Last Updated on March 1, 2026 by adminahb
Christian Simonson & Fleau De Baian. Photo ©Centre Line Media
Wellington, Fla. – February 28, 2026 — The U.S. anthem rang out for Christian Simonson after his winning ride in Saturday’s Mission Control CDI3* Grand Prix Special. He steered the 16-year-old Fleau De Baian to 71.255% in the duo’s second-ever CDI Special, eclipsing their previous best of 70%, set when they won during Week 5 of the 12-week Adequan® Global Dressage Festival (AGDF) in Wellington, FL.
Of the 10 starters, it was Endel Ots who got closest to Simonson. He and Zen Elite’s Bohemian, who were travelling reserves for the U.S. team at the 2024 Paris Olympics, scored 69.681% for second place. They were the winners of Thursday’s qualifying Grand Prix at this, their first CDI show in 19 months. Michael Klimke (GER) steered the youngest horse in the field, 10-year-old Harmony’s Dante’s Peak (Dante Weltino x Desperados), to third with 68.915%.
“Today ‘Felix’ let me ride him, gave me his back, and tried really hard,” said the 23-year-old Simonson, who only rode his first senior international big tour test in May of 2023. “I think the highlights today were the lateral work and the trot work, and maybe the extensions and the piaffe/passage. He let me keep asking for more and more.”
After a mistake in the one-time changes on the diagonal, which garnered threes and fours from the judges, Simonson refocused Felix to ensure the pirouette-changes-pirouette sequence on the centerline remained fault-free and powerful.
“I knew because of the mistake that I had to make up a lot of points there, so I thought, ‘Okay, let’s try to get eights on everything here for the double coefficient,’” said Simonson, who first stepped into the CDI ring with Fleau De Baian nine months ago. “I’ve learned a lot from this horse, and he’s taught me a lot, too. He was basically my first senior grand prix horse. He’s telling me a lot about how to school lines, and we’ve grown a lot in the piaffe/passage work. With Adrienne [Lyle] I’ve learned how to make it all fun and bouncy.”
Vivaldi Hits the Highs
Adrienne Lyle topped the bill in Week Eight’s Lövsta Future Challenge qualifier, a series for developing grand prix horses from eight to 11 years old. Performing the intermediate II test, Lyle booked her place in the week 11 final — in which horses tackle the FEI Young Horse Grand Prix — with 71.265% on My Vitality. The nine-year-old licensed stallion by Vivaldi x D-Day showed many highlights in the test, though also green mistakes, meaning his movement marks ranged from fours to nines.
In an impressive show of “sirepower,” Vivaldi also sired the second-place finisher, Kensington, who is out of a Sir Sinclair dam. The 11-year-old gelding owned by Enterprise Farm Equestrian was ridden to 69.206% by Canada’s Lindsay Kellock Duckworth, securing their berth in the March 20 final.
My Vitality — who is a full-brother to the top breeding stallion Vitalis — last competed internationally as a seven-year-old under Norway’s Catherine Rasmussen but is yet to grace the CDI ring with Lyle. She has had the ride on the impressive, loose-moving chestnut since he was purchased by Zen Elite Equestrian in the summer of 2025. They made their national debut at Intermediate II level at AGDF earlier this month.
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