Vaughn Victorious With Gino at DIHP Dressage

you're listening to an article from horse sport.com. vaughn victorious with gino at dihp dressage by: desert international horse park media |. the us equestrian open of dressage kicked off on saturday, january 4, 2025, in the same location where the new series will hold its inaugural finale in november: the desert international horse park in thermal, ca. from january 2-5, dihp hosted desert dressage ii, with the event’s cdi-w grand prix freestyle counting as the first of 23 us equestrian open of dressage qualifiers. taking home the win in the freestyle, sponsored by adequan – and automatically moving to the top of the us equestrian open standings – were geñay vaughn and gino. on their way to the win, vaughn, of elk grove, ca, and the dutch warmblood gelding earned a personal best score for their freestyle of 75.150%. second place with a score of 72.715% went to the usa’s kristina harrison-antell and finley. advertisement scroll to continue with content “i’m just so happy with how he performed,” said vaughn, 30. “it was really fun. i love our music, and i think he loves his freestyle too. it’s his favorite test.”. saturday marked only the pair’s third time performing this particular freestyle, which they debuted last year, but it was one of nearly eight years’ worth of rides together for vaughn and the now 14-year-old gino. “my mom purchased gino when he was six years old,” explained vaughn. “it’s been a journey getting to grow together and know each other. he’s an amazing, amazing horse, and i feel like each time we come out, we’re just getting more confident at this level and performing at the big tour. i’m really excited for what’s to come in the future.”. vaughn continued, “i think it’s amazing that they’re doing [the us equestrian open]; it’s really exciting, and we’re definitely going to go for that.”. just 24 hours prior to their freestyle win, vaughn and gino had turned in their first big tour score of 70.000% or higher, topping the cdi-w grand prix, sponsored by premier equestrian, with a score of 71.283%. second place again went to harrison-antell and finley, this time with a score of 68.131%. taking home the desert dressage ii high score awards were the following:. high score young rider, sponsored by ps of sweden – audrey allen and hugo boss – 68.676% high score open, sponsored by ps of sweden– kristina harrison-antell and quintessa rlf – 72.941% high score adult amateur fei, sponsored by devoucoux – linda houweling (can) and senzation dc – 68.824% high score adult amateur national, sponsored by devoucoux – julia terrill and fiorella n – 74.814%. (for canada, brittney simpson competed in the fei grand prix division with kartsevo goldfinch, placing third with 66.543% in the gp and 4th with 66.380% in the freestyle; alison campbell-wright rode slapstick in the junior division, winning the indiv with 63.471% and the freestyle with 66.325%. linda houweling competed in the national show with senzation dc, winning the hi-score ad/am). for full results of desert dressage ii, visit: cdi-w national. to learn more about all competitions at the desert international horse park, visit deserthorsepark.com.