from Chris Talley about three years ago as a horse to get her back into eventing, but then found out the next day that she was pregnant and would not be able to ride until after her son was born almost a year later. Since then they’ve been working away together, competing at the two-star level at Tryon (Mill Spring, North Carolina), checking boxes and accomplishing goals.

“I wanted to come here because I've never been here to compete, so this was a first for me. I wanted to ride in the Rolex Stadium. I wanted my kid to be here. This was like a childhood dream of mine!” she said.

For Reserve Champion Lily Dudley, the 2026 USEA AEC was always a goal with her own 9-year-old Dutch Warmblood Guggenheim (Fly x V.Selle 1 Z), and this placing was icing on the cake.

“I've had Charlie for a year and a half now. He's just really special. He's taught me a lot,” she said, “When we first got him, I was only going Starter, and he has really taught me so he's incredible. He's very forgiving and has always just been there for me. And I'm super, super lucky to have him.”

Dudley trains with Jamie Allison and Mikey Nolan, and after qualifying at Morven Park (Leesburg, Virginia) in the spring, “the rest of the year was really just like kind of grinding away to get good on cross-country and show jump and all those things.” They finished on their dressage score of 28.0.

April Hays juggles her eventing with a full time career as an anesthesiologist, but nonetheless has already competed twice at the AEC here at the Kentucky Horse Park (in the Novice division in 2023 and the Training division in 2024) on her own Anteros HSH (Adagio de Talm x Celavie). In fact this venue, relatively local to their Tennessee base, is something of a favorite of theirs.

“His whole 5-year-old year we just came to every event at the Horse Park,” she explained, as her 9-year-old Holsteiner gelding is an anxious traveler, and can be spooky too. "I just thought, let me just take him to the same place, let him figure out the job, and then once he was confident then we started going to other places, and it was definitely the right choice for him because it took one of the variables out. He was no longer so worried about everything else around him. He was able to focus on his job.”

They too added nothing to their dressage score, finishing on the podium in 3rd place on a score of 29.6.

Standlee USEA Modified Open Championship

Kyle Carter is back on the podium at the Kentucky Horse Park, winning the Standlee USEA Modified Open Championship on Redfield Nola (Entertainer x Grazia), an 8-year-old warmblood mare sourced from Caroline Pamukcu. “Caroline’s really good about calling you and telling you she has your next superstar,” Carter said with a laugh, but this time she might be right. “She's lovely,” Carter described his mare, “and she is probably one of the top three performers I have in the barn.”

Carter and Redfield Nola finished on their dressage score, jumping a stylish clear round in the Rolex Stadium to clinch the Championship.

Since acquiring the ride on her about two and a half years ago, and more recently arranging to keep her in his program, Carter has spent time training her and letting her gain experience.

“I've been very slow on her through the build-up because she had a breathing issue," he explained. "This is her first competition back since a throat surgery we did on her, and it's a game changer. She felt great the whole way, she finished, and she's marching back to the barn.”

Carter will be aiming tentatively for the CCI3*-L at Terranova [Myakka City, Florida] this fall, with an eye to taking the mare to the Pan Am Games next year. “I think she could be a real contributor at that level right now with a little bit more mileage. I put a lot of miles on her, and she actually is a little better when the fences are bigger because she starts to kind of come up. She's bred to jump.”

The USEA AEC was always part of Carter’s plan for both this mare and his Intermediate horse.

“I wanted to bring the horses here because I knew we'd get a full performance at the real level,” he explained, “we do a lot of events in our area that are great, but I knew I'd get the full gamut here. This is taking yourself out of your comfort zone. You have to do that, and you have to do that with your horse, and you have to know when they go in the ring after cross-country what their performance is going to be. So it gives me a way better insight to a very different type of competition, and it more resembles the competition of what you're going to see if you come to the four star here at some point, and then if you went on to do the five stars. This is essential to seasoning these horses for what we're trying to do”.

Karl Slezak also jumped clear within the time in the final phase on his own Hellboy (Sligo Candy Boy x Imperious Lux) to make it a Canadian one-two, finishing on his dressage score of 31.6. Slezak brought the 8-year-old Irish Sport Horse over from Ireland as a 3-year-old.

