May 5, 2023 
They came. They saw. They rode away with full pockets.
Team USA dominated CSIO5* week at Otomi Club Hípico in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico last week. It was a role reversal from 2022 when chef d’equipe Robert Ridland sent a green team to the Longines FEI Jumping Nations Cup of Mexico in Xalapa—and they were eliminated in the first round.
With Olympic qualification on the line for Paris 2024, he course corrected in 2023, sending three Olympic medalists in Kent Farrington, Laura Kraut and Jessica Springsteen, along with proven Otomi 5* winner Bliss Heers to contest the first leg of the North and South America and Caribbean division.
The decision reaped rewards. By Sunday’s end, the Americans didn’t just win the Nations Cup, they captured every CSIO5* class on offer in Mexico.
Kraut kicked off the winning weekend. Aboard Bisquetta, she bested a 56-horse field and 10-horse jump off in the CSIO5* Conade Jump-off Challenge 1.50m with a double clear in 42.27 seconds.
At just nine years of age, Bisquetta is an up and coming mount for Kraut. The pair has a 44% clear round average over nine rounds at 1.50m, according to Jumpr App. Their averages jump to 100% at 1.55m and 50% at 1.60m, albeit over a small sample size of just two rounds at each height.
Later that same afternoon, Kraut was again atop the podium, posting three clear rounds with Baloutinue in the Nations Cup. In a two-horse jump off against Mexico’s Eugenio Garza Perez, Kraut secured the win for Team USA with her fleet-footed partner of two years. The 13-year-old Hanoverian gelding is a proven contender, boasting an impressive 65% top 10 finish rate over 27 rounds at 1.60m with Kraut (Jumpr App). At 1.65m, their average climbs to 75%.
“I couldn’t be happier with him. He’s probably a horse of a lifetime,” said the world no. 19. “That’s a big statement, because I’ve had some incredible horses.”
Riding alongside Kraut in the Nations Cup were Farrington with Landon, Springsteen with Don Juan van de Donkhoeve, and Heers with Antidote de Mars.
Come Saturday it was 24-year-old Natalie Dean (USA) and Nespresso van’t Laekhof leading the victory gallop at Otomi. Dean and the 10-year-old bay gelding took top honors in a seven horse jump off for the win in the CSIO5* Banorte Jump-off Challenge 1.50m. It was their first ever FEI victory together.
Sunday wrapped with Farrington and his rising star Landon completing the quadfecta. The pair crossed the timers half a second than Garza Perez in the jump-off for the CSIO5* Longines Grand Prix 1.60m, maintaining their perfect 100% top 10 finish average at 1.60m.
Go ‘Merica.
