Team USA finishes 8th, focuses on developing tomorrow’s superstars
Story and photos by Diana De Rosa
It was a fight to the finish as Germany secured the dressage team victory on home soil over silver medalists Great Britain at the FEI Dressage World Championships Aachen 2026. The defending world champions, Denmark, had to settle for bronze.
Germany (Frederic Wandres/Bluetooth OLD, Isabell Werth/Wendy de Fontaine, Katharina Hemmer/Denoix PCH, and Raphael Netz/Great Escape Camelot) eked out the win by less than four points. The combined team total of 235.063 bested Team Great Britain’s 231.445 (Charlotte Fry/Glamourdale, Carl Hester/Fame, Becky Moody/Jagerbomb, and Fiona Bigwood/Donna Bella). Team GB had previously won silver at the 2022 FEI Dressage World Championships in Denmark. The Danes (Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour/Mount St. John Freestyle, Daniel Bachmann Andersen/Flash Gordon 37, Carina Cassøe Krüth/Heiline’s Danciera, and Nadja Aaboe Sloth/Favour Gersdorf) earned a team total score of 229.426.
With two World Equestrian Games/Olympic Games veterans (Kasey Perry-Glass and Ashley Holzer) and two rookies (Meagan Davis and Christian Simonson), Team USA’s appearance at Aachen was more about getting experience and laying the foundation for future success at next year’s Pan American Games and at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. The team (Perry-Glass/Heartbeat W.P., Simonson/Fleau de Baian, Holzer/Hawtins San Floriana, and Davis/Toronto Lightfoot) finished eighth on a team total score of 210.621.
Even though the placing wasn’t what they had hoped for, it wasn’t totally unexpected. Part of the draw of competing in the World Championships is to earn an invitation to the next Olympic Games. Since the USA has already punched its ticket to LA28 by virtue of being the host nation, the US Equestrian Federation dressage selectors opted to take advantage of the opportunity to give upcoming horses and riders the chance to get the experience of competing at this level.
“Experience is amazing,” said Holzer, “but the young riders coming up through the sport right now are of a different league. To see these young ones come up through the ranks and to see how well they ride—that just didn’t exist when I was a young rider.
“I look at Christian [Simonson]—he is just to die for out there on a horse,” Holzer continued, referring to the youngest member of the US team, who’s just 23. “He gets the most out of that horse, to bring the most out of that horse. He’s able to develop them and wants to do it. I applaud what America has done for up-and-coming riders.”
Simonson’s test on the 16-year-old KWPN stallion (Jazz x Ulft) was the only one by a US rider to make the cut for the Grand Prix Special. They finished 25th individually on 71.304%.
“I try to be incredibly friendly with him,” Simonson said of Fleau de Baian. “I don’t worry about anything else other than how can I do the best job for him in this movement, and try to be incredibly present with him, and know that I can do my best job by focusing how I can do the best job in this moment for him.”
Perry-Glass’s impressive test aboard the 14-year-old KWPN gelding Heartbeat W.P. (Charmeur x Olympic Ferro) earned a score of 70.606% to put them 31st in the rankings—one place lower than the cutoff of 30 for the Special. If a higher-placed combination withdraws before the Special, then the US pair would get the slot.
As the second reserve rider, Davis, whose score of 67.624% aboard the 13-year-old Oldenburg gelding Toronto Lightfoot (Totilas x Onassis) put her 57th individually in the field of 91, said that she was more than pleased to have been named to the short list and ultimately the team.
“Despite being notified last minute, I’m super pleased with my horse to have done that well,” Davis said afterward.
Tomorrow, August 13, is a rest day for the dressage horses. The top 30 will return August 14 for the Grand Prix Special. The finale of the World Championships dressage competition will be August 15, when the top 18 pairs contest the Grand Prix Freestyle—tickets to which are among the most sought-after of the entire FEI World Championships roster.
