Aaron Vale

About Aaron Vale

Aaron Vale is an American showjumper, born in Irving, Texas and based at Williston in the Ocala area of Florida, where he runs Thinkslikeahorse / Aaron Vale Inc. as a full-service training, lesson and sales operation across jumpers, hunters and equitation horses. In the live FEI snapshot reviewed on 6 August 2026 he was ranked 25th in the Longines Ranking on 2,313 points and second in the Pan-American Ranking on 1,933 points, with 1,058 starts and 77 wins on the FEI athlete-page counters that run from 1 January 2010 and are not all-career totals.

His verified senior record is built on three FEI Jumping World Cup Final starts: 20th at Leipzig in 2022 with Elusive, 28th at Omaha in 2023 with Prescott, and seventh at Fort Worth in 2026 with Carissimo 25. World Cup qualifiers and CSI-W supporting classes are recorded separately and are not Final starts. He has NO competitive Olympic start: he was short-listed for Paris 2024 with Carissimo 25 but was not named to the United States team, and a shortlist, selection or alternate designation is not an appearance, so he is not described as an Olympian. He was likewise short-listed for the 2026 Aachen World Championships and left off the final team, so no championship start or medal is recorded. Under the four-event definition of the Rolex Grand Slam of Show Jumping Majors, which covers only Geneva, Aachen, the Spruce Meadows 'Masters' and 's-Hertogenbosch, he has zero Major wins; his 2025 Dinard win is a Rolex Series event and his 2024 Dublin third is a Rolex-branded Grand Prix, and neither is a Major.

That Dinard victory, the Rolex Grand Prix Ville de Dinard of 27 July 2025 with Carissimo 25, was his first CSI5* Grand Prix win. Other verified team and individual highlights include the winning United States Nations Cup team at Drammen in 2001, the winning United States team in the Longines League of Nations Ocala on 22 March 2025 with Carissimo 25, the Devon and Upperville CSI4* features of 2025, and a run of 2026 wins with Carissimo 25, Helios du Moulin and Gray's Inn including a CSIO5* class at St Gallen. Helios du Moulin was his highest-ranked FEI combination in the 6 August 2026 snapshot at 29th on 692 points. Away from the international arena his record includes hunter-derby wins and four Washington International puissance titles, the trophy retired after the final US running of the class in 2022.

Earlier records held on this page and not covered by the current source review are retained: a $100,000 Grand Prix win at HITS Saugerties in 2017 with Finou 4, top placings at the Ocala Winter Circuit with Elusive, and a $50,000 HITS Grand Prix win with Prescott in 2021.

Two source conflicts are preserved rather than resolved. US Equestrian displays his date of birth as 11/7/1968, read here as 7 November 1968 and giving age 57 at the 6 August 2026 cut-off, while German Wikipedia gives 6 November 1968 and the live FEI page displayed age 58 on that date, which is inconsistent with either November birthday. Separately, his operation's website claims more than 285 Grand Prix wins; public biographies of different dates have stated more than 170, 250, 275 and 285, so no audited all-career total is asserted. A 2012 US Equestrian Federation administrative competition-eligibility penalty is recorded exactly as adjudicated in the facts below.