Eighteen Years Between Wins: How Sharon White Got Back To The Top

Sharon White & Claus 63 are the 2026 US Equestrian Open of Eventing champions. They finished on 30.8 at Morven Park: 26.0 in the dressage, clear across the country with 4.8 time penalties, clear and inside the time in the show jumping.

It was White's first long-format four-star win since The King's Spirit at Bromont in June 2008. She is also the first woman to win a US Equestrian Open Final in any discipline.

Between Bromont and Morven Park, White started 19 CCI4*-L and 13 CCI5*-L competitions on five different horses: Rafferty's Rules, Wundermaske, Under Suspection, Cooley On Show and Claus 63.

She came close. Fourth at Jersey Fresh in 2010 and again in 2014. Fifth at Bromont in 2011. Second at Tryon in 2021. At five-star, she finished 8th at Kentucky in 2018 and completed at Luhmühlen and Pau. The win never came.

The road started long before 2008. White had her first riding lesson at 12. She rode and worked at Deana Vaughn's Tail Wind Farm through high school, then worked for Olympic event rider Torrance Watkins from 1991 to 1994 while studying English at George Mason University. From 1997 to 2000, she worked and trained with Bruce Davidson at Chesterland Farm.

She completed the long-format four-star at Fair Hill in 2000, 2001 and 2002. In 2002 she also completed Kentucky and the inaugural Foxhall, and her family bought what is now Last Frontier Farm in Summit Point, West Virginia.

In August 2005, an accident shattered her pelvis and fractured her sacrum. By May 2006 she was competing internationally again. In April 2007 she was back at Kentucky with Ronaldo. A year later, she won Bromont.

Claus 63 has been with White since his international debut in 2019. He won a team silver medal at the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago. His record at CCI4*-L was harder going.

Eliminated at Jersey Fresh in 2021. Eliminated at Morven Park that October. Second at Tryon a month later. Eliminated at Bromont and at Morven Park in 2022. Last year at Morven Park, they were 2nd after a 25.2 dressage, then picked up 20 cross-country penalties and finished 10th.

This year they came back to Virginia for a fourth try. Last Frontier Farm is just over the state line. This time the course gave something back.

Across the four previous Finals, women made up 52 of the 123 combinations and took four of the 12 podium spots. Every title went to a man. In a sport where women and men compete as equals, it took five Finals for a woman to win one.

Eighteen years. Thirty-two long-format starts. Four tries at Morven Park. White kept going. It paid off in Virginia.