July 7, 2025 
It all came down to cross country for Team USA in the UBS-Cup CCIO4-S* at CHIO Aachen on Saturday, July 5—and what a test it was.
Designed by Italy’s Giuseppe Della Chiesa—who will also design the course for next year’s 2026 FEI Eventing World Championships—the optimal time of 6:35 proved impossible to catch for each of the 43 starters on course.
Not to mention, of course, the usual challenges of Aachen cross country: varied and open terrain, technical demands, and bold, traditional questions (think: the famous STAWAG combination, coffin jumps, and water complexes).
“Cross country today was pretty interesting,” American rider Boyd Martin reflected after the class on Instagram. “It was an interesting course; a lot of pressure, huge crowds. It was a CCI4*-S that had every question you could ever imagine with corners and narrows, and a couple of water jumps.
Even so, the day proved successful overall, with a 93% completion rate and no horse falls. The USA, who was sitting in fourth place overnight after show jumping on Day 2, made their mark on cross country thanks to two, particularly strong American performances.
William Coleman and Off the Record, a 16-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding, earned one of the fastest times of the day, finishing second only to New Zealand’s Monica Spencer. The veteran partners of more than a decade—who won this event back in 2021—were just two seconds over the time allowed, moving from 16th place into fourth in the individual standings.
Ditto for Martin and Commando 3 in their first appearance at this event. On cross country, the pair added 3.2 time penalties and moved up into the fifth position individually. While Martin said he and “Connor” didn’t have quite as much time as he would have liked to prepare for a big International class after their second-place finish at Defender Kentucky CCI5*-L in April, they more than made due—despite one minor hiccup.
“Connor was brilliant,” Martin said. “I lost my stirrup for about three jumps toward the end—that was a nightmare, trying to gallop along and fish my stirrup back. But Connor is a fantastic cross-country horse. He really guts-ed it out. We were a couple seconds over the time.”
American riders Caroline Pamukcu and HSH Blake finished with 18 time penalties on a final score of 58.6, while Philip Dutton and Possante added 5.6 in time penalties, for a final three-phase score of 43.8. The results of cross country helped to bring the U.S.’s final score to 117.200—good enough for second place in the UBS-Cup CCIO4*-S behind New Zealand on 108.500. Great Britain placed third on 134.100.
It’s also a hat trick of sorts, marking the third consecutive year Team USA has finished in second place on the podium in the UBS-Cup CCIO4-S*.
