It’s the omnipresent goal for every rider to call time on a horse’s career at the right time. Generally speaking, many riders are able to make this call at the right time — before an ill-timed injury (or worse) happens, or before performance begins to fall off after a high peak. But a layer exists: due to proper management and maintenance, horses can compete at the highest levels well into their teens. For Emily Hamel, this season has been one of 19-year-old Corvett’s best yet. It takes time to get the formula right, especially as a horse becomes more established. The drilling and practice decreases, the maintaining, the honing of details, becomes the focus. It’s this management that allows a horse to enjoy a lengthy career — but it also makes it that much harder to close the chapter.
Last week at the Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event, two stalwart CCI5* horses had their final salute before heading into a less demanding life (though it’s safe to say we haven’t seen the last of either of them yet). It was an emotional weekend full of celebration on many fronts, but these two special horses deserve their own spotlight.
One Last Dance for Corvett
Emily Hamel and Corvett. Photo by Atalya Boytner Photography.
At 19 years young (in fact, he celebrated his birthday on Sunday of Kentucky), Corvett has certainly earned his stripes at the top levels of the sport. It doesn’t seem that long ago that we were publishing Emily’s 5* Rookie story — now, the pair have completed an eye-popping 11 five-stars together, finishing as well as seventh (Maryland – 2024) and also finishing in the top 10 on multiple occasions. “Barry” has collected his share of fans due to his exuberant jumping style, and for Emily, the adventure with this horse of a lifetime was a privilege she didn’t take lightly.
“With each five-star, I gain a little more trust and confidence in our partnership,” she told us on an early-season episode of The Go Eventing Podcast. “That’s something that’s really special. I don’t want to say it’s easy — it’s a five-star — but I feel super comfortable. I would say I’m not even really nervous on cross country day, which to me seems crazy. It’s special with him because, as you may have gathered, he’s very opinionated. If he didn’t want to do it, he would not do it. And he does it because he loves the job. And I would also like to believe that he does it because he loves me and our partnership. That’s something really special.”
Corvett celebrates another clear 5* cross country with #supergroom Jeanna Epping. Photo by Atalya Boytner Photography.
Emily’s partnership with Corvett dates back to 2015. “I met him in the fall of 2015,” she recalled. “He had come to Phillip [Dutton’s] with a young rider, and he was a super good jumper, but he was really quirky. He had done one or two Novices in England before they imported him. Phillip helped her, and then I helped her a little bit, but Phillip said, ‘This isn’t the right horse for her.’ He went to get sold as a jumper, but nobody could ride him there, so he came back to Phillip’s.”
It was a fateful decision, and while the pair experienced their own growing pains as they ticked up the levels, Corvett’s jumping ability and his willingness to form a partnership with her put the 5* thought in the back of her mind.
“If you go back and look at our results, our first four-star long was great,” she said. “And then the next one, I got eliminated at Bromont, and then I fell off at Fair Hill, and I just couldn’t get that last one. I just kept being like, I have to get this done. There was a ton of pressure. And then I kept extending my season, and I ended up doing Jockey Club when they had that, and that’s when I got my last qualifier. In hindsight, it actually worked out well having another year not being able to do a five-star because I was that much more prepared in 2021. Maybe in 2020 I would have gotten Kentucky done — it’s hard to say — but because I couldn’t, I had a whole other year to prepare and get better. It’s funny how things work out.”
Emily Hamel and Corvett. Photo by Atalya Boytner Photography.
Now, Emily can look back with pride at what she’s accomplished: a sound horse, clear through every 5* in the Northern Hemisphere. Adelaide was actually on the table as the seventh one to hit (which would have made Emily and Corvett the sole pair to complete all of the 5* events together), but the strict quarantine laws in Australia and, of course, the travel toll on the horse, the expense and time away from her business made the idea less than feasible. But even without that last feather in the cap, Emily reflects with gratitude.
“At the end of the day, do what’s best for your horse and take the time it needs,” she advised. Managing one horse has been the theme of her career (though she does also have some exciting young horses coming up the levels!), and so she’s learned more than many just how much patience the process can take. “Everybody’s on a different timeline. You can’t predict if your horse is going to get injured or whatever, but basically, if you have a goal and you have this horse that you want to do this goal with, you just need to do what you can to make that possible. It’s the saying about going slow now to go fast later. Taking your time to really do the things right — it might seem like you’re not getting to where you want in the timeline you want, but if you’ve done the work and filled all the holes, when you do get to your end goal, you’re probably going to do it really well and also have longevity in that.”
At the end of the weekend, Emily was her typical composed self, but there was definitely emotion. Finishing Barry’s final 5* with a strong result and celebrating his 19th birthday all at once will hit you with the feels. In the mixed zone after show jumping, Emily was asked what her favorite competition with Barry had been.
