United States Eventing Association

On this week's edition of the USEA Podcast, interim podcast host Rosie Russell touches base with this year's Defender/USEF CCI5*-L National Champion Lauren Nicholson who was the highest-placed U.S. rider in the 2024 Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event. Rosie talks with Lauren about her history with her longtime partner Vermiculus, their preparations for Kentucky, their outstanding performance at the five-star event, and so much more!

Stuart Landrum and Laurie Garner have been helping direct riders to the dressage ring at the Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event for nearly 30 years, maintaining a calm and collected atmosphere for each pair in the final warmup ring before they head down the chute to the Rolex Stadium.

Still riding high on the excitement of the 2024 Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event? So are we! One of the most exciting parts about the event is getting to watch, and sometimes meet, your eventing idols up close and in person. This year, the Kentucky team put together a group of really fun "behind the barn" videos with both four- and five-star competitors to help you get to know them a little bit better.

It was a weekend to remember at the 2024 Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event. Special stories were plentiful, with Oliver Townend taking his fourth Kentucky win in his 100th career five-star start, horses like Sharon White's Claus 63 and Liz Halliday's Cooley Nutcracker completing their first five-stars, and fan favorites like Mia Farley and Phelps and Lauren Nicholson and Vermiculus impressing.

While Oliver Townend and Cooley Rosalent started the weekend at the Defender Kentucky CCI5*-L a bit down the leaderboard in a tie for eighth after dressage, the world No. 1 can never be ruled out for a five-star win. Townend and “Rosie” climbed the leaderboard yesterday with just .4 time penalties on cross-country, and today they earned a nail-biting win after both the leader, fellow British rider Tom McEwen on JL Dublin, and second-placed Brit Yasmin Ingham on Banzai du Loir, had single rails over Steve Stephens’ show jumping course.

Will Coleman gets cold calls for horse sales all the time. So when he got an email from agent Sharon Ridgeway who was representing a horse in Australia, it almost went in the bin with the rest of them.

The Ground Jury was busy this morning assessing the 40 horses that presented in the Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event Cosequin CCI4*-S and the remaining 25 pairs in the CCI5*-L.

The top three going into show jumping in the Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event CCI5*-L all have reason to fight extra hard for the bluegrass win today.

At the end of an eventful day of cross-country at the Defender Kentucky CCI5*-L, three British riders rose to the top of the Defender Kentucky CCI5*-L, led by dressage leaders Tom McEwen and JL Dublin.

In comparison to its little sister, the Cosequin CCI4*-S, the Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event CCI5*-L was much calmer in terms of shock factor today. There were four pairs who retired on cross-country, two riders who parted ways with their horses, and five pairs finished with jump penalties added to their score.