United States Eventing Association

Lexington, Ky.—April 26—Will Coleman has a long list of accolades to his name—Olympian, World Equestrian Games team member, FEI World Championships team member, Aachen CCIO4*-S champion, and many top finishes at the four- and five-star level. But today at the Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event he finally ticked off one more accomplishment as he was crowned the Defender/USEF CCI5*-L Eventing National Champion and winner of the coveted five-star division with Diabolo.

“It is a surreal feeling,” he said after his win. “It's something that I think we all kind of dream about. Winning a five-star, in my opinion, is one of the hardest things to do, if not the hardest in equestrian sports. I think I sort of feel like we all deserve the win. It's such a hard game. It takes so long to really get good enough at it to possibly contend for one of these things, and I have so much respect for the sport, the horses, and the riders, that I really feel like it's almost unfair that I'm the only one that gets to take home the win, but mostly I'm overjoyed for my horse and all the people that are a part of his journey—my incredible owners, my family, my coaches, and our incredible group of staff that helped us look after a large group of horses. Back at home, I wake up most days feeling like the luckiest guy in the world, and today I feel extremely lucky.”

Coleman had a string of successes with his partner Off The Record in the early 2020s, but then found himself enduring a bit of a rough patch that he once described as “being snakebit.” But he kept reminding himself of one thing when circumstances didn’t seem to go his way.

“That's the sport for sure, and that's life too,” he said. “I always try to remind myself that I chose to do this. I love to do this, and results are not guaranteed. Nothing in life is guaranteed. You have to enjoy the journey, and there's going to be rough bits. But every time I've been in a rough patch, I've always found a way to become a better person and better horseman. And so those down spells have really been what's helped me become a better version of myself. I always look back on those with a tremendous amount of gratitude, and that cycle will continue. You know, it will be an up and down game for everybody, and I think you have to embrace that, and I think we've done that. I'm proud of how we have, as a program, responded to those things, and I think we've all gotten better from them.”

The Holsteiner gelding Diabolo (Diarado x Roulett M), owned by The Diabolo Group, was one of those “snakebit” scenarios. Shortly after importing the horse from Australia, he struggled with the transition to life on the northern hemisphere, but once adjusted, he won the Cosequin Lexington CCI4*-S at Kentucky and the $60,000 Adequan USEA Advanced Final at the USEA American Eventing Championships that year in 2024. Then that fall, after winning the CCI4*-S at Plantation Field, he had an injury that put him out for most of the 2025 season. But Coleman knew the horse, now 14-years-old, would be worth the wait, and this weekend proved just that— especially his performance in the final phase today.

“I think the horse has a real conscience,” he noted. “I always feel like Diabolo wants to do his best, and as a rider that gives you tremendous peace of mind, knowing that your horse is going to go in there and really try for you. But I felt like he was extremely fresh this morning, not just at the trot up, but I rode him during the lunch break, and he felt fantastic in his body. He's an amazing athlete, and I've felt really, really good about him all day. I think I woke up this morning feeling good about him, so that speaks to his character. I think he's a really, really special horse. He hasn't really got many opportunities, but he's made the most of the ones that he has had, and hopefully I can give him a few more.”

Coleman and Diabolo’s success today marked only the second time that a U.S. horse and rider pair has won at Kentucky since 2008. Tamie Smith and Mai Baum were the 2023 champions. When Smith won the CCI4*-S division earlier in the day aboard Lillet 3, she became the only rider to have won both the CCI4*-S and CCI5*-L divisions at Kentucky, but Coleman and Diabolo quickly joined her in the history books, carving out a new place for themselves as the only horse and rider pair to have achieved that accomplishment.

Just one half of a point behind the winning pair were this year’s reserve champions Caroline Pamukcu and the 11-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding HSH Blake (Tolan R x Doughiska Lass). Pamukcu has had “Blake” in the barn since her business partner Kelley Hutchinson bought him as a resale project as a 5-year-old. Despite taking a tumble off of him in the show jumping at his first Beginner Novice in the states, Pamukcu knew there was something special about that young horse. And so did the judges at the USEA Young Event Horse (YEH) Championships as they crowned him champion in 2020.

“He was bought by investors to kind of be a sale horse, but we thought he could be a proper horse, so we're kind of like this weird gray area,” she said. “He actually was vetted three times and passed on three times,” Pamukcu recalled. “I remember the day before the last time he was being vetted, I was riding around in the indoor, and I remember being like, ‘Oh my god, I'd be so sad if you leave the barn. Like, it'd be horrible if you leave.’ And then luckily, the person lowballed me, and I was able to keep the ride on him.”

Now owned by Pamukcu and her husband Deniz Pamukcu, her mother Sherrie Martin, and supporter Mollie Hoff, Blake has opened so many doors for the rider including earning a Pan American Games gold medal at the 2023 games in Brazil and representing the U.S. at the Olympics in Paris in 2024.

“It was kind of one of those stories where we just kind of grew up together, you know,” said Caroline. “He's been there through a lot of my milestones in life, competition-wise. I had my baby last year, and named her after him—very cheesy, I know.”

Kentucky was their second five-star as a pair, but their first podium finish at the level together, having placed fourth at the MARS Maryland 5 Star at Fair Hill in October of last year.

Rounding out the podium was David Doel and Galileo Nieuwmoed, whom he co-owns with Mary Fox and Gillian Jonas. “Galileo” and Doel have had nine successful outings at the level, including a second place finish at Burghley in 2023 and a third in Maryland in 2024. Their 2025 season, however, they had two eliminations, one at Badminton and one at Burghley, before rerouting to Pau where they finished ninth.

“I'm very, very lucky,” Doel noted. “He's a bit of an unreal horse. He's taken me around every northern hemisphere five-star now, and been in the top-10 in all of them. No, he didn't have the perfect of years last year. To be honest, I think we improved the dressage, and then the jumping sort of fell apart a little bit. We righted that at Pau last year. We've come here, and we seemed to reap the rewards from that. You know, he's 15. We're always still learning, and horses are great levelers. It's obviously a bit gutting to end up on the floor at Badminton and Burghley, but we as a team came together, learned from those mistakes, and figured out what we've done wrong. He gave me a super ride on all three days. As these two [Coleman and Pamukcu] will know, it's very rare to get all three phases right, and for him we pretty much nailed it this weekend, so I’m really chuffed.”

This is Doel’s third trip to the states now and second time competing on the Kentucky bluegrass. This trip seems to be a favorite of both horse and rider.

“It's been absolutely magic,” he said. “The way we've been looked after, it's just been unreal. I have to say, the horses don't want for anything here whilst we're here. And even as riders, I think we're very lucky. I don't quite know about the American guys, but as European riders, we're very well looked after,” he joked. “It's an unreal experience. It's a huge investment from his owner to fly him out here and for us all to come out here, and it's an amazing thing for that to be rewarded. I'm very lucky. I've got a very cool horse to be able to sit on top and come and experience these moments.”

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