Szilvásvárad, Hungary – Chester Weber earned an individual podium finish for the Defender U.S. Driving Team at the 2024 FEI Driving World Championship for Four-in-Hand Horses this week, clinching the bronze medal.
The competition, held at Hungary’s State Stud Farm at Szilvásvárad Sept. 4-8, 2024, started out with a bang for Weber (Ocala, Fla.), whose test with his KWPN geldings First Edition, Julius V, Kadora, and Kasper D, earned a score of 31.06. Not only was that score good enough to put Weber into first place, but was a record-setting score for this test.
“This whole season, we’ve really been dominating the dressage phase, and it just kept getting better and better,” said Weber. “The horses were in really good form leading up to the show, and we made some magic on the day.”
Weber’s commanding dressage score helped to keep him in podium position after a challenging marathon phase. With the team of First Edition, Kadora, Kasper D, and Reno, Weber completed eight clean obstacles to finish 11th for the phase, then turned in a fast round on Sunday’s cones course to finish in third place overall.
“It was a very different track from a lot of the sort of Dutch-esque tracks,” Weber said of the marathon course. “But I was very pleased with how the horses handled it and their performance.”
Weber highlighted the work of his support team and his horses in reaching the podium at the sport’s top competition.
“None of this is possible without the tireless efforts of many people working together in a synergetic manner to create excellence in horse sport,” he said. “I couldn’t be more proud of the horses and their performance and how they showed up every day in a positive, willing way and did their job to be just as good as they could be.”
U.S. driving athlete Jim Fairclough (Newton, N.J.) completed successful dressage and marathon phases, but opted to retire ahead of the cones phase after one of his horses sustained a minor injury in the stall overnight.
Australia’s Boyd Exell won individual gold with a final score of 146.93, extending his winning streak at this event that dates back to 2010. Bram Chardon (NED) won silver with a 157.74, narrowly edging out Weber’s 159.13. The Dutch team won team gold, followed by Germany with silver and Australia with the bronze.
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