Sharon White and Claus 63: Your 2026 US Equestrian Open Eventing Champions! Photo by Haley Boothe / Impulsion Media.
What do you do in the nearly two decades after you win your first CCI4*-L? Mostly, you don’t really think about winning. Eventers at the four-star level and competing in North America only have six chances at this type of win each year these days. In the entire world, only about 50 CCI4*-L events run annually.
That’s not many chances to win one of the sport’s top accolades.
So mostly, you just show up. You don’t do this sport for money – thankfully, because there isn’t much to be made, at least not in competition. You’re selling horses, training people and horses, courting owners who will help you out, teaching clinics, filming Cameos to eke out a living. You just show up. Because you love the horses, and you enjoy the process – winning or no winning.
For a lot of their time at this four-star level, Sharon White and Claus 63 did a lot of the no winning part. Morven Park, less than two hours from Sharon’s Last Frontier Farm home base, had been the site of much of this – this CCI4*-L division in particular, the nemesis. One year it was tripping on a bell boot that sent them swimming into the water. Another it was a runout at the coffin complex, costing them a podium finish or a possible win at the inaugural US Equestrian Open. Morven Park wasn’t a clean sheet for Sharon and Claus – until this weekend.
This weekend, Sharon’s ongoing belief in Claus 63 – and a clearing of her own mind – made her the second US Equestrian Open Eventing Champion and the first female rider to hoist the Open trophy across all three Olympic disciplines.
‘They let me be prickly’
Sharon White and Claus 63. Photo by Haley Boothe / Impulsion Media.
“‘Oh my God, Henrik looked so terrified on Saturday!'”
Sharon is laughing at her stall with Claus, her #supergroom Kate and her husband, Henrik. She’s recounting the messages she’d gotten from humorously concerned friends who’d seen Henrik on cross country day. Most eventing husbands will relate to what Henrik was feeling (does anyone actually enjoy sending their partner out of a start box, and also does anyone actually enjoy being around their partner on cross country day? Be honest here). “That’s because Henrik lives with me, and he knows the disappointment that I have been through, and all he wants is that that that doesn’t happen again. I’m so lucky that he understands. I’m prickly all this week, right? Like, I’m just all prickly. Because it matters so much, and you put so much effort into this one moment in time.”
The thing is, Sharon had to balance her own “prickly” self with the fact that Claus 63 is a horse that does not favor being put under a rider’s pressure. He’s so intense and hard on himself, she describes, that adding more is their undoing. So it’s a mental game, and it’s one she knows she hasn’t always been able to win. Not for lack of effort: she’s worked with Natalie Hummel and Steph Seeley as performance coaches. She spends most of her pre-ride time meditating or consuming inspirational content in her car – watching videos of Beezie Madden or Julia Krajewski, saving quotes by Marie Curie and Kobe Bryant. Mostly, she just doesn’t want to let her horse down.
“We all know we can do the job, right? It’s just, can you put it all together? And your whole team around you has to allow you to figure your own shit out. They let me be prickly. I wanted to be present, and I wanted to…you know, at some point, you just have to trust that you show up every day of your life. I have showed up every day of my life for this sport.”
That showing up goes for herself, too, she learned the hard way this summer. During a jump school after winning the CCI4*-L dressage at MARS Bromont (Canada), Sharon’s knee gave out. She was forced to withdraw rather than ride and risk her horses and making her knee worse, and her summer plans were cut short. Intensive physical therapy, PRP therapy, and learning more about how to avoid overtraining her own body has her feeling stronger and more stable in her knee and elsewhere now.
Sharon White and Claus 63 went into the lead at MARS Bromont after dressage in June before withdrawing. Photo by Haley Boothe / Impulsion Media.
“My knee was a good reminder of, you know, I’m not young anymore,” she said. “I’m not invincible, and if I am not really aware and overdoing and trying to keep up with the youth and not being respectful of myself, then I’m not doing the right thing.”
Plus, she spent a lot of time riding without stirrups. When she had to make a gutsy save at the last water on cross country yesterday, “I was actually really quite comfortable! I couldn’t have stirrups for a couple months, so you know, who needs them, right? But it probably all ended up exactly the way it should have. Life is always working in your favor, whether you realize it or not.”
