Weather Plays "Where's Waldo" as Holzer and Vaughn Win 2026 CDI Wellington Grand Prix Classes

-- Text and Photos © Astrid Appels - NO REPRODUCTION ALLOWED (no screenshots for social media!)
This article expresses Eurodressage's' eye-witness account and opinion about the competition.

While coveted sunny Florida winter weather played "Where's Waldo?" American Grand Prix riders Ashley Holzer and Genay Vaughn topped the leaderboard in the 3* and 4* Grand Prix classes at the 2026 CDI Wellington on Thursday 5 February 2026. 

The 2026 Global Dressage Festival is in week five of its 12 week run and after an usual cold snap last weekend, which left windshields frozen and iguanas dropping by the thousands, today's weather gambit was equally un-Floridian for the winter: beautiful sunshine in the morning followed by rain showers over lunch with a sky turning fifty shades of grey and wind picking up so roughly it felt a tornado was coming.  The tests of a few pairs in the 4* Grand Prix got affected by the flapping tents and rustling palm trees as the noises put several horses on edge. 

Sunny Start

It was an early start today with the Prix St Georges kicking off at 8 AM. Nine combinations rode in gorgeous sunny morning weather and kept the pace of the class quick and efficient. 

It was a nice welcome back for Fashion Prinz OLD, the now 9-year old Oldenburg by Furst Romancier x Sarkozy who was fourth at the 2021 Bundeschampionate and won bronze at the 2022 World Young Horse Championships under Frederic Wandres. Owned by Hof Kasselmann, the tall liver chestnut sold for 750,000 euro to the American Houston family at the 2021 PSI Auction, but the horse stayed in Kasselmann's training programme and was shown by Annika Feldhaus and Valentin Munkedal between 2023 and 2025. He re-sold to Chinese Xiao Weilin for Zhanzhoa Giu to ride as 2026 Asian Games hopeful. They scored 66.647% for fourth place. 

The class was won by Canadian Olympian Brittany Fraser-Beaulieu aboard Deer Ridge farm's 12-year old Hanoverian Furst Foundation (by Foundation x De Niro). They posted 70.412%.

While the Prix St Georges wrapped up I popped over to the national arena to see Australian Alanna Richards competed Mist of Titanium OLD (by Millennium x Diamonit). Emma Kanerva's former ride scored 64.339% at the start of his budding partnership with Richards.

Rainy Lunch

With 17 pairs in the 3* Grand Prix the morning programme in the international stadium was plenty packed for Wellington and the the attendance in the large VIP tents was good for a Thursday morning. 

The class kicked off with a bang as American Jordan LaPlaca had his international Grand Prix debut aboard the 11-year old Oldenburg Gold Play (by Grey Flanell x Sir Donnerhall II), a horse Eurodressage spotted in the national ring last year and marked as one to watch for the future of U.S. Dressage. The pair showed great promise and quality in the piaffe and passage but the rhythm was not as crisp yet. The trot work needed to be a bit more over the back. Not sure if it was stage fright or just inexperience but in the canter work the movements all felt quite braced and "held", just like the final trot extensions. One could easily see that the ingredients were all there, but the execution was not. A 66,891% as first international score was not too bad at all.

Judges Kurt Christensen, Sascha Schulz, Ulrike Nivelle, Elke Ebert,  and William Warren saw the winner in Ashley Holzer on Diane Fellows' 14-year old British Hanoverian Hawtins San Floriana (by San Amour x Florestan) as they rewarded the seasoned Olympian 70.261% as the winning score. Holzer was the sole rider to score over 70% in the class. Aboard Charlotte Dujardin's former ride Holzer sat more quietly in the saddle than on some other horses. The long-lined dark bay are regularly flicks her tongue out of the mouth. She's a big muscled mare, who fills the arena, but at the start of her test the trot work needed to be more cadenced and rhythmical. The rein back was well executed. Unfortunately in passage there were too many uneven steps behind and sometimes the hindlegs trailed instead of showing real engagement  to sustain the collection and self carriage for a correct passage. San Floriana has a nice side silhouette in piaffe, the second one was nicest, but there was a bit of back-stepping tendency. The one tempi changes were straight, in the zig zag the changes to the left were shorter behind than to the right.  Holzer got the cheers from the crowd as she wrapped up her test and lifted her arms in celebration when the 70+ score flashed on the board. 

