Aachen, Germany – Chester Weber (Ocala, Fla.) drove his team of Amadeus, Despardo, Kadora, Julius V, and Nico Tuesje C* to a bronze medal at the 2026 FEI Driving World Championship for Four-in-Hands in Aachen, Germany. Weber ended on a combined score of 156.7 after his world championship record-breaking dressage test on opening day gave him a significant edge. Competition concluded on Sunday, August 23, with The Defender U.S. Driving Team ending their championship after a day of cones on a score of 354.91.
“It's been absolutely super,” Chef d’Equipe Marcie Quist said about the week. “It is so exciting to compete at this level, with this level of drivers, and to be here to represent the U.S. at the highest levels. It is just incredible.”
Weber went into the ring for cones after successful dressage and marathon phases, knowing he was driving with a bronze medal on the line.
“I feel great, and the horses felt fantastic to drive. I had a little bit of a cheap fault very early on, which was my fault, so I was super pleased with the horses,” he said.
Weber was very complimentary of the team behind his horses, and likes to compare it to Formula 1 Driving. “I think that at the end of the day, it has to be something like that [ F1 Racing]. Without a good engine guy and a good tire guy, you can’t make racing happen. I have the most fantastic people behind me and the horses. They make my job possible.
“It's a team sport—there's not a man standing here before me today that can do this well without a team,” continued Weber. “It's not anything you can do without people who are super passionate about horses. You can't pay somebody enough for all of the countless hours that people put into making each of these horses great.”
James Fairclough (Newton, N.J.) and his team also went into the cones phase and added 14.49 penalty points, for a final score of 216.47. Taren Lester (Citra, Fla.), who made his championship debut this week, finished on a 210.86 after cones.
“The team was great, just a little inexperienced,” Lester explained. “But overall they were there to be driven, and I am happy with them.”
Driving as an individual for the U.S., Jean Thornton (De Lion Springs, Fla.) completed her first championship with joy.
“How do you even sum this [FEI World Championships] up?,” she said. “It's such an enormous experience. I don't know how you put it into a sentence,” Thornton said smiling after she completed her cones phase. “ I'm thrilled to have finished, and I really owe it to the horses first and foremost.”
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