U.S. team rider for the 2024 Paris Olympics, Adrienne Lyle, emphatically opened her 2025 account on day one of opening week—Lloyd Landkamer memorial week—of this year’s Adequan® Global Dressage Festival (AGDF) in Wellington, Florida. She topped the FEI World Cup™ Grand Prix, sponsored by Palm Beach Equine Clinic, riding Helix to a winning margin of over three percentage points. AGDF, which hosts seven weeks of CDI competition, runs through March 30.
Lyle posted 74.065% for the unanimous win from the five judges from final draw of 13 starters on Zen Elite Equestrian Center’s 13-year-old Helix (Apache x Jazz). Germany’s young talent Felicitas Hendricks returned to Wellington with her 14-year-old Drombusch OLD after a sterling 2024 season in which they were only beaten once in their eight CDI starts. The 14-year-old by Destano logged 70.913% to secure the runner-up spot. Sweden’s seven-time Olympian Tinne Vilhelmson Silfvén finished third with Devanto, Lövsta Stuteri’s 16-year-old Holsteiner gelding by De Chirico, on 69.565%. (The only Canadian in this class, Camille Carier Bergeron riding Finnländerin, placed 7th with 67.196%.)
The conditions were unusually chilly for Florida as a blast of arctic air has lowered the temperatures considerably this week, but Helix was unfazed.
“Conditions do not affect him at all,” explained Lyle. “It was 100 degrees in Paris and he was still hot to trot. Hot, cold, doesn’t matter—he’s ready to roll any day. Personally, I love it.”
Lyle partnered with Helix in January 2024, with a tight window in which to qualify for the Paris Games and the pair made their international debut at the 2024 AGDF in late March.
“It’s really good to be back here,” said Lyle. “I’m excited to get a jump start on being able to show a little earlier this season and not have everything crammed into the end of it. It’s been nice to be home for a few months after Paris and to be able to relax and train without a big, looming deadline quite so close.
“In our test today, I thought there were places we were able to show continued improvement in the self-carriage, and a better frame,” added Lyle, who trains with Debbie McDonald. “I thought the piaffe/passage felt good; a bit more powerful than the grand prix we had in Ocala in December. In the changes I felt like I could really relax and ride into them.”
Lyle praised the KWPN gelding’s character and his willingness to adapt to his new circumstances, saying, “Helix has been so agreeable to changing programs and changing rider, and all of that with a tight qualifying schedule last summer.
“He’s a sensitive horse and he’s very hot in a good way,” she added. “He likes a routine, so I have to figure out what works for him and stick to it. If I do my job right, he does his and he doesn’t make mistakes, which is a pretty awesome quality to have in a horse. Now it’s a matter of building strength, improving the self-carriage and lengthening the neck. All of that will come from him getting stronger and carrying more weight on the hind legs. It just takes time.”
Lyle has not ruled out a run at qualifying for April’s 2025 FEI World Cup™ Final in Basel, Switzerland. She may also aim Helix at the lucrative new 2025 US Equestrian Open of Dressage, which offers $200,000 in prize money. During the current season, AGDF will host seven qualifiers for the US Equestrian Open of Dressage Final, taking place in California in November.
“We will go step by step with Helix,” added Lyle, who will contest the first ‘Friday Night Stars’ freestyle evening of the season under the lights on Friday, January 10. “He’s still a relatively young grand prix horse with a lot of years left in him hopefully, so we’re just looking to keep slowly building him for the future.”
Eclectish Relishes His New Life
In the CDI3* FEI Grand Prix, sponsored by Havensafe Farm, Wellington regular Susan Pape (GBR) came out on top riding Harmony’s Eclectisch to 68.174%. The German-based British rider has been coming to AGDF for a decade with her string of horses from sponsors John and Leslie Malone of Harmony’s Sporthorses. Another team Harmony rider, Michael Klimke (GER) was also in the mix, finishing third and fourth with Harmony’s Zomancier (66.544%) and Harmony’s Fado (65.565%).
Kevin Kohmann (USA) was the filling between the Harmony bookends, claiming the runner-up spot with 66.826% on Diamante Farms’ 14-year-old Bordeaux daughter Giulietta. Kohmann also spearheaded the CDI1* FEI Prix St. Georges, which was sponsored by Harmony’s Sporthorses. He rode another Diamante Farms horse, the 10-year-old Scala, by Blue Hors St. Schufro, to 70.676%.
Pape’s ride, Harmony’s Eclectisch, is also a regular to AGDF, but life is a little different for the 16-year-old this time round, as he was gelded over the summer.
“I think it was a really good decision to geld him as he felt very focused in the ring. He doesn’t have the biggest piaffe, but all the rest gave me a good feeling and he was in front of me,” said Pape. “I was very satisfied with Eclectisch’s test even though we had a little blip after the second pirouette where he did two one-times, but that can happen.”
In past years—as a stallion—Eclectisch has spent the winter season confined to the showgrounds at AGDF due to biosecurity, but this year he is able to join Pape’s other horses which she has brought for the season, Giulilanta and Shiraz, at the Malones’ Four Winds Farm.
“He was really not focusing and at home in Germany. I couldn’t even ride him in the indoor with a mare. Now it’s such a relief for both of us; we walk on a long rein and he doesn’t care. He can finally go in the paddock and do all the things you can’t do with a freaky stallion so for him it’s a nicer life—even better than before. He’s proven everything already, so we just want to have fun and maybe do a couple more CDIs,” added Pape.
Dressage resumes on Friday, with the week’s highlight, the FEI World Cup™ Grand Prix Freestyle under lights starting at 7pm ET. For more information and results, visit www.globaldressagefestival.com.
Full results here.
More from News:
