Christian Simonson and Indian Rock Win World Cup Qualifier at 2025 CDI-W Myakka City

-- press release, edited by Eurodressage

In their second international competition as a pair since their partnership began almost a year ago, Christian Simonson and Indian Rock won the North American League world cup qualifier at the 2025 CDI-W Myakka City, hosted at TerraNova equestrian park on 17 - 18 October 2025. 

The 23-year old Simonson and Zen Elite's 12-year old KWPN stallion Indian Rock (by Apache x Vivaldi) twice bested a field of eight competitors that gathered on the west coast of Florida for this first Floridian CDI-W of the winter season. Christian took over the ride on Indian Rock from Dutch Olympian Emmelie Scholtens who trains the horse to Grand Prix level and competed him at the Games in Paris before the stallion sold to the U.S.A. in December 2024.

"Holy Cow"

The pair had its international show debut at the CDI Ocala in May after which they went into summer training camp in Colorado before making the trek back to Florida for the winter. At Myakka City judges Debbie Rodriguez, Evi Eisenhardt, Christof Umbach, Cesar Torrente, and Maarten Van der Heijden awarded them a winning 74.804% Grand Prix score and an 81.405% freestyle score. 

“To compete in my first CDI-W let alone have the placing and score that we did today was just a dream come true,” said Simonson after the Grand Prix . "In the test ‘Rocky’ worked so hard. He’s such a special horse with so many highlights, including the piaffe/passage, the changes and the lateral movements. He’s a powerful ride with so much elasticity and scope, so I have to do a lot of core exercises."

He continued, "something Adrienne (Lyle) has taught me is being really cognizant of balance. I give her so much credit for that; I don’t think I’d ever be able to understand the correct positionings without her incredible eye. In the warm-up ring we worked on balance, and all summer we’ve been fine-tuning the lateral work and the piaffe/passage. Luckily, in the last couple of minutes that all came together and produced the result today. I’m really darn grateful and honored to to ride this cool dude of a horse."

Commenting on his freestyle win, Christian said, "On the last centerline I was just thinking, ‘Holy cow, this is crazy, I can’t believe I’m riding the Indian Rock,’ so I couldn’t help but smile. With the World Cup™ Final coming, I wanted to make sure the freestyle was the best that we can be. With the degree of difficulty, that’s kinda the game that you play with the choreography. We really want to show off Rocky’s big, scopey half-passes so we purposely added the extra steepness and tried to show seamless transitions."

Christian will ride another CDI-W soon, as his long-term is to make it to the World Cup Final in Fort Worth, Texas, in April.

Ebeling and Kohmann Follow

Ben Ebeling was the last to go in the freestyle on Saturday, pulling off a new international personal best of 78.055% to clinch second place with his girl power routine. The class doubled as a qualifier for the World Cup™ Final in Texas in April, and also as the penultimate opportunity to gain valuable US Equestrian Open of Dressage points ahead of the $200,000 final showdown in California next month. Ebeling’s ride on Ann Romney’s 15-year-old mare Bellena (by Belissimo M x Welser) rocketed him up the US Open leaderboard into second place.  

Freshly returned from his spring and summer trip competing in Europe, German born Kevin Kohmann landed third place in the freestyle, vaulting him up into third place on the US Open standings. He produced a 77.17% ride on Diamante Farm’s Dünensee, a 16-year-old Dancier gelding, which was produced to Grand Prix level by Christoph Koschel before Kevin took on the ride and ended up competing at two, consecutive World Cup Finald.

Koschel in Front in 3* Tour

Four further CDI classes were held at the CDI-W Myakka City: a Prix St Georges and Intermediaire I with just one competitor and a 3* Grand Prix tour with just two riders in it.

German Christoph Koschel won the 3* Grand Prix and Special aboard the 10-year-old Destare (by Danciano x Fürst Romancier), which he has competed sparingly in international shows — this was his second at the level — and his first Special. They scored 69.087% to win the GP and 69.489% in the Special. 

“It was a shame about the two broken half-passes,” commented Koschel after the Special, referring to Destare passing droppings in the first trot half-pass and tripping in the second. “That’s killer on the score because those movements have a double coefficient, but I was so happy with how he got back into it and finished up — especially with him being a young horse and not knowing what was coming next in the test. 

“He showed a better picture than yesterday, with more self-carriage,” he continued. “I felt a lot of power in the warm-up; yesterday I thought he was maybe tired from the trip over from Germany a week ago, but actually I think he’s shy and just needs to get used to the atmosphere in these rings. I didn’t do young horse classes with him and haven’t competed him that much, so he just needs mileage to gain more self-confidence.  

Koschel has been a steady winter resident in Florida for almost a decade now, busy training a string of Americas clients out of his Loxahatchee base.

Photos © Jessica Buchler

Related Links
Scores: 2025 CDI-W Myakka City
Eurodressage Coverage of the 2025-2026 World Cup show circuit