WELLINGTON, Florida, Feb. 7, 2026–Christian Simonson on Fleau de Baian completed his first international Grand Prix Special for victory at Global Dressage Festival CDI3* Saturday.
Christian, the top ranked American at No. 9 in the world, scored 70.000% on the 16-year-old Dutch-bred stallion with the barn name of Felix in the fifth Big Tour start for the partnership. Fleau de Baian was developed and competed from a youngster to Big Tour by Netherlands team member Adelinde Cornelissen and was bought by Heidi Humphries’ Zen Elite Equestrian Center of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida just over two years ago. After an initial international outing by Christian in May last year was out of competition for eight months recovering from an injury in a turnout paddock.
Ashley Holzer of Wellington on the 14-year-old British-bred mare Hawtins San Floriana was runner-up on 69.447%. The duo won the Grand Prix two days ago.
Jennifer Williams, also of Wellington, on Joppe K, 12-year-old U.S. Nations Cup team gelding, placed third on 68.872%.
Christian, at 23 years of age and who has risen to within the top 10 in the world on the 2024 Dutch Olympic team horse Indian Rock is coached by three-time U.S. Olympian Adrienne Lyle in Wellington.
“What’s a real testimony to Adrienne and the team is how we can be like, ‘okay, let’s deconstruct this. How can we best understand everything that happened and how can we best then move forward?’,” he said after the ride.
“I think that’s maybe today’s a really good reflection of that kind of mentality that we are always trying to do right by our horses and understand them better and understand how we can present them better to everyone else as well.”
He described Felix as “a mini macho man… he loves showing off. Whenever he’s around in the barn, he loves to yell at the other horses, but he never is wild. He just will scream, but he doesn’t actually do anything.
“We call him like a little lion because he loves roaring at everyone else but is then very good natured. I think it’s similar to Rocky and the other horses; he has such a good heart he’ll really try his hardest. I think that’s another testimony of today where he really is like, ‘okay, I‘m gonna try harder and harder for you’.”
Although Felix was bought before Indian Rock was acquired by Zen Elite, the gelding has “been extremely helpful” to Christian working with Rocky.
“He’s so different than Indian Rock, but it gives the same muscle of how would you position this in the right way, how would you think of the balance here, and to be able to do that on a horse is totally different, really works that muscle in my own brain, and also my ability to follow Adrienne’s direction as well,” he explained.
“And then for the Grand Prix Special, I’ve only done so many of them, and so to be able to get extra reps at these particular tests, in terms of accuracy, where do you position things where, it really then helped me with riding Rocky.
“I think that’s how it’s kind of worked out. But I think also, luckily he has a ton of quality as well, and luckily he’s also a competitive horse. But it just happened maybe to work out well that I also get to have these extra reps. So maybe it’s serendipitous or coincidental or something like that.
“I think the main point, I think it was just to be able to develop me as a rider and then me as a more developed rider allows me to be better for Rocky. That’s how I think about it or how that’s the process.”
| Rank | Competitor | Score | E | H | C | M | B |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Christian Simonson (USA) Fleau de Baian | 70.000% | 69.681 | 70.532 | 70.319 | 67.766 | 71.702 |
| 2. | Ashley Holzer (USA) Hawtins San Floriana | 69.447% | 69.149 | 68.404 | 70.106 | 71.596 | 67.979 |
| 3. | Jennifer Williams (USA) Joppe K | 68.872% | 68.830 | 69.468 | 69.787 | 68.191 | 68.085 |
| 4. | Pablo Gómez Molina (ESP) Ulises de Ymas | 68.680% | 67.340 | 68.191 | 68.191 | 70.106 | 69.574 |
| 5. | Jordan LaPlaca (USA) Gold Play | 68.341% | 67.766 | 67.979 | 69.681 | 70.745 | 65.532 |
| 6. | Bianca Berktold (USA) Imperial | 66.851% | 66.702 | 67.128 | 69.149 | 65.532 | 65.745 |
| 7. | Michael Klimke (GER) Harmony’s Zomancier | 66.149% | 66.170 | 66.170 | 68.085 | 65.851 | 64.468 |
| 8. | Tina Konyot (USA) Grover | 66.000% | 66.915 | 65.745 | 65.000 | 64.894 | 67.447 |
| 9. | Megan Shea (CAN) Sir Schiwago | 65.787% | 67.766 | 64.894 | 65.532 | 64.362 | 66.383 |
| 10. | Micah Deligdish (ISR) Carpe Diem De Massa | 65.510% | 64.574 | 65.213 | 65.319 | 68.191 | 64.255 |
| 11. | Karen Lipp (USA) Infinity | 64.489% | 65.000 | 63.723 | 63.723 | 64.043 | 65.957 |
| 12. | Naïma Moreira Laliberté (CAN) Inspire | 63.510% | 62.447 | 64.468 | 62.872 | 63.191 | 64.574 |
| 13. | Matthew Johnson (USA) Petersborg’s Qasanova | 58.787% | 58.191 | 59.362 | 57.128 | 59.468 | 59.787 |
| EL | Leonardo Antonio Godoy (ARG) Marques do Lis | eliminated | |||||
 Find details on Equestrian Hub |
