Stay up to date on the action from the 2025 Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event. Find information about the event, including a recap from each day of the competition below, and follow links to the full stories.
2025 Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event: Cross-Country Day
Kentucky skies were finally blessed with bright sunshine all day for the conclusion of the Defender Kentucky Three Day Event CCI5-L. With two rails in hand for the show jumping phase, Michael Jung (GER) and Fischerchipmunk FRH dropped only one to finish on a score of 25.0, granting Jung a record fifth Kentucky 5 win—the others came in 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2022.
2025 Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event: Cross-Country Day
After a day of deluges on Friday, cross-country day dawned dry, gray, and very cold for late April, with a “feels like” temperature of 45 degrees that persisted all day. The ground was still holding a lot of water, which turned out to be very deep and tiring for the horses, with scads of time penalties in both the 4* and 5* divisions.
Reigning Paris Olympic Champion and four-time winner of this event, Michael Jung (GER) rode his Paris mount, FischerChipmunk FRH, to an exceptionally fast round, with just 2.4 time penalties to stay in a comfortable lead. In fact, he has now set a 5* record for biggest lead margins after dressage and cross-country.
2025 Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event: Dressage Day Two
Under threatening skies that provided on and off downpours and even some lightning, nobody could catch Germany’s Michael Jung on the second day of dressage at the 2025 Defender Kentucky Three Day Event CCI5*-L at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Ky.
It was the last rider to go, Boyd Martin (USA) on Commando 3 who bore the brunt of a downpour that had held off for the rest of the 5* riders—yet he scored the best mark of the day from the judges, a 26.0, putting them into second place going into cross-country day.
2025 Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event: Dressage Day One
Day one of the 2025 Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event CCI5*-L kicked off today at the Kentucky Horse Park in picturesque Lexington, Ky. with the first day of dressage tests. Under mostly cloudy skies—apart from a handful of short-lived, light rain showers—many of the top horses and riders in the world took to Rolex Stadium for the first phase of the event.
A Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event dressage record was broken when reigning Paris 2024 Olympic gold medalists Michael Jung (GER) and FischerChipmunk FRH effortlessly danced across the ring to score a remarkably low 18.6. In
2025 Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event: An Impressive List of Entries
Six of the world’s top 12 eventing riders, including World #1 Tom McEwen (GBR) and World #2 Tim Price (NZL), head an impressive list of entries for the 2025 Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event presented by MARS Equestrian™. The event will feature 11 Olympians and athletes from seven countries when it returns to the Kentucky Horse Park, April 24-27.
Cosequin® Lexington 4*-S at Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event presented by MARS Equestrian™ to Serve as US Equestrian Open Eventing Series Qualifier
This year’s Cosequin® Lexington 4*-S will serve as a US Equestrian Open Eventing Series Qualifier when the Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event presented by MARS Equestrian™ returns to the Kentucky Horse Park, April 24-27. Equestrian Events, Inc. (EEI), producer of the world-renowned event, is thrilled to welcome back Cosequin® as the Title Sponsor of the Four Star competition.
Thanks to CareCredit for our coverage of the 2025 Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event.