Spaniard Pablo Gomez Molina and the 16-year old PRE Ulises de Ymas (by Seni Indio x Superior II) finished second with 67.848%. The combination had some great results between 2022 and 2024 but now seems to have plateaued a bit in their training and development. The bay gelding is an impressive, ground covering mover for a PRE and can really show good trot extensions, but the PRE's innate giftedness in piaffe was not really shown today. The horse is quite ridden on the curb and he paced in the collected walk, but the one tempi change were straight. "Pau" currently works with Ali Brock.

Israeli Micah Deligdish has a super cute new Grand Prix horse to ride, the 14-year old Lusitano Carpe Diem de Massa (by Maestro x Violino SS). The chunky grey has a really nice piaffe-passge and once again the Lusitanos (and PRE's) are shown to be favoured for their rideability and manageability at Grand Prix level by aspiring big tour riders. 

Third place went to Christian Simonson's on Adelinde Cornelissen's last international Grand Prix horse Fleau de Baian before the Dutch medal winning Olympian disappeared from the international show scene. Fleau is a 16-year old KWPN stallion (by Jazz x Ulft) and the full brother to Cornelissen's career maker Parzival. One could still clearly see signs of Adelinde's training that shaped this horse: the dead straight tempi changes which were Cornelissen's hallmark on any horse. In the piaffe, however, the chestnut crosses behind and sometimes steps on his own coronet bands, which leads to the horse pre-emptively swinging out that right hind leg. Simonson rode a very safe and conservative test with the chestnut as if afraid to ask for more impulsion and power from behind. It almost looked like Fleau moved with frontwheel traction today. The passage work was underpowered and the first two trot extensions had no overtrack whatsoever. The trot half passes were nice, the zig zag okay, the one tempi's were really nice and the pirouettes well ridden. It was a clean test but without steam. They scored 67.805%. They are coached by Adrienne Lyle.

An interesting horse to watch was Canadian Olympian Naima Moreira Laliberté's 13-year old KWPN gelding Inspire (by Vitalis x Johnson) who ended up almost at the bottom of the leaderboard (61.196%) due to mistakes, but that didn't make him less intriguing. Although the horse clearly lacked bend and elasticity to the left, he had highlights in the first piaffe and straight one tempi changes. A total refusal to do the second piaffe as well as the passagey right trot half pass made the score plummet. Naima trains with Ashley Holzer while in Florida.

Windy Afternoon

During the afternoon session with the Grand Prix 4* the wind picked up and it felt like a hurricane was going to swoop over. It proved a challenge for a few horses. Ten pairs competed in the 4* and it was judged by William Warren, Kurt Christensen, Stephen Clarke, Ulrike Nivelle, and Elke Ebert. There were two clear stand-out performances in the class today, in our humble opinion: the winning horse Gino and the fourth placed pair, Meagan Davis on Toronto Lightfoot. 

Californian Genay Vaughn brought her 15-year old LWPN gelding Gino (by Bretton Woods x Haarlem) to Florida to qualify him for the World Cup Finals and they competed in three CDI's in a row. The black horse was without a doubt the most gifted Grand Prix horse of the day with spectacular gaits and super ability in piaffe and passage. He's a true eye catcher but overall the presentation needs more polish to truly crack those mid seventy percentage scores. The trot half passes were lovely, but the horse did not stand immobile in the rein back. In the second trot extension he broke into canter because his rider has the tendency to chase him too much with her legs. The constantly flopping ankles and forward driving aids were the sensitive points of the ride. The passage work is so lovely on this horse, but the first piaffe was too forward. Gino could sit a little more in the piaffe but it looks like the rider is afraid to lose the impulsion if she asks him to stay on the spot too much. The one tempi changes were super, the two's straight and the extended canter uphill. They scored 70.283% for the win. Vaughn was coached in Wellington by Christine Traurig.

