Last year saw three U.S. riders reach No. 1 in the FEI world rankings for their respective sports. This week, we’re looking back at the 2025 season of those three athletes: Kent Farrington (jumping), Boyd Martin (eventing) and Fiona Howard (para-dressage).

For all the success that put Boyd Martin in eventing news in 2025, May delivered the biggest headline of all: FEI world No. 1. That month, Martin stood alone at the top of the chart and became the first U.S. rider to summit the FEI Eventing World Athlete Rankings in more than two decades, unseating Great Britain’s Tom McEwen, who had held the position since August 2024.

Martin, who is also nominated for U.S. Equestrian Federation’s International Equestrian of the Year, said the milestone had him thinking about his early days back in Australia.

“It was just a surreal moment, to be honest,” he said of getting the news in May. “I’ve been doing this sport full-time since the day I left high school when I was 17 years old. It’s my 25th year of riding five-stars. It’s something I always kept an eye on over the years.”

For Martin, the ranking was a reminder of the long, unglamorous stretch of his career when he was still far from the sport’s spotlight and its biggest players, like his childhood idol Phillip Dutton, who would later become his mentor and close friend. 

“The biggest influence of my life has been Phillip Dutton,” Martin said. “He’s sort of paved the way for me, being from a rider from Australia—the other side of the world—and coming to America and starting from scratch. I remember when he was ranked the No. 1 rider in the world [in 2005], and he didn’t even know who I was at that time, just because I was a young kid in Australia working away in the dust.”

Martin says Dutton has taught him lessons out of the saddle as well, including “how he handles himself in great moments and bad moments,” and kept his month at No. 1 in perspective. 

“It’s a weird thing, being ranked the world No. 1 rider,” Martin said. “Honestly, I don’t feel like I’m the best rider in the world. In eventing—I’m not sure about the other sports—but in eventing, it was just a moment in time of who’s had the best group of five-star results.” 

For Martin, that “moment in time” included a standout April, highlighted by three top-10 placings at the Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event CCI5*, which powered him to the top of the FEI leaderboard and set the tone for the months that followed. Anchored by his 2024 Paris Olympics partner Fedarman B and backed by a deep string of versatile horses, his barn’s depth of talent kept him firmly inside the world’s top three through the end of 2025.

Martin says that his ranking was buoyed by the horses he took over from his friend and longtime competitor, Liz Halliday, who suffered a traumatic brain injury at the 2024 American Eventing Championship (Kentucky). That reality was bittersweet: He was glad to find a winning groove with her horses but also felt the weight of stepping in for a rider he wished was still in the ring.

“To be honest, my year seriously got boosted in the results category due to the fact that a lot of Liz’s top horses had come my way,” he said. “In the second half of the year, we had some fantastic results with Cooley Nutcracker and Miks Master C and Shanroe Cooley. These were horses that Liz had spent years and years and years training and bringing up the levels. 

“I was a little bit spoiled, where Liz had done all this hard work with these horses, and then I sort of slipped in and figured out how to ride them and got some great results on them,” he continued. 

In May, Martin won the CCI4*-L at the Yanmar America Tryon International Spring Three-Day Event (North Carolina) on Cooley Nutcracker. Martin told the Chronicle then that he and gelding had been slow to click. But by the time they reached Tryon, Martin was ready to ask the horse for a new gear. That ask paid off with a double-clear finish and a win on their dressage score. 

“On cross-country day, it was sort of the first time I really asked Cooley Nutcracker to open up and gallop—and holy moly, he had a fifth gear that I didn’t even know about,” Martin said following their first four-star win at Tryon. “He has got so much speed and stamina and bravery; I was just blown away with how easy the four-star long felt on him. He’s a really smart, quick-footed horse that’s been beautifully educated and trained, and really it was just a matter of me guiding him and showing him where the flags were.”

Through the summer and fall, Martin continued to log international results on multiple horses, keeping him within the top three riders as points tightened and the rankings shifted around him. 

During demanding summer and autumn campaigns that spanned continents, Martin entered Commando 3 in the CCIO4*-S at CHIO Aachen (Germany). The pair held their own in one of the sport’s deepest international fields, placing fifth. 

In October, Martin and Miks Master C captured the inaugural U.S. Equestrian Open Eventing Final at Morven Park (Virginia), where their clear show jumping round sealed the victory on a final score of 28.7, while also finishing fourth on Shanroe Cooley. Later that month, at the Mars Maryland 5 Star at Fair Hill, Martin took an early dressage lead with Luke 140 before ultimately earning third place aboard Commando 3. 

The year came full circle in October at the Étoiles de Pau CCI5* (France) where Martin finished third aboard Cooley Nutcracker. After a season that carried him to the top and through the grind of international competition, Pau offered a fitting closing chapter. And for Martin, it was a shared success, as his mind turned back to Halliday. 

“I know Liz, and she’s an ultra-competitive person, and part of me was worried that she might be a bit bitter and angry that the horses were winning without her,” he said. “But the couple of times I talked to her—like, I talked to her straight after the show jumping at Pau this year in France—she was absolutely elated. So it sort of started off as a bit of an awkward feeling, and then to being quite proud.”

As Martin enters the next year of his career, currently comfortably seated at the No. 2 position in the world rankings behind Harry Meade, he is still focused on growth for himself and his “great squadron of horses back in the stable.” Looking ahead to 2026, the rider has little interest in sitting still. 

“The No. 1 thing which I’ve learned from Philip was this just continuous, relentless pursuit of getting better,” Martin said. “A lot of the champions I’ve been around, they’ve all had the same trait, where they’re never quite satisfied of where they are in their training and their riding ability.

“Even as you’re sort of entering into the second half of your career, I think it’s very important to stay hungry and desperate to keep getting better,” he continued, “because the sport is evolving, and the quality of horses is getting better and better.”