By KENNETH J. BRADDICK
AACHEN, Germany, Aug. 14, 2026–North America’s participation in dressage at the World Championships came to an end Friday when USA’s Christian Simonson on Fleau de Baian and Brittany Fraser-Beaulieu on Jaccardo of Canada made mistakes in the Grand Prix Special to keep the two out of the Freestyle.
Christian, at the age of 23 along with 16-year-old Dutch-bred stallion Fleau de Baian in the horse’s first ever senior international championship scored 68.456%.
Christian and “Felix,” as the horse is nicknamed, the sole U.S. combination to advance from the team of four in the Grand Prix made the common mistake of beginning to ride the diagonal instead of going along the rail that led to marks of 3 to 5 from the seven judges.
However, the horse that had been developed from a youngster to a seasoned Grand Prix horse by Adelinde Cornelissen was sold to Zen Elite Equestrian Center to provide Christian with the opportunity learn Big Tour.
The effort was successful in that Christian on Indian Rock became reserve champion at the World Cup in Fort Worth, Texas in April. He was the highest scoring American on Fleau de Baian in the team event here. A decision was made for Indian Rock to skip the World Championships as the U.S., the host, is automatically qualified for the Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028.
Brittany Fraser-Beaulieu who began competing the 12-year-old gelding Jaccardo at Grand Prix a year ago, scored 69.271% in the Special.
Brittany was a Tokyo Olympic and 2018 World Equestrian Games rider on All In for Canada and had qualified Jaccardo for the Fort Worth World Cup Final but had to withdraw when the horse was cast in his stall just days before leaving for Texas.
In the team Grand Prix with a score of 71.926% she became the only Canadian to qualify for the Special.
The duo began strongly but mistakes in both tempi lines were expensive and pushed her score down to 69.271%.