Devon Kane and the 14-year old Westfalian Vamos (by Vivaldi x Insterburg) were ranked second with 68.717% by the judges although there was a spread in scores from 67.065% to 70.978%. The tall, lanky chestnut has highlights and work points. The highlights come in the canter work with gorgeous tempi changes and good collection in the pirouettes, but in trot the horse lacks suppleness and rushes in the extensions. At times the half halts looked more like pulling on the handbrake. The spicy chestnut with Trakehner roots certainly has plenty of go, but the scores would definitely increase if he were ridden in a lighter contact with more self carriage, but there is plenty of time to develop that. They train with Lars Petersen.

Third place went to Katherine Bateson-Chandler aboard Jen Huber's 14-year old KWPN mare Haute Couture (by Connaisseur x Krack C). When we are talking about spice, Haute Couture is probably four peppers with the Carolina Reaper being five peppers if we're setting a scale. The gorgeous bay mare has been a test of skill for Bateson, who rode on the US team in 2010 with Nartan. The mare is very "alert" and sharp in the arena and does not truly swing and relax over the back in the trot work, even though she beautifully crosses the legs in the half passes. The piaffes were a strong point today, good in rhythm, nice sit, on the spot. The passage, however, is very problematic. The mare will not collect and carry herself in a steady, regular passage-rhythm but throws in jerky, uneven steps that do not answer to the definition of a passage. The judges score this 'passage' between 6.0 and 7.0. In the canter work the pair pulled up the points with very nice pirouettes and straight tempi changes, but the canter in between the movements is four-beat. They finished on 68.391%.

One of the most elegantly presented horses of the day was Scott Durkin's Toronto Lightfoot, a 13-year old Oldenburg by Totilas x Onassis). Under Meagan Davis the bay has really developed into a solid Grand Prix horse, constant in the bridle, soft and quiet in the contact, no pulling in front. The pair performed good trot extensions and such lovely, floaty, regular passage work. The piaffe was a tiny bit hesitant or back-stepping but it was soft-footed and with a good rhythm. There was a big bobble in the canter strike off and in the extended canter he dropped into trot and missed the flying change at K,  but overall this pair was very pleasant to watch. They posted 68.261% for fourth place but had scores going from 66.413% to 70.543%.

Charlotte Jorst has a great Grand Prix horse in the well known 13-year old Danish warmblood Zhaplin Langholt (by Zonik x Stedinger). The powerful black looks Grand Prix: strong, muscled and agile in the movements in all three paces, but the regularity behind in the passage was the challenge of the day. They were fifth with 67.370%.  

Failing regularity was also the issue with Canadian Alexandra Duncan on the 14-year old KWPN stallion Hitmaker (by Wynton x Cabochon) who has a lovely, friendly silhouette but could not always sustain a steady rhythm in his otherwise elegant passage. The left hock/leg articulates the movement differently from his right hind. The right pirouette was a wonderful, but in the zig zag he was counterbent to the left.  They were sixth with 65.435%.

By the end of the class, the wind had settled down, but the crowds vanished into thin air even before the price giving ceremony. When it's over, it's really over in Wellington. Ciao ciao and everyone's gone. 

I spent my evening meeting bubbly new people in Loxahatchee while devouring the most amazing Argentinian asado barbecue meat which made me feel like Fred Flintstone.

-- Text and Photos © Astrid Appels - NO REPRODUCTION ALLOWED (no screenshots for social media!)

Related Links
Scores: 2026 CDI Wellington
Blog: Wellington 2026 - Welcome to the Jungle