THERE wasn’t a dry eye in the stadium when Switzerland’s Steve Guerdat claimed the only title he hadn’t yet won in Aachen last Sunday, when a thrilling and dramatic FEI Jumping World Championships came to a close in wonderful fashion.

Riding the incredible 13-year-old mare Dynamix de Belheme, Guerdat was the only competitor to jump five clear rounds over the course of the week to end on his opening day score of 0.86. He had a fence in hand when entering the arena as last to go, but the Swiss maestro did not need it to see off Belgium’s Thibeau Spits in silver with Impress-K van’t Kattenheye Z (5.60).

The biggest mover of the day was Britain’s Harry Charles, who moved from 23rd at the start of the final day to finish with the bronze medal aboard LT Holst Freda (7.17). The only three combinations to jump double clear across the two final rounds finished on the podium, on a day which saw some of the best combinations in the world crash out.

Guerdat, the first Swiss to claim individual world gold, could not hold back the tears in his post-round interview. He now has individual gold at an Olympics, Europeans, Worlds and multiple World Cup finals - the first rider in history to win all four titles. With Dynamix, he has won an individual medal at all championships - Milan 2023 (gold), Paris 2024 (silver) and Aachen 2026.

“I have no words. There are all the titles I wanted as a kid. I was very nervous all week. It’s not every four years that you have a horse like Dynamix. It’s not every world championship that you’re in a situation where you can bring a medal, so I was very nervous about [whether it] might be my last chance to get it.

“There is no day in my life I don’t think about Aachen and doing the world title, the one I was missing, in Aachen, it doesn’t get any better than that.

Played out

Some 25 combinations returned to the Main Stadium on Sunday after a break on Saturday, carrying every penalty accumulated throughout the week. With two rounds remaining, less than one penalty separated the top five and just 3.94 covered the entire top 10.

German course designer Frank Rothenberger presented another monstrous track with 13 obstacles and 16 jumping efforts in Round A, with the imposing wall making its first and only appearance of the Championship.

Six combinations jumped clear, but there were some major shocks. Home favourites Richard Vogel and United Touch S were caught out when turning back too tight to the aforementioned wall, which resulted in a stop, before going on to clear all the fences without any problem.

There was also a stop at the planks for Ben Maher and Point Break, who were in the bronze medal position. The other three members of the gold medal-winning German team - Sophie Hinners (Iron Dames Singclair), Daniel Deusser (Otello de Guldenboom) and Marcus Ehning (Coolio 42) all added penalties and slipped down the standings.

Co Cork’s Shane Sweetnam was Ireland’s only representative in Sunday’s final with the Patrick Connolly-bred Irish Sport Horse gelding CSF James Kann Cruz (Kannan x Cruising), owned by Gizmo Partners LLC. The pair looked on target for a sensational clear, before knocking the very last fence to finish in 15th place and end their world championship campaign.

Sweetnam said: “He was amazing all week. We did not always have the rub of the green, but he jumped brilliantly throughout the championship. Today, he felt great and jumped amazingly. The final rail was unlucky, and a costly one.Harry Charles ended up third and he was behind me going today, so there is a bit of a ‘what if’ feeling. If I had made the second round, perhaps I could have pushed my way further up the leaderboard, but I am very proud of him and it has been a great week.”

(L-r) Thibeau Spits, Steve Guerdat and Harry Charles at the FEI World Championships in Aachen \ Tomas Holcbecher

Final round

Only the 12 best-placed combinations progressed to Round B, where there was again more drama. Britain’s Scott Brash was first into the ring with the 11-year-old mare Hello Mango - leaders after day two. After getting a little deep to the first part of the combination, the grey paddled through the second part, unseating Scott, before she jumped the vertical out on her own.

Scott stayed on the ground momentarily before walking out of the ring and re-mounting Hello Mango for a cooldown.

