Lexington, Ky. - Intense head-to-head dressage competition across 30 championship divisions concluded on Sunday at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington for the US Dressage Finals presented by Adequan®. Surrounded by friends and family, emotions ran high for competitors as they rode their way into history and celebrated their success with joyous victory laps before packing for their long journeys back to homes across the country. The appropriately-named Dutch Warmblood Eye Candy (Weltmeyer x...

Lexington, Ky. - Kentucky women seemed to claim home field advantage as they swept the top spots in the Satuday evening's Intermediate I Open Freestyle Championship. Angela Jackson earned her second national title of the day, this time aboard Kerrin Dunn's lovely Dutch Warmblood Allure S. Even though the mare wasn't feeling quite like her normal self on Thursday, when she entered the arena as the first combination down centerline for the class, "she rebounded and put her game face...

Lexington, Ky. - One of the highlights of the day Saturday was the presentation of the new Calaveras County Perpetual Trophy (by artist Olva Stewart Pharo) to the very first US Dressage Finals Grand Prix Freestyle Adult Amateur Champion, Janne Rumbough of Palm Beach, Fla. (Region 3). The crowd went wild and clapped to the beat of Rumbough's Mary Poppins-themed music as her gray PRE gelding Junior (by Gaucho III x La Nina by Brioso VI) seemed to relish the electric atmosphere of Alltech...

Lexington, Ky. - Perhaps no competitor had more fun with her performance than the Second Level Open Freestyle Champion Morgan Barrows (Monroe, Wash., Region 6) riding Janice Davis' Oldenburg gelding San Corazon. Their Billy Idol-themed freestyle was rewarded with a top score of 74.678%. "I had a blast! I want to go out there again," said Barrows, who has been partnered with her mount for less than a year. "I originally saw him at a friend's farm in Sweden when he was three. Later when...

Lexington, Ky. - Starting off the day were competitors showing off their Second Level Freestyles, and in the Adult Amateur division, crowd favorite and hometown girl Cariann Wlosinski (Lexington, Ky., Region 2) earned the unanimous win with 70.567%. A full-time middle school teacher who "teaches by day and rides by night," Wlosinski attended the inaugural Finals last November and was "determined to try to get back here this year." She danced to a Beatles medley aboard her own Oldenburg mare...

Lexington, Ky. - Despite being only seven years old, the talented Oldenburg mare Elfenfeuer carried owner/rider Alice Tarjan of Frenchtown, N.J. (Region 8) to victory in the Grand Prix Adult Amateur Championship with 68.133% "We still have a lot to learn, but I think this level suits her and she's a good girl and tries hard," said Tarjan. "I haven't been here at the Horse Park since coming for a Pony Club event about 20 years ago, and it's absolutely gorgeous. These Finals are such...

Lexington, Ky. - Region 2's Jacqueline Beasley may have only had a 15-minute drive from her home in Lexington to the Finals, but her journey to winning Friday's Intermediate I Adult Amateur Championship has been much longer. She purchased her now 11-year-old Hanoverian gelding Winston (by Worldly) as a three-year-old in Germany and together the pair has risen through the levels, culminating in today's winning ride with a score of 67.632%. "I never thought we'd come so far," said...

Lexington, Ky. - Mette Rosencrantz of Topanga, Cal. was grinning from ear to ear as she accepted congratulations for becoming the first Finals champion crowned in 2014. Her long journey all the way from the West Coast ultimately proved worthwhile as she guided Anne Solbraekke's elegant black Hanoverian gelding De Noir 3 (De Niro x Maharani by Matcho) to a resounding victory in the Open Intermediate I Championship, earning the unanimous win under all three judges for a total score of 72.632%....

Lexington, Ky. - Patti Blackmore (Louisiana, Mo., Region 4) placed third at last year's Finals in the First Level Adult Amateur division, and this year she improved upon that performance to claim the Second Level Adult Amateur Championship aboard her own Hanoverian gelding Rubico (by Rotspon). As the only combination to break seventy percent, they earned a decisive win with a total score of 71.905%. "I breathed a sigh of relief after our counter canter portion of the test," laughed...

Lexington, Ky. - Exciting head-to-head dressage competition got underway on Thursday at the US Dressage Finals presented by Adequan® in Lexington, KY, November 6 - 9, 2014. Nearly four hundred Adult Amateur and Open riders from Training Level to Grand Prix have come to the Kentucky Horse Park in their quests for national championship honors, and many of them made their final preparations today by competing in one of the multitude of open and warm-up USDF Dressage in the Bluegrass classes....