Fantastic Five for Nadine Schwartsman at 2025 USDF Regionals as Qualification for Finals Draws to a Close
October 9, 2025 - Lexington, KY
Photo by Ella Chedester Photography
Photo by Ella Chedester Photography
Photo by Ella Chedester Photography
Photo by High Time Photography
Photo by High Time Photography
Photo by High Time Photography
The final two of the nine Great American Insurance Group/United States Dressage Federation (USDF) Regional Championships of 2025 took place in Oregon and Georgia over the weekend of October 2-5. Both shows were qualifiers for this year’s US Dressage Finals presented by Adequan®, which take place October 30-November 2 at the World Equestrian Center (WEC) in Wilmington, OH, a new venue for this prestigious show.
Region 6
Nadine Schwartsman dominated five championship classes on four different horses and scooped three reserve champion sashes at the Great American Insurance Group/USDF Region 6 Championships at DevonWood Equestrian Centre in Sherwood, OR. A year ago, she was forced to withdraw from numerous classes at Regionals as she was suffering from a heart condition. This time around, as the results demonstrate, she has found the tools to manage it.
“I learned that I cannot feed and clean stalls and braid and micromanage, and that I have to just do what I do best: ride and coach and let my awesome girls take care of the rest,” explained Schwartsman, who owns an 80-acre facility in Idaho.
Schwartsman’s mutually beneficial training philosophy revolves around sharing the ride on the horses she trains with her clients, with the aim of eventually sending the owners down centerline at championship shows. She brought only one personally owned horse, the 10-year-old Sonnenberg’s Kain (by El Capone x Carlton Hill), to Regionals and promptly won the Open Fourth Level title on the complicated gelding.
“He’s not the easiest horse, and it’s either all or nothing with him, but he was perfectly behaved and did a flawless test, which was so exciting, as he can be really spooky,” said Schwartsman, who with a 70.833% score was the only one to break the 70% barrier.
She was also delighted to head up the competitive Prix St. Georges championship on board Stephanie Bonney’s 14-year-old Estobar x Lauries Crusador gelding, Ehrengold Enka.
“It was a monster class of 21 with so many quality horses in it,” explained Schwartsman. “I told myself to just focus on my own horse and bring my ‘A’ game to my own test. We imported Enka about a year ago, and he hasn’t shown much. DevonWood is an amazing facility with lots of atmosphere, which can be hard for some horses. He took a couple of days to settle in, then on championship day he gave me an amazing ride.”
With Cynthia McKim’s 10-year-old Belissimo M gelding Klimt, Schwartsman swept the Third Level classes, recording 71.625% in the straight class — almost five percentage points clear of the reserve champion — and produced another plus-70% test to head up the freestyle.
“He’s only just learned the flying changes, and in the qualifiers before Regionals, we did not always get the changes — not even close,” she admitted. “This was the first show where he got them all; he peaked when I needed him to.”
Her fifth win materialized in the Intermediate II, in which she rode Melissa Connelly’s 16-year-old Elnieta, a Dayano daugher who “always comes through,” to 66.618%. Her Grand Prix ride, Kelli Hajjar’s Royal Flash R, was a double reserve champion at the level, and she picked up another reserve title in the Intermediate I freestyle riding Leslie Hornocker’s 15-year-old German Riding Pony, Caspari Royale. The 13hh “so cute and so perfect” buckskin gelding has been in training with Schwartsman since he was three.
Hajjar was also competing at the show and was undefeated on her new mare, the nine-year-old Ferro daughter, Follini. They racked up wins at Training and First Levels and topped the USDF Regional Adult Amateur (AA) Equitation Final. Not to be outdone, Kelli’s daughter Abigail Hajjar rode Black Bandit, a nine-year-old Bordeaux gelding, to victory in the Junior/Young Rider Training Level championship with 69.1%. Mother and daughter shared a special moment when their award ceremonies coincided, allowing them to celebrate their ribbons together.
AA Anika Sadler proved that dressage really is for all breeds when she won the First Level freestyle on her Haflinger, Roush. Originally bought for her husband to ride, the gelding has now helped Sadler earn her USDF Bronze Medal. The dedicated rider drives 10 hours from Idaho every two months to train with Schwartsman.
Schwartsman herself has a busy fall ahead as she is heading to California for a stint with her trainer, Sabine Schut-Kery, as well as riding Royal Flash R in the Carl Hester symposium before heading to the US Equestrian Open of Dressage Final in November.
