Simonson and Bradley Earn Grand Prix Titles at 2024 U.S. Dressage Championships

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2024 U.S. Dressage Championships

-- USEF press release, edited by Eurodressage - Photos © US Equestrian

Under 25 rider Christian Simonson and senior Amy Bradley earned the Grand Prix titles at the 2024 U.S. Dressage Championships held at Lamplight equestrian center in Wayne, ILL, on 18 - 25 August 2024.

The annual "Festival of Champions" holds national championship classes from young horse level to Grand Prix. While the fields were all nicely filled up to Under 25 level, the feature Championship class - the Grand Prix for senior riders - was unfortunately very small with none (!!) of the U.S. elite/squad listed Grand Prix riders on the entry list.

This left plenty of space for a foursome of riders that made the trip to Wayne, ILL, to battle it out. In the end only three riders competed for the medal so each ended up with a podium place

Seniors: Amy Bradley Reaches Apex in Roller Coaster Career with Quileute CCW

After three days of competition in the Grand Prix division, Amy Bradley (Wellington, Fla.) and her own 14-year old U.S-bred Oldenburg gelding Quileute CCW (by Quaterback x Gluckspilz) ultimately secured top honors. The pair was second in the Grand Prix (66.630%), won the Special (66.064%) and produced a lovely freestyle, earning a 72.010% from the panel to top the class on their final day of competition.

With a floorplan for their freestyle designed by Marlene Whitaker, Bradley has played around with music to best suit Quileute CCW, and recently utilized the help of Carlos Segura (COL) to perfect the composition of songs included within their musical compilation. Born in the 1980s, Bradley felt compelled to use songs that resonated with her from her time growing up, and with Quileute CCW, based on their challenging journey together throughout the years.

“He has been on and off sick with so many things through the years. He’s had laminitis, his hocks fused, he had a tumor removed, so it felt like every time we would get him going something would happen. It’s really been a rollercoaster with him. I bred him and I was there was he was born and done all the training and behind-the-scenes work. He’s my heart horse and the wait has been worth it,” explained Bradley, of the pair’s fourteen-year relationship.

With Bradley responsible for the bulk of the training and fitness work behind the gelding, the pair’s opportunity to show at FOC could not be missed given the lengths Bradley has gone to keep Quileute CCW sound, healthy, and ready to compete at Grand Prix.

“He’s just so smart. We did our first Grand Prix when he was ten and then that next year he was out for a significant period, and it’s been hard, but the good thing about horses is they don’t forget. Once we started getting him fit again, he feels great and I’m just so grateful that we were able to bring him back to this level.”

With the pair just coming back to the Grand Prix level this year after the time off, Bradley was pleased with their performance across the three classes within the division. “We had some mistakes in our tests, but when I went back and watched the videos I was really pleased with his balance and his connection. I’m an amateur and it’s always a little intimidating to be in these big classes and I felt like I really could say we belong here,” she concluded.

Karen Lipp (Ball Ground, Ga.) and her own 2013 KWPN gelding Infinity (by Dream Boy x Freestyle) took reserve champion honours in the Grand Prix division, after winning the Grand Prix (66.848%), placing second in the Special (65.085%), and finishing with a 71.315% in their freestyle. The pair are no strangers to FOC, having attended the event for the last six years across different divisions, and Lipp discussed the ever-building partnership the pair have nurtured throughout the years.

“I bought him as a four-year-old in Holland and he’s 11 now. This is the sixth time we’ve come to Festival of Champions. We’ve really used this as a progress marker throughout the years – starting in the 6YO divisions, working into the Developing PSG and Developing Grand Prix classes,” she explained. “We’ve only been doing the Grand Prix for about six months so I’m super thrilled with him.”

Lipp was drawn to the soundtrack of Netflix’s popular show Wednesday and wanted to play off other popular music, so Karen Peterson helped pull the composition together for the pair’s Grand Prix debut this year, highlighting the movement of Infinity.

“He’s for sure the best horse I’ve ever had, and I hope maybe we will go to Europe next summer and we have some big plans with his freestyles for the future and it’s just really exciting to have him,” Lipp added. “It’s fun to have a horse that I’ve worked with from the beginning. He’s a bold horse and he’s just so honest. I have high hopes for where we can go together.”

In their first appearance at FOC in the Grand Prix division, Callie O’Connell (Wilmington, Mass.) and her 2009 KWPN gelding Eaton H (Wynton x San Remo), owned by Ruling Cortes LLC, finished in third after their three Grand Prix tests. The duo had 61,000% in the Grand Prix, 64.532% in the Special, and concluded their week with a freestyle composed to an assortment of music by Queen, earning them 71.150% from the panel.