“Up until today, Burghley had been my favorite, but I’d say after today, [it would be] today, like the weekend,” she reflected. “Just being here and knowing that this is going to be his last five-star. And he really gave me everything all weekend…He was just so good. Like, it felt easy. And that seems crazy to say about a five-star but like, it just felt like we’ve done it a million times, and he was right with me the whole the whole way around, and like I could have pointed him at anything, at any angle, and he would have said, ‘Yes, how high would you like me to jump?'”
A Not-So-Naughty ‘Bug’ Enjoys the Buzz
Vermiculus enjoys his retirement ceremony during the show jumping break at Kentucky with mom and dad Sam and Lauren Nicholson as well as #supergroom Sally Robertson. Photo by Atalya Boytner Photography.
Also 19 this year, Lauren Nicholson’s World Championships team silver medal partner, Vermiculus, also had a busy weekend at Kentucky, though his schedule was less full of ride times and ring familiarization and more stuffed with doting fan appearances.
It’d been two years since we’d seen Vermiculus — one of Lauren’s famous Anglo-Arabian partners that she’s produced up to the 5* level — at Kentucky. He finished fifth that year (2024) and was also crowned USEF Eventing National CCI5* Champion as the top-placed U.S. in the field. While Lauren initially entertained the idea of bringing “Bug” back out after the beginnings of a soft tissue injury was picked up on a scan shortly before the Paris Olympic team selection, responsibility took the forefront.
“He was back galloping and jumping, but it was becoming obvious it was going to take some maintenance to keep him going for another five-star,” Lauren said. “And you know, we have a real responsibility with these horses. I went through it with Veronica and [Landmark’s Monte Carlo] as well, like you want them to go out on a high note. We went back and forth a little bit, but it just felt like it was the right thing to do for him, on top of [the fact that] I don’t think anyone, especially me, would forgive ourselves if anything ever happened to him. It was the right thing to do.”
Vermiculus was a consistent performer for Lauren, with the ability to score competitively in the dressage and jump clear to finish nearly on it. With so many memorable experiences to choose from, it’s hard to pick favorites, but Lauren thought of two after a moment when asked.
Vermiculus enjoys a party with his fans at Kentucky.
“Honestly, Pratoni [the 2022 FEI Eventing World Championships] was huge,” she said. “That was just such a fantastic team that pulled together when everything was kind of chaos with the team and organization at that point, and we just pulled off that medal — the first medal in 20 years — at a Worlds for the U.S. and with [Will] Coleman and Tamie [Smith] and Ariel [Grald] and Boyd [Martin]…that was super memorable. And then the Burghley where he finished top ten, because that course was freaking huge. I think it’s still one of the hardest Burghleys on record. This was the first time I’ve ever walked a course, and it looked big for Bug, you know? And he gutted it out to then to come out and show jump clear next day — that was huge. I remember I said to him on Saturday morning, ‘Bug, this will be the biggest thing you ever have to do. But I promise, I don’t think anything will ever be this hard after this!’ That is probably still the only course I’ve felt him have to try. He was just such a gutsy pony.”
And he certainly had a sense of occasion, too: “He was a funny guy, because he was always would be a little bit of a one or two rail horse at horse trials and naughty and everything else — but he pulled out a lot of clear show jump rounds on the last day of a three-day.”
Lauren Nicholson and Vermiculus compete for Team USA at the 2022 FEI Eventing World Championships in Pratoni, Italy. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Vermiculus is also a carrier of the banner for the underdog: despite younger Lauren’s delusions of grandeur (ok, in this case they came true but she laughs when she says: “Honestly, I was still at that place in my life where I thought every horse was gonna be a five-star horse. For some, it was super delusional. But I also think…you need a little delusion!”), it really took until he gained that ongoing strength and experience at the 5* level for his truly competitive results to come through consistently.
“It’s funny because I think there are a lot of five-star horses that aren’t really anything ‘special’ at the two-, three-, four-star levels,” she continued. And then, like David [O’Connor] says, at five-star they start to pay attention. I always say they have to be just weird enough to be real five-star war horses.”
“Just weird enough” is a fitting descriptor of a top event horse if there ever was one. We’re fortunate in this era of eventing to be witnesses to some true greats of the sport. Perhaps they aren’t repeat 5* winners like La Biosthetique Sam or Lordships Graffalo, but they’ve given us something to cheer for, to root for, and something in which we see our own personal journeys reflected. For these riders, I hope this is an accomplishment worth just as much as the top scores and the trophies. It’s what makes our sport so special.
Go Eventing (and Go Barry and Go Bug!).
