The first Friday Night Stars evening of musical freestyle action during the 2023 Adequan Global Dressage Festival in Wellington lived up to its stellar billing despite unseasonably chilly temperatures Friday, Jan. 13.
The week’s highlight class, the FEI World Cup Grand Prix Freestyle, presented by Lövsta Stuteri, produced top class dressage, personal bests on the podium and a winning score of over 83 percent. AGDF, which hosts seven weeks of CDI competition, runs through March 31.
Adrienne Lyle and the 16-year-old stallion Salvino made it two for two in the Lloyd Landkamer Memorial Week when they scooped the blue ribbon with 83.54 percent for a harmonious test brimming with expression and power.
Lyle and Salvino, owned by Betsy Juliano, topped the previous day’s qualifying Grand Prix with 77.5 percent. In the freestyle, second-placed Sarah Tubman kicked off her Wellington season with a personal best of 78.25 percent on another stallion, the 13-year-old First Apple, while third-placed Caroline Darcourt and Lord Django contested their first Grand Prix freestyle and pulled out a 78.17 percent performance.
Lyle is chasing down one of three starting places allocated to North America for the FEI World Cup Final in Omaha in April. Her top score of 86 percent came courtesy of the Dutch five-star judge at H, Mariette Sanders-van Gansewinkel.
“I’m super thrilled to be here again at this amazing venue, and I was happy to see how packed it was despite this cold weather. Salvino felt great — he was fiery and very excited to be here,” Lyle said. “We did most of the things on my terms, and some of the things on his terms — but like any good relationship, it’s all about compromise, and he feels great.”
Lyle rode Salvino on the silver medal USA team at the Tokyo Olympics.
For more information about this year’s AGDF, visit www.globaldressagefestival.com.
