Canada’s Kyle Timm and Chris Pratt returned to Aachen’s vast main stadium Friday evening for the third day of jumping at the FEI World Championships, where the team medals were being decided under the lights. Canada had not qualified among the top 10 nations advancing to the team final, leaving Timm and Pratt to return as individuals after both earned places among the top 60 combinations continuing on from Thursday’s competition.
The German team maintained the iron grip on the lead, not dropping a single rail among them over the last three days and earning the well-deserved gold medal with a score of 4.48. With just 14 clear rounds, there were significant changes to the rest of the leaderboard as rails dropped for many surprising combinations including Scott Brash (Longines Ranking #4), Martin Fuchs (LR #17), Nicole Philippaerts (LR #13), Pieter Devon (LR #19), Willem Greve (LR #22), and Laura Kraut (LR #11) while fellow US team member Katie Dinan retired. This shakeup led Belgium to move up from third to second, finishing with a final score of 11.69. Great Britain was able to move up from fifth to third with a score of 12.98, while the US dropped from second to fourth on 16.85.
The top seven teams (excluding the US) earned a berth in the 2028 Olympics, which means that as well as the medalists, Italy, Switzerland, Ireland and France have punched their ticket to L.A.
The rails also shook up the individual standings. Scott Brash and Hello Mango had a rail dropping them from the lead to 10th with a score of 4.80. Sophie Hinners has a single time fault but that was enough to drop her from second to fifth with a score of 1.84. Steve Guerdat (SUI) and Dynamix de Belheme are now tied with Daniel Denser (GER) on Otello de Guldenboom with 0.86 each. Great Britain’s Ben Maher is in third with 1.01 and Marcus Ehning (GER) and Coolio 42 rounding out the top five with 1.78.
Canada Proud
Course designer Frank Rothenberger set another imposing track, with the fences again reaching championship dimensions and the questions becoming increasingly technical as the competition progressed.
Timm, riding Casino Calvin, was Canada’s first into the ring and had an unfortunate start when the first fence came down, which happened many times over the night. It would be his only mistake, as the 13-year-old grey gelding jumped cleanly around the remainder of the course to finish with four faults. The pair finished with a cumulative score of 9.03 to finish in 30th individually.
Kyle Timm and Casino Calvin finished 30th individually. (Cealy Tetley photo)
Pratt followed aboard Ideaal ES and also finished on four faults, lowering the second element of the 10a-b combination. They finished with a cumulative score of 8.85 in 27th individually.
Only the top 25 competitors move on to the individual final on Sunday, which is held over two rounds with the top 12 riders from the first round advancing to the second to determine medals.
Timm: “He answered every question”
For Timm, there was disappointment at having that rail but focused on the otherwise impressive round.
“Really, really unlucky first rail. I think the horse jumped amazing in the warm-up. He was, I think, exactly where he needed to be, and then he jumped amazing the rest of the round,” said Timm. “He answered every question with a 10 out of 10. I think I held my plan the best I possibly could under the circumstances of a championship. And yeah, it is what it is. I’m disappointed for sure, but I’m thrilled with the horse.”
For the 37-year-old Canadian, Aachen is also the culmination of a career that has increasingly centred on producing horses capable of reaching exactly this level.
Originally from Calgary, Timm has spent much of his adult career abroad. After working in New Zealand early on, he relocated to France in 2017 and eventually established his own operation, Haras des Fourches, near Fontainebleau. The 25-stall facility reflects a business model built around finding promising young horses, developing them and, when the time is right, selling them on to riders who can take them further.
“We buy a lot of young horses. We work with a lot of breeders. We work with some investors also, and our goal is to buy young horses that we think have something special and try and let that specialness shine through when they’re older and build them to the high level,” Timm explained. “It’s a lot of work and a lot of time. But for me, it’s really a passion to do that.”
There was a particularly satisfying example competing at Aachen alongside him.
