Adrienne Lyle on Helix won the World Cup Grand Prix at the Global Dressage Festival (2)
- Details
-
January 10, 2025
-
By Staff Writers
WELLINGTON, Fla.--Adrienne Lyle, a team rider in the 2024 Paris Olympics, on Helix won the FEI World Cup Grand Prix during opening week of the Global Dressage Festival.
Adrienne Lyle on Helix (Photo by Susan Stickle)Lyle scored 74.065% for the unanimous win from the five judges over 13 starters.
Germany’s young Felicitas Hendrickson on Drombusch OLD scored 70.913% to place second, and Sweden’s seven-time Olympian Tinne Vilhelmson Silfvén finished third on Devanto on 69.565%.
Hendrickson returned to Wellington with her 14-year-old Drombusch OLD after a 2024 season in which they were only beaten once in their eight CDI starts.
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,” said 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 began competing on Helix in January 2024, with a tight window in which to qualify for the Paris Games, and they 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,” said 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.”
“Helix has been so agreeable to changing programs and changing rider, and all of that with a tight qualifying schedule last summer," said Lyle.
“He’s a sensitive horse and he’s very hot in a good way,” she said. “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,” said Lyle, who will contest the first ‘Friday Night Stars’ freestyle evening of the season under the lights on Friday, Jan. 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.”
In the CDI3* FEI Grand Prix, Wellington regular Susan Pape of Great Britain on Harmony’s Eclectisch scored 68.174% to place first.
The German-based British rider has been coming to AGDF for a decade.
Kevin Kohmann (on Giulietta was second on 66.826%.
Kohmann also won the CDI1* FEI Prix St. Georges on Scala, with a score of 70.676%.
Michael Klimke of Germany finished third and fourth in the Grand Prix with Harmony’s Zomancier on 66.544% and Harmony’s Fado on 65.565%.
Pape’s ride, Harmony’s Eclectisch, is a regular at the Festival, but 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," said Pape. "He doesn’t have the biggest piaffe, but all the rest gave me a good feeling, and he was in front of me. 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.”
“He was really not focusing and at home in Germany," said Pape. "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.”
Jenkins, a native of Middleburg, Va., passed away on Dec. 5 at the age of 80.
