Traverse City, Mich. – Top dressage continued on Saturday at the 2024 Discover Dressage/FEI North American Youth Dressage Championship presented by USDF. The Young Riders completed their individual tests in the morning and the U25 closed out the day, performing their musical freestyles in an evening session at Flintfields Horse Park.
FEI NAYC Young Rider Individual Championship
Region 3’s Kat Fuqua (Atlanta, Ga.) earned her second gold medal of this NAYC with her own 2008 Dutch Warmblood mare, Dreamgirl (Spielberg x U-Vira), earning a 70.971% for her individual test.
“I was really happy with our test today. I think I improved everything I wanted to improve from the prior test,” said Fuqua. “Her highlight is always her tempi changes, so again, she was good in those. The pirouettes were much improved from day one.”
Fuqua and Dreamgirl have a long partnership that extends beyond their success in the competition arena.
“I really feel like we understand each other on a different level,” said Fuqua. “Every single time I get on her, she tries her absolute best. She’s the most special horse I’ve ever met in my entire life. It’s really emotional and exciting for us to be together on the gold medal team and individually. She’s my best friend.”
Kiara Williams-Brown and Fortissimo, a 2012 Westphalian gelding owned by her coach Simone Williams, earned individual silver on a score of 69.941%.
“I’ve only been with ‘Tiso’ for two years now, and I feel like our partnership has developed so much in that time,” said Williams-Brown. “He’s the most incredible horse I’ve ever ridden. He has the perfect amount of sensitivity where, in a ring like this, he’s electric and he’s so fun to ride, and he just gives his all every single time. In this test, there’s extended trots that are on a short diagonal, and out of that volte, he can push so easily. He’s always so ready to go there. We’ve been practicing rocking back a little bit for that transition because he’s just so eager to go, and that’s really been paying off. He’s such a forward-thinking horse, and that makes my job really easy, because all I have to do is kind of steer him around.”
Canada’s Anna Swackhammer and Fabienna GV, a 2013 Westphalian mare owned by Kristina Bennett and Melissa Sinclair, clinched individual bronze with a score less than two-tenths of a point behind her teammate.
“I always look forward to NAYC. It’s my favorite week of the year,” said Swackhammer. “This is my sixth year competing here, which is really special, and to medal individually with the same mare, but now in young riders instead of juniors, is super exciting. And to medal with my teammate Kiara—we’ve been on five teams together—so to medal yesterday and then again today is just the icing on the cake.”
FEI U25 Grand Prix Freestyle
The U25 competitors put on a golden-hour show Saturday on evening in Traverse City, with five combinations performing their Grand Prix Musical Freestyle tests. Christian Simonson (Ventura, Calif.) and Son of a Lady (Soreldo x Western Lady), a 2011 Danish Warmblood gelding owned by Christina Morgan and Clifton Simonson, were back at the top of the podium with a 73.845%. Simonson and “Sonny” are both in their first year of Grand Prix competition, and Simonson said he’s discovering new things about his horse through the journey.
“With this new level that Sonny’s at, and with me as a green Grand Prix rider, I’m dealing with like 10 different horses in a single weekend and for different durations at different times,” he said. “Which is kind of the best part. It’s super fun. Yesterday, we learned a couple different things about him when competing this many consecutive days in a row at the Grand Prix.”
Simonson trains with Adrienne Lyle, who is currently in Paris as part of the U.S. Dressage Team, and Katie Duerrhammer, who coached him at this year’s NAYC. He credits them with helping him navigate a successful path with Sonny at this level.
“It’s a big collaboration between Katie and Adrienne and myself, which is so much fun,” he said. “I learn so much, which I think is the best part of the whole dressage thing. We had a really solid game plan, and today was one of those rides where he was so on my aids. It was an absolute goosebumps feeling.”
Josh Albrecht (Oroville, Calif.) earned a personal best score of 72.590% to win the silver with Goldenboy Vickenburgh (Apache x Tandafanory), a 2011 KWPN gelding owned by Coalcyn Equestrian LLC. They performed their freestyle to music by Imagine Dragons.
“I came home from my last CDI and kind of wanted to take some time,” said Albrecht. “I didn’t compete at all, just got ready to come here and tried to fix some of our weaknesses and work together to make those better, and it appears as though we did that!”
Sophia Schults (Ocala, Fla.) added another bronze medal to her collection after her freestyle with Conocido HGF (Cosaco XI x Luz De Luna HGF), a 2012 PRE gelding owned by Hampton Green Farm.
“One of the high points was the final centerline,” said Schults. “He tends to grow as the test goes, so he became slightly more active. I knew we had our piaffe fan coming up, which was a little bit ambitious, but he pulled it off fairly well tonight, so I was quite pleased with that.”
Conocido’s Spanish type and movement are always crowd pleasing, and Schults says he has the personality to match.
“He has the classic PRE ‘never quit,’” she said. “He will go all day, every day. He absolutely loves his job. He’s taught me so much. Eight years ago, I brought him home from Hampton Green. Our partnership started 8 years ago today, and [being on the podium] with these guys is unbelievable.”
Competition at the 2024 NAYC concludes on Sunday with the Juniors and Young Riders performing their freestyle tests.
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