Steve Guerdat (SUI) and Dynamix de Belheme (pictured) are equal first with Germany’s Daniel Deusser and Otello de Guldenboom on 0.86 points. (Cealy Tetley photo)
Enjoy de la Mure, now ridden for the United Arab Emirates by 23-year-old Omar Abdul Aziz Al Marzooqi, passed through Timm’s stable as a six- and seven-year-old before being sold to Spanish rider Eduardo Alvarez Aznar. Al Marzooqi later took over the ride and the pair went on to compete at the 2024 Paris Olympics, where they reached the individual final and finished 19th. They also contested the 2025 World Cup Final in Basel.
Standing in Aachen and watching a horse he helped develop compete at a World Championship added another dimension to Timm’s own appearance.
“I know how they cantered when they were a six-year-old, and how they jumped their first open waters and liverpools. That’s something that I think is special to me at these championships. It’s maybe a little bit unique.”
Timm said he is frequently asked whether it is difficult to watch horses he developed succeed with someone else. His answer is an emphatic no.
“Those horses went in the directions they needed to go at the appropriate moments,” he said, pointing to the partnership between Al Marzooqi and Enjoy de la Mure as an example.
“When you see the horses so happy in the sport at the high level with the riders, and the riders so happy and feeling so lucky to ride horses like that, that for me is what this sport is all about.”
Pratt and Ideaal ES make a rapid climb
Pratt’s route to Aachen has been quite different, but his four-fault performance Friday was equally significant. The Canadian and 13-year-old Ideaal ES, owned by Karen Long-Dwight and Glen Fleischer of Take The High Road LLC, have made a remarkably rapid progression into championship-level sport.
“To say I’m not really happy with it would be too greedy of me,” Pratt said after leaving the ring. “The horse really, really tried his heart out. I’m really happy with how I rode, with how he jumped.”
Pratt described the course as unlike anything either he or his horse had previously encountered.
“The technicality of the lines, where the course designer asks you to lengthen and shorten. The size of the jumps. Those are big jumps out there. They’re just tall verticals. Those are big oxers, wide. So the horses are really giving all their effort, and they have to land after giving all their effort and be able to adjust accordingly.”
Maher (GBR) and Point Break sit 3rd individually. (Cealy Tetley photo)
The achievement becomes more striking in the context of Ideaal ES’s relatively recent arrival at the top level. The KWPN gelding by Ukato won the CSI3* 1.50m Grand Prix in Lexington in October 2024. Less than a year ago, Ideaal ES jumped his first five-star Grand Prix at the Traverse City Major League.
Since then, the horse’s development has accelerated. This spring Pratt and Ideaal ES won a 1.55m CSI5* qualifier at Major League Show Jumping in Monterrey against a field that included five riders ranked inside the world’s top 10. They were also part of Canada’s third-place Nations Cup team at Hickstead in July.
“What he’s accomplished at 13 years old, he saw a lot of one- and two-star grand prixs and some three-star classes, but for him to develop less than a year from jumping a first real 1.55, 1.60 class to jumping something like this – it’s 1.65 – it’s a really big feat,” he said. “I’m thrilled. I couldn’t be happier.”
When not competing at the championships, Pratt operates a relatively small program, spending summers in Lexington, Kentucky, and winters in Wellington, Florida. He has deliberately limited the size of the business, concentrating primarily on his own riding, a group of developing horses, and a small number of higher-level clients. That model is intentional, because it gives him the flexibility and freedom to travel that some other Canadian professionals struggle with.
Pratt said competing regularly in Europe is “100%” part of his plan. “We have to be competing over here,” he said. “We have to go to La Baule. We have to go to Rome. We have to go to these major Nations Cups to get better as a team.”
By keeping his operation smaller, and with the generous support of Long-Dwight and Fleischer, Pratt has been able to cross the Atlantic repeatedly this season. His preparation for Aachen included European appearances at Chantilly and Hickstead, interspersed with trips back to North America.
“There’s always going to be travelling. I’m always going to have young horses at home. It’s impossible to bring everything over here,” he said. “For me, it’s got to be a small, manageable number that I can do a good job with.”
After Aachen, Ideaal ES will get several weeks off before Pratt plans two more Major League Show Jumping appearances this season. The gelding is then expected to have November off before heading south to Florida in December and returning to competition in January.
The World Championships conclude Sunday with the individual final, where the remaining 25 combinations will contest two more rounds for the individual medals.
Results Team Final HERE.
Results 2nd Individual qualifier HERE.
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