WELLINGTON, Florida, April 26, 2025–Christian Simonson performed a fault-free debut of Indian Rock in a national Grand Prix under cover at the Global Dressage Festival showgrounds Saturday, just four months since the Dutch Olympic team horse was acquired for the 22-year-old American rider.
Christian, based in Wellington, and the 12-year-old KWPN stallion were awarded 76.794% from the two judges of Christian’s first national qualifier that as a national competition the rider could carry a whip. Both judges awarded marks of nine with the final center line of passage and piaffe receiving three nines from one judge and 8.5 for piaffe from the other member of the panel.
“I think probably that last center line I was like, holy cow, it felt like I was stampeding into battle or something,” he told dressage-news.com after the ride with his coach, three-time Olympian Adrienne Lyle, smiling after riding every movement with Christian…