Last Updated on March 20, 2026 by adminahb
Anna Marek & Fayvel. Photo ©Centre Line Media
Wellington, Fla. – March 19, 2026 — The Modon FEI Nations Cup™ contest went down to the wire on the opening day of Week 11 at the Adequan® Global Dressage Festival (AGDF) in Wellington, FL — the last CDI of the three-month 2026 winter circuit. The U.S. team, led by Chef d’Equipe Christine Traurig, came out on top by the slimmest of margins.
For the past five years, team Germany has dominated this competition, and until the very last rider, they topped the leaderboard. The experienced home rider Anna Marek was the only one who could break the German stranglehold. After a mistake-free test, her score tipped the balance in the U.S.’s favor, handing the four riders a historic victory in the opening competition of the 2026 FEI Dressage Nations Cup™ series — the only leg held outside Europe.
Three teams battled it out for the medals, with fewer than 1.5 percentage points spanning the podium finishers. The U.S. team concluded on a total of 205.631, Germany had to settle for silver on 205.043, and Canada scooped bronze with 204.196. The last time the U.S. team won the Wellington Nations Cup leg was in 2020, when the format still allowed for a mixture of grand prix and small tour combinations.
The U.S. result was particularly notable given that two of the riders — Meagan Davis and Jordan LaPlaca — were making their senior team debuts. Both the trailblazer Ashley Holzer and anchor rider Anna Marek received late call-ups after the withdrawal of two selected combinations. Holzer clocked up 67.652% on Hawtins San Floriana, setting a solid bar for the team, while Marek notched 69.435% on her sister-in-law Cynthia Davila’s 16-year-old gelding Fayvel (Zizi Top x Houston) to lock in the home side’s victory.
“Christine chose me to go last, which is always a big honor,” said Marek, who is based near Ocala, Fla. “In a team competition, there’s even more added pressure because I want to have a good ride for my team. I didn’t know what score I needed for gold and, honestly, it wouldn’t have really mattered. I just went in there wanting to ride the best test I could.
“This gold medal is huge, though, because it was important to Cynthia for Fayvel to be on a team, so it’s special to share this with her. He’s a very special horse. He was hers to ride, and then I started riding him, and [my coach] Anne Gribbons always loved him, so Cynthia let me carry on, and we’ve been enjoying every second of it.”
Vilhelmson Silfvén Tops CDI3* Grand Prix
An impressive 42 big tour combinations went down the centerline across three classes on Thursday, a day of high-octane dressage sport. In the Diamante Farms CDI3* Grand Prix, seven-time Swedish Olympian Tinne Vilhelmson Silfvén clawed her way back from a big spook and a low trending score early on, which saw her languishing far down the list of 24 starters. A peppering of eights on the mark-rich final centerline riding Lövsta Stuteri’s 14-year-old Hyatt helped draw the score up to a winning 68.761%.
Jennifer Williams (USA) and the Joppe Partners LLC’s 12-year-old Rousseau gelding Joppe K slotted into second with 68.326%. Wellington-based Devon Kane (USA) was the last to go in the class and laid claim to a podium spot, finishing third with 67.848% on class sponsor Diamante Farms’s 14-year-old gelding, Vamos, by Vivaldi.
Vilhelmson Silfvén and Hyatt were hot off a win in the CDI4* Grand Prix Freestyle in AGDF 8. This is their third CDI of the circuit.
“It was maybe a little bit expensive looking [spooking] at the flowers,” laughed Vilhelmson Silfvén, whose Lövsta Stuteri team has brought Hyatt, by Apache, to AGDF every year since 2023. “It’s always a process and we’re always working on something, and that’s what’s so fun. But she trusted me and got right back into the work.”
Wellington International
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