Adrienne Lyle Rides Lars van de Hoenderheide in First Competition at National Grand Prix–South Florida’s Hottest Day of Year
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By KENNETH J. BRADDICK
WELLINGTON, Florida, Mar. 8, 2024–Adrienne Lyle, a two-time Olympian for the United States, on Friday rode the 13-year-old Lars van de Hoenderheide in competition for the first time in a national Grand Prix for no score that also happened to be the hottest day of the year so far in sub-tropical south Florida.
“Overall,” Adrienne told dressage-news.com after the ride at the Global Dressage Festival, “I am very happy! We are such a new partnership and there is still a lot we can improve on, but my goal was to go in and really go for it and not ride conservative, and he is a horse that really allows you to do that.”
Adrienne, based in Wellington, competed for USA on Wizard at the 2012 London Olympics and on Salvino at the Tokyo Games, that along with the 2018 World Equestrian Games in Tryon that produced history-making silver medals.
Zen Elite of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, and owned by businesswoman Heidi Humphries, at the turn of this year bought the 13-year-old Belgian Warmblood gelding that had been competed by Charlotte “Lottie” Fry of Great Britain as well as Helix, a 12-year-old KWPN gelding, for Adrienne to compete. Helix is yet to show. At about the same time, Heidi bought the 14-year-old Westfalen gelding Bohemian for Endel Ots of Wellington to compete. He has posted strong performances in two national Grand Prix with tips from superstar Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour who rode the horse for Denmark at the Tokyo Olympics and the 2021 European Championships.
With the temperature above 80F (26C) and high humidity Friday after an unseasonably cool winter that was likely more to Lars’ liking, Adrienne said: “He picked up a lot of big scores in the canter tour where he can really show off his power and scope. He was feeling the Florida heat and I could tell he was getting tired by the end of the test but that is not surprising when they are new to this hot weather and today was our first really hot day of the season.”
She canceled other entries for Lars this weekend so the horse “gets some easy days and lots and lots of pampering for being such a good boy!”
“I am incredibly thankful to Heidi Humphries for all of her incredible support,” she said. “I feel so blessed to be able to work with such great horses and great people. And a huge thank you to Debbie McDonald for her always amazing coaching. This was a new challenge, to get to know a new horse so quickly, but it has been a fun challenge to rise to, for us both.