Charles was in 10th position before shooting to the top of the leaderboard with another perfect clear in the final round to set the target. One by one, they dropped below him. The tall multicoloured verticals at fence 5a and 5b caused plenty of issues in this round, taking out Abdel Saïd (eliminated for two stops) and both Sophie Hinners and Marcus Ehning, who had it down.

Thibeau Spits took over the lead with four left to go with the next clear round before Daniel Deusser looked like he was putting himself into medal contention but knocked the very last fence to slip down to sixth. The surprise entrant in the final round and holding bronze position was Colombia’s Roberto Teran Tafur with Dez’ Ooktoff, looking for a first-ever medal at a world championship for his country. They faulted at the final part of the triple combination to finish fifth. Italy’s Piergiorgio Bucci looked home and hosed and almost assured of the silver medal with Hantano before more heartbreak at the final fence to slip to fourth place.

That meant when Steve Guerdat entered the arena, he had a fence in hand. As he had all week, Steve rode the lovely Dynamix de Belheme to absolute perfection, crossing the finish line with nothing to add to the delight of the sporting German crowd - 40,000 of them - who clapped him all the way out of the arena.

“She’s unbelievably smart,” Guerdat explained of his mare afterwards. She missed the majority of 2025 due to Guerdat having two operations on his back. “If she didn’t have this quality, this class and this smartness, she wouldn’t have been able, with so little jumping, to perform like this the whole week.

“She felt today even better than the other days. I have nothing but pride in a mare like this.”

For 25-year-old Spits, silver completed an extraordinary week after team silver on Friday night with Impress-K van’t Kattenheye Z. “I never really dared to dream of it,” he admitted. “I’ll probably never come to a Championship with a horse in such good shape and so talented. He just gives me so much trust.

“After the team medal, I could enter without pressure and really just try to enjoy today. It’s unbelievable.”

Harry Charles went home with two bronze medals. Just three months into his partnership with LT Holst Freda, the pair began Sunday in 23rd position after a pole down in each of the first two competitions before two textbook clears carried them onto the podium, on a day when he almost didn’t jump.

The combination began almost by chance. Freda had originally been considered for Charles’ wife, Eve Jobs, but when the opportunity arose to see the mare, Harry and his father Peter travelled to The Netherlands.

“We just stood looking at her in the cross ties and I said, ‘I don’t think you even need to try this horse’. I was so in love with her already,” he recalled. “We honestly got on really well from day one. She is a freak, the amount of power she can generate and her nature. I’ve never had a horse like her and I might never again,” Charles added. “She’s the one for the future, and I just want to take good care of her now. She’s strictly for the big, big things in this world.”

Rothenberger was happy with the results. “My idea before we started was that I wanted a good champion, and that they should be the only one to jump five clear rounds,” Rothenberger explained. “And that happened. I think that was a really good result at the end.”

Quotes:

Cian O’Connor: “For a country like Ireland, so rich in riders and with so much talent, hopefully that’ll give people good motivation at home, to know team Ireland is qualified for LA. People with a good eight- or nine-year-old can bring the horse along and aim for that. Current or new owners might get involved in the game and give back to some of these top Irish riders we have with investment to try to peak and medal at the Olympic Games with the right horsepower underneath us. The Olympics are close to my heart and LA will probably be my last Games.”

Richard Vogel: “I am very pleased with United Touch, he jumped incredible but unfortunately my riding was not good enough. I wanted to roll back tight to the wall to make sure I stayed inside the time allowed. He did not realise we needed to jump the bigger part of the wall; he thought we were jumping the smaller part on the right of the wall. It was really not great riding at all. Even more annoying because he is on such good form and he deserved more.”

Harry Charles: “What a roller coaster of a week. I thought I blew it this first day. I managed [to] pull clear out on Friday and honestly wondered if it was the right thing to even jump today. I was 23rd starting today. She just felt so fresh. She got this bronze, I was just lucky to be sat on her!”

Steve Guerdat: “In Aachen in May, I told my chef d’equipe that I was giving up on Dynamix for the World Championship - it was going to be too soon.”