“He was really nervous and skittish so we gave him lots of time,” Slezak elaborated. "He started eventing last year, and he came along really, really well. He finished the season on Modified and then he just needed some more time again so we’ve just been hanging out at Modified. I'm super excited about him for the future; he’s a lovely horse.”

Such a lovely horse called Hellboy? “So he's by Sligo Candy Boy so we always wanted 'Boy' in there,” Slezak said with a smile, “but if you look at him, at his growth plates, he's got two horns on his head, and and they're quite prominent!”

Holly Payne Caravella and her mother Marilyn Payne’s 10-year-old Irish Sport Horse mare Rock Me Mama (Low Moor Bullion x Mister Murphys Girl) jumped clear Thursday morning in the stadium to also finish on their dressage score and bag a third place ribbon.

“I accidentally took over the ride this year,” Caravella shared. “I took her to Southern Pines this spring because she had been a little fresh and quite naughty”. Then, with a few more events under their belt and a qualification for the AEC in the bag. "My mom got busy judging, and she's like, 'Well, you might as well take her here.' So she kind of became my ride this year!”

Rock Me Mama lives at Payne’s farm so Caravella only rides the mare at competitions. She may show her a little more in the future, she says, but the mare was only ever intended to be a fun horse for her mom to ride and not destined for the upper levels.

Standlee USEA Modified Rider Championship

Olivia Jane Fry and her own Qabernet VT (Qredit x Dom Perignon) had a rail in hand as they entered the Rolex Stadium in the lead of Standlee USEA Modified Rider Championship, but they didn’t need it, jumping clear to win on their dressage score of 29.6. Fry has had the ride on Qabernet for about four years, and because he had only done dressage and never evented before she’s taken her time to bring him up the levels from Beginner Novice, with the help of her trainer Shelby Bradley, and also over the last couple of months Karen O’Connor.

“When I first saw him I thought he was really flashy and had really nice movements,” Fry smiled, “but he also just really liked to learn, and he really loved jumping. He got a little bored with the dressage so I thought that he would really enjoy once we got out on cross-country and just learning all the aspects of eventing and jumping.”

Fry has competed twice previously at the USEA AEC but this is her first win here. “I think it was helpful to have been here before, but just really knowing that this has been one of my goals, thinking about that at home and through my other competitions has really helped too.” Their favorite part of the weekend was definitely the victory gallop. They hope to do a Preliminary next and move up to CCI2* level, with qualification for Young Riders as a goal for next year.

Jocelyn Hawe and Fiddle Head (Old Fashioned x Gorgeous Me) jumped clear in the stadium, adding nothing to their dressage score across both jumping phases to finish on 35.8 to claim the Reserve Champion title.

Clarissa Brown and her own Notorious Quality (Timone x Jog on Kitty) capitalized on a clear round in the final phase to move up several places onto the podium in third on 37.6. Brown has had the 9-year-old Irish Sport Horse since he was a 3-year-old.

“We’ve been doing the Modified levels for a couple of years, and now we feel like we’ve gotten our groove with it,” she said. Brown is based in Northern Virginia and trains with Tim and Marley Bourke and revealed that it was her goal to finish top-5 at the USEA AEC this year, their first trip to both the Kentucky Horse Park and the Championships.

“It was great; the ground was great, the course was really, really fun, the Rolex arena was really inviting, and we had tons of fun!” Brown wasn’t too nervous walking down the ramp into the stadium, she said, “I felt confident so I tried just to think of it as another ride, and ‘Bingo’ knows that I love him no matter what happens!”

Adams Horse Supply USEA Modified Adult Team Championships

The Adams Horse Supply USEA Modified Adult Team Championship was won by The Next Big Thing, which consisted of Charlotte Collier on Loughton Cici ZA, Elizabeth Welker-Ebling on Fernhill Domino, Cindy Buchanan on Upper Charlize DS, and Julie Crispin on Magnific C’Imagination with a final score of 87.2.

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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.