OCALA, Florida, Dec. 13, 2024–Adrienne Lyle rode Helix to victory in the World Equestrian Center’s World Cup Grand Prix Freestyle Friday night to earn the American Olympic partnership a big step toward contending for a start at the championship Final in Switzerland next April.
Adrienne and the 12-year-old KWPN gelding scored 77.610% in just the second musical performance for the duo that has been paired in the competition arena less than a year but was previously shown at Big Tour for almost a year by a Swede. The score was the highest so far for Helix.
Anna Marek of the Ocala area community of Dunnellon on Fire Fly, her Olympic team reserve horse, was runner-up on 75.565%, the highest score for the pair since the duo’s gold medal at the 2023 Pan American Games.
Kevin Kohmann, like Adrienne based in Wellington, Florida, achieved third place with 73.730% on Duenensee, to consolidate the lead for the 2024 World Cup pair in the North American standings with a total of 55 points from two qualifying wins and Friday’s result.
Adrienne and Helix won the Grand Prix Thursday in their first competition since being the top placed American partnership at the Paris Olympics in July. The victory Friday night gives the pair 20 points.
The music, a mix of pop favorites that ended with Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me,” was compiled by Terry Gallo specially for Helix that is owned by Zen Elite Equestrian, owned by successful entrepreneur Heidi Humphries of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.
Adrienne, a three-time Olympian, has competed in only one World Cup Final in her career, in 2019 on Salvino, the stallion on which she won silver at both the Tokyo Olympics and the 2018 World Equestrian Games.
North America gets three of the 18 starting slots at the World Cup Final. Another six qualifiers remain in North America, including four at Wellington’s Global Dressage Festival over the winter.
