Lexington, Ky.—April 24

Spectators at the Defender Kentucky CCI5*-L didn’t have to wait long for the drama to start.

Four horses into today’s horse inspection, reigning world champions Yasmin Ingham and Banzai Du Loir were sent to the holding box. While the pair were accepted upon inspection, it made for a nervous moment to kick off the event.

“He was a little bit lazy—a little too slow and laid back,” Ingham said. “He just didn’t move as expressively as he always does.”

The British gelding was one of two horses sent to the holding box during the first jog. Quantum Leap was the other, but rider Doug Payne said he knows his longtime partner well enough that he wasn’t too worried.

“When he’s amped, he moves really crooked, and when he’s crooked, it looks like a leg fell off,” Payne said jokingly of the 13-year-old gelding, who is making his seventh five-star start this week. “I think, his 7-year-old year, we got held at every first jog in the entire spring season.”

One pair did not present today: Matthew Grayling and Trudeau of New Zealand.

That brings the five-star field down to 35. Dressage will begin at 1:30 p.m. Thursday, with Sara Kozumplik and Rock Phantom as the first down centerline.

On the jog strip today, that group ranged the sartorial spectrum from understated elegance to something that could only be called … “Kenough.”

Holland Cooper outfitted many of the riders named best-dressed by their peers. Ingham, Jennie Brannigan and Bec Braitling all picked the company’s sophisticated neutrals to present. Brannigan, who is known for being edgy in her jog fashion, paired the company’s “just gorgeous” suede boots, camel skirt and coat with a little something of her own: a sheer white bodysuit she once wore to the Electric Daisy Carnival music festival.

“This is from a music festival, so I thought, ‘Dual-purpose; the classiest thing possible!’ ” she said. “It’s got a little Jennie in it.” 

Braitling also wore mostly Holland Cooper, too—but not the outfit she’d planned on. She pulled some pieces together after the outfit she selected got held up in transit, now scheduled to arrive the day after the jog.

She wasn’t the only rider whose jog outfit was held up in transit. Germany’s Christoph Wahler’s navy suit—along with his saddles, his bridles, his boots and just about everything else—got lost somewhere between Chicago and Lexington for a day and a half, and some local equestrians ended up coming to the rescue to help his groom source all the equipment she’d need to care for his horse, D’Accord FRH, until the missing trunk arrived.

“Some super nice people from here organized everything,” down to finding the same brand of saddles and bridles Wahler uses, he said. “The suit was in the equipment box—along with three saddles, boots—I got a little nervous!”

And if Boyd Martin fans were a bit disappointed to see their rider forgo his iconic American flag suit for a sedate sweater and slacks to jog On Cue, Will Faudree was there to cheer them all back up.

The North Carolina-based rider presented Mama’s Magic Way in a “Barbie” movie-inspired suit that made Martin’s red, white and blue seem, just maybe, a bit conservative. 

“I love the Academy Awards, and when Ryan Gosling performed the song ‘Just Ken,’ I thought that was pretty good inspiration, and I found the suit,” Faudree said. 

Over a group text, his friends Googled the hot pink creation, which—thankfully for everyone spectating at the Kentucky Horse Park today—did not get lost in transit and showed up in time for the first horse inspection.

He paired it with some throwbacks from his closet—his cowboy hat and a pink tie recalling he days with Antigua, the horse who made him a five-star rider—and a white, crystal-studded shirt purchased for a wedding last year. 

“The tie already belonged to me; I actually wore this tie when I jogged up at Badminton in 2005, [and] I’ve jogged up here a couple of times with it,” he said.  

Could the whole ensemble make a repeat appearance? “We’ll see,” Faudree demurred.

And what did “Mason” think when his rider arrived dressed in hot pink from head to toe? 

“He could dig it.”

See the roster of five-star horses that’ll contest dressage.

The Chronicle is on-site at the Kentucky Horse Park with two reporters to bring you everything you need to know at coth.com, so you don’t have to miss a minute of the action. You can find all of our coverage from the week here. You can also follow along on Instagram and Facebook. Be sure to read our May 20 issue for more in-depth coverage and analysis of the event.