By KENNETH J. BRADDICK
WELLINGTON, Florida, Jan. 9, 2024–Adrienne Lyle rode her Olympic mount Helix to victory Thursday in the Global Dressage Festival World Cup Grand Prix on a personal best score.
Adrienne and the 13-year-old KWPN gelding that she has been riding for a year since being bought by Zen Elite Equestrian Center scored 74.065%, the highest Grand Prix score by an American combination since Paris Olympic team partnership of Steffen Peters on Suppenkasper in California in February last year.
The duo underwent a hectic schedule in 2024, qualifying in Florida in winter for the U.S. team short list to go to Europe then competing there to earn a place on the three-member team for Paris and have since become the No. 1 American combination in the world rankings.
Germany’s Felicitas Hendricks on Drombusch OLD, her 14-year-old gelding that was the top ranked rider and horse on the 2024 Global winter-long circuit, was runner-up on 70.913% in the first international competition in the intensely competitive Florida series. It was the only other pair above 70%.
Adrienne and Helix will compete in the Freestyle under lights Friday night looking for the second qualifying score for one of three places for North America at the World Cup Final in Basel, Switzerland in April.
Without the pressure of a looming team championship, Adrienne said she’s been able to work with Helix to train and “pick on those details and now that I know him I’m not trying to figure out everything from A to Z. I’m able to kind of shuffle things into slots where they fit and then say, ‘okay this little part needs work’ and pull it out and work on it.
“He’s starting to feel really now like my ride. And it takes a year.”
She described Helix as a very sensitive horse who very much likes a routine “so I have to kind of figure out what works for him and stick to it. But he’s so honest and he really, you know, if I do my job right he doesn’t make mistakes and that’s a pretty awesome quality to have in a horse. And so it’s just a matter now of building strength, strength we’re always working on improving the self-carriage, lengthening the neck, all of that. But that comes from a lot of him getting stronger to carry the weight on the hind legs, classical training, all that stuff that just takes time.”
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