Austria’s Martin Mühlstätter congratulates his stallion Blo Gun after an amazing performance to qualify for the final of the Johnson Controls individual reining competition at the FEI World Equestrian Games Tryon 2018 with top score of the day. | Photo: FEI/Liz Gregg

The Johnson Controls Reining first individual qualifier at the Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI) World Equestrian Games Tryon 2018, underway at the Tryon International Equestrian Center, in Mill Springs, North Carolina, continued today after 20 national federations competed for team medals last night.

Team USA clinched the gold, led by the talented 18-year-old Cade McCutcheon who posted a score of 229 on Custom Made Gun. It was silver for Team Belgium and bronze for Germany. In yesterday’s first individual qualifier, the top 15 placed horse-rider-combinations officially claimed their spot in the finals which will be held on Saturday, September 15. Once the competition was over, a score of 221 or higher was needed to qualify.

Today, the second individual qualifier counted the 19 riders representing 13 national federations who had posted a 217 or higher on Wednesday. The battle for the opportunity to compete in the individual competition was on as soon as the first competitor made his way into the TIEC Indoor Arena. Australia’s Warwick Schiller set the pace, and put the pressure on, by performing to a 220