The Mount Vernon, WA-based Aaron Janicki rode 13 tests at the show and continued his spectacular run of form on his own 11-year-old 18.1hh mare, Jinicole M (by Expression x Gribaldi). They won the Open Grand Prix straight and freestyle classes, the latter with over 71%. The mare, who was imported from the Netherlands as a five-year-old, has remained unbeaten in her last 19 starts at the level. The last time she and Janicki were bettered was by Schwartsman and Royal Flash R at the Sherwood CDI3* show in June of 2024.
Janicki, a breeder and rider, had to settle for second place behind Schwartsman again in the Prix St. Georges regional championship with his own nine-year-old Lord Bretton Woods (by Bretton Woods x Painted Black). In the Intermediate I, the duo climbed to the top step of the podium, pulling off a unanimous win with 71.765%.
AA rider and USDF Gold Medalist Julia Kelleher and her own 14-year-old Swedish Warmblood gelding X-Cilent (by Connaisseur x Weltmeyer) were all-conquering, leading both the straight and freestyle Grand Prix championship classes.
Region 3
Double wins abounded at the Great American Insurance Group/USDF Region 3 Championships at the Georgia International Horse Park in Conyers, GA. The 16-year-old Lauren Polk scooped two Third Level titles on her own and her mother Stephanie Dawn Haynie’s 12-year-old American Hanoverian gelding Donauwelle P (by Don Frederico x Wolkentanz). Their winning 73.413% secured the freestyle — a combined class of Juniors, Young Riders, and Open riders — and was the highest score across all the championship classes in the region.
“He felt great and very with me, so I was able to ask him for more in the tests on both days,” said Polk, who trains with Anneliese Vogt-Harber at her Vogt Riding Academy, a facility nestled in the city of Atlanta, GA. “It’s really something to have that feeling at a big show with all the distractions around.”
Polk purchased Donauwelle P a year ago during a horse shopping trip at Anna Marek’s barn in Florida, where she was looking for a young horse.
“I tried Donauwelle and I immediately loved him,” she recalled. “He wasn’t what we were supposed to be there for, but I knew he was the perfect horse. He had shown Grand Prix with Anna, and I’d never really ridden a horse trained to that level, so it was interesting to test out the buttons to see what that felt like. The great thing about him is that he happily comes down to the lower-level stuff for me, like shoulder-in and leg-yield. He can dial it up or down. I did Juniors at NAYC [the North American Youth Championships] with him this summer, and all his training will be so great if I want to move up the levels.”
Polk plans to campaign Donauwelle P in FEI Junior classes and at Fourth Level in the upcoming season. She still attends school full-time, though with added flexibility to train and compete, for which she is incredibly grateful. She hopes to have her own barn someday so she can ride and coach full-time.
Five additional competitors recorded two championship wins apiece, with Open rider Lindsey Holleger doing so on a four-year-old. She piloted her own 15.3hh Galaxena (by Galaxy x Florenz) to the Training Level title with 73% and led the hot First Level contest with 71.111%. In the class of 26 starters, the top five all finished on over 70%. The talented little mare has only been shown lightly in her first year of competition, contesting a handful of young horse classes — including finishing fifth at the Festival of Champions under Holleger’s assistant trainer Michelle Davis — before stepping out at Training and First level with Holleger for the first time just a month before Regionals.
Nora Batchelder achieved her double on two different horses, winning the Open Third Level with 71.625% on Anna Jaffe’s eight-year-old Oldenburg gelding Gnomonic, by Goldberg. She followed up with an Intermediate II victory on Sandi Lieb’s 18hh 12-year-old gelding Improv 40Z, by UB40 x Rousseau.
Other riders who accomplished doubles were Tessa Holloran on Ike at small tour, AA and small animal veterinarian Kristy Truebenbach Lund at big tour on Living Lucky, Jodie Kelly-Baxley at Grand Prix on Grayton Beach, and AA Lea McCullough at Intermediate I level on Django Kerguelen.
The 2025 US Dressage Finals presented by Adequan® takes place October 30-November 2 at the World Equestrian Center in Wilmington, OH. It is a national, head-to-head competition that showcases competitors in Adult Amateur, Open, and Junior/Young Rider divisions. Classes run from Training Level through Grand Prix, plus freestyle to music divisions, with Junior/YR sections at Training Level through Intermediate I. There is more than $125,000 in prize money on offer over the four days. Learn more at www.usdf.org/usdressagefinals/index.asp.
