Liberty L and Jaccardo became the winners of the "Future Challenge" developing horse series finale held on the last weekend of competition in Wellington, Florida, as part of the 2025 Global Dressage Festival.
For the first time there was a young horse Future Challenge for 5 and 6-year olds, which was won by Orado.
The "Future Challenge" Concept
The Future Challenge concept has become a staple in the GDF programme and continues to grow in popularity, attracting good entries this season at PSG level and 48 at GP level. It is a national level event, but ridden in the international arena in Wellington
The Future Challenge encourages riders to bring their up-and-coming international quality horses out in a championship-type environment without the pressures of a CDI, such as having to stable away from home. The series continues to grow in popularity, attracting 48 entries this season.
The Prix St Georges level challenge is sponsored by Diane Fellows' Buffalo Wings company, while the Grand Prix level challenge is backed by the series initiator, Lovsta Stuteri.
Antonia Ax:son Johnson of Lövsta Stuteri said, “The idea for this series all started when I met Tinne [Vilhelmson Silfvén] 25 years ago. She came to work with me and I asked her what was lacking in the production of top horses, and she said it was this for developing horses, so we decided to start it.
“At first we could hardly find anyone who wanted to enter, but today we have a really strong tour in the U.S and Sweden and Amsterdam,” she continued. “We have it for jumping and dressage, and for young riders also, so we’re trying to grow this in a systematic way. Wellington is a place where we can give our horses, but also to others, an opportunity to grow and to learn at their own pace.”
Developing GP Horse Finale: Jaccardo
The final, in which horses performed the FEI Young Horse Grand Prix test, took place on Friday 28 March 2025 and offered a $10,000 prize pot. All qualifying rounds held throughout GDF 2025 used the Intermediate II test, so the final was a step up in intensity.
Canadian Brittany Fraser-Beaulieu has had the ride on Jaccardo, a Dutch Warmblood gelding by Desperado x Jazz, since Irving bought him in Wellington in early 2023. The horse scored eights and 8.5s across the board for his extended walk and was very concentrated in the atmospheric arena despite a stiff breeze.
“We are over the moon to have won tonight,” said Fraser-Beaulieu, who also won the previous day’s optional warm-up class with Jaccardo. “The horse gives me a sense of secure power. Sometimes he’s a little bit cheeky, but what I need is to give him space and allow him to settle into the movement. I’m not putting too much pressure on him in the ring right now, I just want him to have a great experience so he’s ready for grand prix next year.
“We’re so lucky to have this class, to get into the main ring at AGDF, and to get the young horses used to it all in a class like this. It’s very positive on their way to grand prix and I’m so grateful for the opportunity to participate in the Lövsta Future Challenge,” added Fraser-Beaulieu, who worked with her long-time coach Ashley Holzer to prepare Jaccardo for the final.
“Unfortunately, he wasn’t happy with the flower boxes today, but I can’t be mad at him,” mused Orlob, who has been riding the nine year-old—the equal youngest in the final—since he was four. “He’s a great guy. I think he has all the elements to be a good grand prix horse; he’s spicy enough, but not stupid in the head and he likes to work. We’ll do a couple more national grands prix now, then hopefully next season start in some CDIs.”
Australian born American Kelly Layne repeated her third-place finish from the previous year to once again take the yellow sash with her own and Eva Levy’s Living Diamond. Despite Layne’s apparent consistency with Living Diamond, she had in fact not competed the 10-year-old Livaldon x Fürst Rousseau gelding since the 2024 Lövsta final as she handed the reins over to a young rider in the interim.
“I was so proud how focused Diamond was on me tonight,” she added. “He was on every single aid, although I still can’t ride him with the power that I’d like to show yet because I can’t quite keep it under control—as you saw in the prize ceremony. So I aimed to ride a neat, precise, accurate test.”
Developing PSG Horse Finale: Liberty L
Ten promising small tour horses all aged eight or nine went down centerline in the developing horse Prix St. Georges Future Challenge final. The first to do so was Liberty L, a nine-year-old KWPN gelding by Toto Jr x Charmeur owned by his rider, Ashley Holzer. The pair put down 72.843% on the leaderboard, and nobody could catch them.
The class is open to developing small tour horses aged seven to nine. Weather during the class presented challenges, with some contending with rain showers, though thankfully a major thunderstorm held off until just after the prize-giving ceremony.
Holzer has owned the champion, Liberty L, since he was four, although she has not been focused on him until recently. He was fifth in this final in 2024.
“He’s been ridden by everyone, including a tiny 12-year-old girl in the Robert Dover Horsemastership class,” said Holzer, who has been second on numerous occasions in this final, but had never won it. “Liberty was on the back burner, but I took over training him about a year ago and have been building him up. I showed him in Europe last summer and he won two small tour classes at the Wellington CDI in England.
“I had him in this class because I wanted to get him in the main ring and see if I put a little pressure on the small tour whether he could handle it, which he did beautifully,” continued Holzer. “Katherine [Bateson Chandler] told me not to rush him in the canter and just let him settle and show his beautiful gait, and that was the big turnaround for him today. I felt that special cadence and moment of suspension with power. He has huge talent for piaffe and passage, so I think he’s going to be an incredible Grand Prix horse.”
The reserve champion horse, Derek, was bought sight unseen from an auction as a four-year-old.
“I was also watching the other competitors in the warm-up and they were all on such great quality horses. It’s great that we have so many talented horses in this area of the world right now. I’m grateful to my life-long friend Diane Fellows for supporting this series,” she concluded.
Inaugural Young Horse Challenge
Alice Tarjan was the champion of the inaugural Young Horse Future Challenge riding her own Orado in the 6-Year-Old Final Test. She led an all-female American sweep, all mounted on Dutch Warmbloods. Orado is a six-year-old stallion by Desperado—a sire who was well represented during GDF 12, as Tarjan’s mare Jane, who was ridden to a double at Grand Prix by Marcus Orlob, is also by the Vivaldi son. Tarjan was the last athlete to qualify for the final, having earned her spot during GDF10.
Hope Cooper rode Tammy Richard’s stallion O Romeo S (by Charmeur x UB 40) into the reserve champion spot with 82.2%. The highest score in the class, 85.4%, was awarded to Mary Bahniuk Lauritsen on Deborah Alfond’s Just Wimphof gelding Oliver R Tambo SV, though they had not qualified as Challenge finalists.
GDF Director of Sport Thomas Baur was delighted to welcome the new young horse developing classes to the show’s roster. He said: “We’ve now added the missing link of the young horses to our Future Challenge series, so now we go from five-year-olds to Grand Prix.
“Our Future Challenges were very successful this year, and we had 72 entries across the five qualifiers in the Buffalo Wild Wings Challenge, which is great. We’ll continue to build these opportunities in the future because this is where we can help the riders move their horses up towards grand prix,” he added.