USA’S Adrienne Lyle Wins first CDI5* Grand Prix on her Olympic Partner Helix at Wellington, 3 Weeks Ahead of World Cup
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By KENNETH J. BRADDICK
WELLINGTON, Florida, Mar. 13, 2025–Adrienne Lyle of the United States won the first CDI5* Grand Prix on her Olympic partner Helix at the Global Dressage Festival as the biggest competition in the America’s this winter and a warm-up for the World Cup Final in three weeks.
Adrienne, a three-time Olympian and America’s top ranked rider and the 13-year-old KWPN gelding scored 72.522% for the win, the sixth victory in seven starts since last summer’s Paris Games.
Ecuador’s Julio Mendoza Loor, based in Columbus, North Carolina, and the 14-year-old Jewel’s Goldstrike that he also competed in Paris, was runner-up on 72.413%.
Anna Marek of the Ocala area and the 15-year-old Fayvel that she rode in 2024 World Cup, placed third on 69.565%.
Adrienne described her victory on the only dressage 5* in the Americas as “super exciting.”
“It’s fantastic! I mean it’s tough competition, it’s tough judges and it’s what we need to hold ourselves to that tough international standard which is really what we want; and so having a five-star here on home soil is great.
“I think it’s really important to keep pushing ourselves as riders and putting ourselves out there in the bigger, better, tougher situations.”
“So he kept the lid on it today in the test, so that was good.”
She admitted that the position of the horse’s neck had “been our biggest challenge with him, and that comes from self-carriage and balance and relaxation and all those things. You can’t just throw the reins away and expect him to find their balance. So he’s learning to go into the snaffle. I’m happy with that.”
Adrienne said she arrived at this point by “really picking on little details. Like, where do I take my right hand, an inch away from the neck? Which seat bone do I sit on? He’s a horse that is super smart, but he likes to have a system. I can’t go in there and start changing things and riding stronger, because then he’s like, ‘ah, you don’t ride like that at home, what’s going on?’ So it’s really just me being very disciplined in my riding, and figuring out exactly what he needs from me every step and then staying consistent in that.”
She explained about Helix: “He is a very hot horse, and so just going in and having a mistake-free, calm, focused ride is really important. We’re heading to Switzerland obviously soon, and so that’s why I chose to do the five-star here. The horse likes routine and I felt that keeping him out of the ring almost two months would have been too much to go directly into the big big environment in Switzerland, so we’re kind of using this as a warm-up.
Results:
| Rank | Competitor | Score | E | H | C | M | B |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Adrienne Lyle (USA) Helix | 72.522% | 71.848 | 72.174 | 72.391 | 73.696 | 72.500 |
| 2. | Julio Mendoza Loor (ECU) Jewel’s Goldstrike | 72.413% | 74.130 | 72.283 | 71.739 | 73.804 | 70.109 |
| 3. | Anna Marek (USA) Fayvel | 69.565% | 73.370 | 68.152 | 69.022 | 69.348 | 67.935 |
| 4. | Kevin Kohmann (USA) Dünensee | 69.500% | 71.739 | 67.500 | 68.478 | 69.783 | 70.000 |
| 5. | Evelyn Eger (GER) Tabledance 3 | 69.435% | 68.913 | 70.326 | 69.130 | 68.478 | 70.326 |
| 6. | Kasey Perry-Glass (USA) Heartbeat W.P. | 69.348% | 70.217 | 68.152 | 69.239 | 69.239 | 69.891 |
| 7. | Felicitas Hendricks (GER) Drombusch OLD | 69.283% | 70.326 | 68.804 | 68.696 | 71.087 | 67.500 |
| 8. | Jennifer Williams (USA) Joppe K | 67.891% | 67.717 | 70.326 | 67.609 | 68.043 | 65.761 |
| 9. | Tinne Vilhelmson Silfvén (SWE) Devanto | 66.630% | 66.522 | 64.239 | 67.609 | 66.630 | 68.152 |
| 10. | Karen Pavicic (CRO) Totem | 66.522% | 67.174 | 66.848 | 65.326 | 66.522 | 66.739 |
| 11. | Paula Matute Guimón (ESP) Delagronge | 66.217% | 67.065 | 65.543 | 65.435 | 66.739 | 66.304 |
| 12. | Mathilde Blais Tétreault (CAN) Fedor | 64.217% | 63.804 | 64.565 | 63.913 | 64.674 | 64.130 |
| EL | Pablo Gómez Molina (ESP) Ulises de Ymas | eliminated | |||||
 Find details on Equestrian Hub |