The win is a sweet one – the biggest one of her career, to date – and Sharon’s eagerly looking forward to rewarding Kate Servais, her longtime groom (who also won the Groom’s Prize sponsored by YETI as the winning 4*-L groom as well as an additional Groom Award sponsored by MARS Equestrian for some extra prize money) with a chunk of her $66,667 and change check as US Equestrian Open champion.
Photo by Haley Boothe / Impulsion Media.
“It’s a really nice thing to end up on top,” Sharon said. “I’m more happy that he’s come through it great, and he had a grand time show jumping today. We don’t win a lot of money, and it really helps, right? Now Kate gets a good chunk too which is huge – like that’s a big deal, that matters.”
Above all, Sharon’s simply proud of her horse. “I think I got him as a five-year-old from Germany and we did some really bad dressage for a really long time because he would be so explosive. It takes the time it takes. So quietly, that has gotten better and better, and he’s gotten more relaxed and more able to handle the pressure of the competition in a way that he then behaves like he does at home. It’s just so much more comfortable now for him, and it’s nice to feel them relax into their job. My whole goal has been just to make him more and more reliable, and this year, he really has been quite reliable, and that’s really satisfying.”
‘The Rudy Ruettiger of our sport’
Will Coleman congratulates (and, likely, apologizes for spraying champagne in her eyes) Sharon White on the podium. Photo by Haley Boothe / Impulsion Media.
It has to be at least someone bittersweet for Will Coleman to finish up second once more after having the lead post-cross country. It was somewhat déjà vu today for Will and Off the Record, who lowered two fences on a day that anyone would have rather spent doing just about anything other than jumping horses in white pants. But for Will, it’s never been about just one result, won or lost, with this horse.
“It’s the totality of his career and sort of how long he’s been with us,” Will said. “We’ve had him since, really, the very beginning of his eventing life…he’s just been such a consistent and kind of reliable horse for us, and I think he sort of defined us, to a degree, for a long time. So I don’t really want to make it about just one event that he may have done particularly well – I think he’s much more than that, and I’m really proud of him. And it’s a real privilege to have had him for these, geez, 13 years.”
Will Coleman and Off the Record. Photo by Haley Boothe / Impulsion Media.
Will talked yesterday about the inner makeup of “Timmy” being the thing that really sets him apart and makes him great. He wasn’t built to gallop, doesn’t have the Thoroughbred blood needed to have inherent stamina, isn’t gifted in the dressage. But he’s learned to do all of these things. He’s proof that a teachable horse is the most valuable of all. A horse can learn to do incredible things, with patience and the right help. He’s lucky to have had all of that in spades.
“He’s sort of like the Rudy Ruettiger of our sport,” Will said. “He’s not the most flashy. He’s not the most, maybe, talented, but he’s a trier, and he really, I think, shows that [in] how he goes about his business when he’s doing this, and he does it with a lot of passion. It’s clear that he loves it, and I think people can recognize that in horses. They can recognize that bit of heart and that bit of extra effort that some horses put into it, and he’s one of those horses. So I think it’s that: that bit of character that certainly is what we love about them, but I think it makes it something that a lot of people can identify with, both in themselves and maybe horses or animals they have in their life.”
‘He showed his whole heart’
Mia Farley and Invictus. Photo by Haley Boothe / Impulsion Media.
After a brief interlude this summer in which Invictus was loaned to young rider Charlotte Schaef to compete at Young Riders, “Sammy” came back to Mia Farley’s program to set about working towards his third CCI4*-L. In April, Mia and the 10-year-old Holsteiner/Thoroughbred gelding finished third in the Cosequin Lexington CCI4*-S, following that up in May with a win at Tryon’s CCI4*-L.
The best part of the weekend was a very local connection and deep roots in the history of American eventing. Invictus was bred in Virginia by U.S. Olympian Karen O’Connor and Sue Clarke, director of equine operations and breeding program manager at Stonehall Farm (which is owned by Ms. Jacqueline Mars). It’s a close knit community, and all involved have followed Sammy’s progress as an eventer, sticking by him even as he needed some time to mature – and even now, is just 10. Sammy was matched to Mia – who’s done all of the producing on him, including his earliest days under saddle – with Sue’s expertise.