“It was as good as it could have been today. I felt like it was the best day we’ve had here, and he was just so nice in the bridle and with his self-carriage. I felt like I could really ride him in the ring, and it was just fun. He was really such a good boy,” said O’Connell of the pair’s final test of the week.

The duo’s music was also composed by Karen Peterson and the inspiration came from O’Connell’s love of Queen and the moniker they’ve given to Eaton H, who has a “rockstar” type personality. The flashy gelding can be bold and forward and highlighting his expressiveness and balance through their music selection was evident.

The 26-year old O’Connell has been partnered with Eaton H, also known as Harold or Eaty, for just over two years. The pair first learned to work together in the U25 divisions for two years and stepped in the senior Grand Prix ring this year for the first time. The experienced gelding started his Grand Prix career at age eight with Christoph Koschel, who also trains O’Connell.

“Christoph really knows the horse so well and it’s helped me a lot with the transition and I’m learning so much. He’s a very powerful, hot horse and is sometimes different every day, but I just love him. He has this rockstar personality and is always just fired up. He’s a very personable horse. He just turned 15, so we’re really going to go for it and see where we can get to together.”

Under 25: Christian Simonson

An unprecedented group of nine combinations contested the Under 25 championship, although last year's champion Quinn Iverson did not defend her title.

Christian Simonson (Ventura, Calif.) and the 13-year old Danish bred Son of a Lady (by Soreldo x Welt Hit II) owned by Christina Morgan and Clifton Simonson, earned the coveted "Brentina Cup" title, aka Under 25 champion The win was especially meaningful for Simonson, who trains with Adrienne Lyle, a past Brentina Cup champion herself. Lyle, in turn, trained with Debbie McDonald, the longtime trainer and rider of the horse for whom the class is named.

The U25 series in the U.S.A. was initially named the "Passage Cup" before the name of McDonald's horse, Brentina, became attached to it.

“This is our last big show of the summer,” said Simonson. “This is a green year for ‘Sonny.’ It’s his first year at Grand Prix. My expectations were just trying to give him the best rides I can and have him trust me more and more, and I think we really achieved that this weekend. He gave me such a good feeling all three days, and I’m just incredibly thankful to him. I’m thankful to Adrienne and the team we have here. Adrienne just flew in from Paris and came here and is helping me, so I cannot be more thankful to her.”

Simonson said that he intentionally kept the degree of difficulty fairly low on his freestyle since it’s his and Sonny’s first year at the level. Instead, the focus was on building confidence.

“The music itself is kind of young,” said Simonson. “I think it’s fun because it’s a youthful class, the under-25, and so we kind of have dance techno music, which I think also kind of highlights how fun he is and how spicy of a horse he is.”

Josh Albrecht (Oroville, Calif.) and Goldenboy Vickenburgh (by Apache x Olivi), Coalcyn Equestrian LLC’s 2011 Dutch Warmblood gelding, performed an ambitous freestyle set to music by Imagine Dragons, and secured their reserve champion position.

“I really like the music,” said Albrecht. “It’s fun. It’s upbeat. I actually picked that music because my horse could be kind of calm and quiet, so I wanted outgoing music that would make me push to get there and rise to the music.”

Albrecht and “G Boy” have been a partnership for less than a year, but they’ve had a successful one already, with top performances at the FEI North American Youth Championship (NAYC) a few weeks ago.

“It was a little bit of a crazy time in between NAYC, and I was really excited to be here,” said Albrecht. “It was really fun to do the class, and I've been really enjoying watching all the young horse classes. It's the first year of me showing this horse here. I've only been riding him since November, so we’re kind of green—he’s not; I am—so my goal has just kind of been to be the best partner for him in the ring that I can be.”

Sophia Schults (Ocala, Fla.) and Conocido HGF (by Cosaco XI out of Luz De Luna HGF), her own 2012 PRE gelding, had good performances throughout the week to finish in third place. Like Simonson and Albrecht, Schults also competed successfully at NAYC just a few weeks ago.

“It’s our first year doing the U25 for both myself and my horse, so everything has been a learning curve,” she said. “At North Americans, we learned a lot that we were going to implement this week, and he gave me everything he had in the U25 test. Overall, I’m super, super happy.”

Schults’s music complements her bold-moving PRE well.

“The music is from a movie that was made about Ernest Hemingway when he did a trip to Spain, and he became very enchanted with the country,” she said. “Marlene Whitaker is the one who made it. It's very dynamic, very Spanish. We lean into it, so it's a little bit difficult in some aspects for our greenness, but it's totally okay. We're learning a lot, so we're happy.”