“She’s done such an amazing job developing him and it excites me when I watch her—which I did in the four-star at Kentucky—the way she gets after a jump, the way she really gets down on the horse and pushes him forward,” Sue said in an interview with The Chronicle of the Horse‘s Hannah Sherk earlier this year (the article is a great read on Sue, Invictus and Lauren Nicholson’s Landmark’s Jungle Gold – you can read it here). “That’s exactly what he needs, because he’s such a big horse that I think he can really lag behind if someone doesn’t get down on them and give them the confidence and push them – but still recognize the limitations. She’s really developed that feel, with a lot of help from Karen and David on that.”
“I think it’s really special for everyone involved with him,” Mia said of her third place finish today. Last year, Sammy missed this event due to a bout of colic. He returned to competition without a hitch this spring, picking up right where he left off and showing even more improvement. “We learned that he really could fight for us on cross country, and he showed his whole heart…we learned a lot this year.”
US Open Shows Promise in Year Two
Laine Ashker and Lovedance seal the deal in fifth place. Photo by Haley Boothe / Impulsion Media.
The rest of our final leaderboard at this US Open is full of stories. The ongoing improvement of Shannon Lilley’s Eindhoven Garette, moving up to fourth after starting the week in 24th. The consistent competitiveness shown by Laine Ashker and Lovedance in the mare’s first 4*-L and Laine’s first in 14 years (five-star is more recent for Laine – she last did Kentucky in 2016. Her last 4*-L was actually then known as a CCI3* and was at Fair Hill in 2012 with the great Anthony Patch. She also finished fifth there).
Woodge Fulton and Cash Point. Photo by Haley Boothe / Impulsion Media.
Double clears in the muck from Arielle Aharaoni and the cutest little “Crunchy” Cooley Baltic Sea, Allie Knowles and Leo Santos, Woodge Fulton and Cash Point, and Caroline Pamukcu and HSH Connor. Boyd Martin and Luke 140 also jumped a nice double clear to put a nice finish on Luke’s first run back at the Long level despite yesterday’s error of course. Boyd had a solid consolation in his victory aboard Commando 3 in the complementing CCI4*-S division. This was also Commando 3’s return arc after he’d been sidelined from World Championships with a minor setback and spent the rest of the summer in dressage land with Silva Martin.
With a healthy number of spectators in attendance all week – even today in the worst weather – it’s a great positive for eventing that the US Open has come to town. The format is exciting and, in my opinion, easy to follow. I think the prize money makes it more than a worthwhile stop on a rider’s calendar. The fact that we didn’t have a fall five-star in the U.S. likely influenced entries at Morven Park, and with the 2027 and beyond picture of this unclear at this juncture, it’s worth a few thoughts on the greater ecosystem of our sport and what the most sustainable path forward is.
Sharon White is interviewed for the ESPN broadcast by Sinead Maynard. Photo by Haley Boothe / Impulsion Media.
More thoughts on that later, but I’m glad we have this fall goal. Morven Park, as Sharon White puts it, is “meant for horses” and it truly does feel like a three-day event in the truest sense. The US Open just sweetens the deal, but I’m glad for it, as a fan of sports in general. I hope that it can do the job of trickling down and growing (and supporting) the base of our sport, like its more mainstream counterparts do.
And even though it’s one of six chances to win an event at the 4*-L level, and the riders are here for the horses above all – the money doesn’t hurt. One large purse isn’t going to send our sport down a billionare’s rabbithole or corrupt it for good. Rather, it gives those eking it out at the top one more reason to keep showing up.
Each year, Sharon White sends out holiday cards. On the back of the card for 2025 was a quote she’d chosen, by Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke. It’s easy to see why she chose it – it in many ways encapsulates so much of what she says about horses in almost any interview. A sense of curiosity about them, loving the process of knowing them and how to help them be better, is what keeps her and her fellow riders coming back.
“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart, and try to love the questions themselves.”
Go Eventing.
Morven Park Fall International + US Equestrian Open of Eventing Final (VA): [Website] [US Equestrian Open] [4*-S/4*-L Scores] [Full Scores] [ClipMyHorse.TV Live Stream Replays]
