Mares Make Their Mark on Day Two of the US Dressage Finals at WEC – Wilmington

Mares won four of the five earlier daytime classes on day two of the 2025 US Dressage Finals presented by Adequan® at World Equestrian Center (WEC) in Wilmington, OH. The five classes were a clean sweep for female riders, including a double for Christine Morin-Graham. A second release covering the remaining four classes from day two will follow. The show runs from October 30 to November 2, 2025, with 37 championship titles on offer and a prize pot of $125,000.

Go First, Finish First
Leading from the front is becoming somewhat of a tradition for Christina Morin-Graham at the 2025 Finals. On Thursday, she topped the Adult Amateur (AA) Intermediate II on Mondlicht from first draw, and on Friday she repeated the feat, heading up the AA Grand Prix as first to go on her other big tour horse, the 16-year-old Damon Hill daughter, DSP Dauphin. She scored 68.696% for the win and also slotted in as runner-up on Mondlicht with 66.92% — an echo of the two mares’ results at the Region 8 Championships. 

A couple of hours later, Morin-Graham nabbed her third winner’s blanket of the show when she rode her own 12-year-old Jazz mare, Ici De La Vigne, to the top of the leaderboard in the Intermediate I AA Championship with 66.912%.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime day,” said the ever-positive rider from Malvern, PA. “I’ve never won anything at Finals before this year. Last year, I brought Dauphin — trailered her myself, so I know nothing happened on the journey — and she was schooling fine for two days and then went head-bobbing lame. We have no idea why, but I had to scratch from everything. Last year really taught me to appreciate just getting in the ring. Having a sound horse and getting in the ring is a gift.

“I’d been working on the partnerships with both my mares and keeping their energy up,” she continued. “There's room for a lot of improvement still, but it’s all on me. There’s nothing more that I could have asked from them.”

Morin-Graham is also attending the show as an owner, having passed the reins on two of her horses, Laurencio and Merlin, over to up-and-coming riders Ava Harry and Catherine Esibill. 

“I love that I get to be a cheerleader and see them out there doing it,” added Morin-Graham, who works full-time as a partner in a private equity firm. “It’s fun that those horses that taught me so much at the lower levels are now giving back to other people. It’s great that they get the chance to come and show here. The facility is exceptional, especially given the weather this time of year. The footing’s great, the stabling is fantastic, and there’s a lot of emphasis on horse welfare, which is great. There’s a real positive energy.”

Morin-Graham is hoping to keep that positivity flowing on Saturday, when she will contest freestyle classes on all three of her mares.

Rhapsody In Blue
In a very competitive class in which the top six all scored over 70%, Cody Armstrong Pierce emerged victorious from the 17 entries in the Open Training Level Championship. She rode Rhapsofloria, Sandie Gaines-Beddard’s five-year-old Floriscount x De Niro mare, to 71.4% — boosted by a 74% score from the judge at C. 

“There were a lot of wonderful professionals with great young horses, so I felt this class was probably going to be about which young horse could be the most relaxed in this environment, and I got lucky,” said Armstrong Pierce.

However, the Midwest Virginia-based rider built her own luck with Rhapsofloria through comprehensive preparation and varied exposure: they hacked on trails, through water, and cross-trained. Armstrong Pierce even leads around her small children on Rhapsofloria, and the mare lives in the field overnight with a friend.

“Having two kids under four certainly helps with desensitization,” she laughed. “And we have 1,500 acres and 150 head of cattle, plus dogs — there’s a lot going on as it’s a working farm. So, Rhapsofloria came to WEC and hasn’t batted an eye.”

Armstrong Pierce, who used to event as a Young Rider, starts a lot of young horses for professionals, who then take over the reins. As a result, her horses all cross-train, with cavaletti incorporated into their programs.

Rhapsofloria was imported as a sales horse last year, but nobody has shown interest in purchasing her. Armstrong Pierce hopes that may be a sign that she is destined to stay with her.

“That would be nice,” said Armstrong Pierce, who has been training with Jim Koford this year as well as remotely with Charell Garcia. “My daughter loves her and calls her ‘Ra Ra’ — they’re very attached. She’s the sweetest horse in the barn, and she loves the attention. I’m excited to go home, start training the flying changes, and just keep on trekking.”

A Magnifique Performance
Courage and belief in her horse led grandmother Amelia Hellman to the winner’s circle in the Fourth Level AA Championship. She produced a 70.833% performance from the eight-year-old mare Magnifique, by Indian Rock. She bought the horse two years ago as a green problem child from a sales barn in Holland, although she was not the horse she had gone there to see.

“I asked if they had anything a little spicier and they showed ‘Maggie’ to me. Jenny Wetterau rode her first and said I’d be OK, then I got on and we clicked,” said Hellman, who has trained two horses up to grand prix level. “They were totally open about the fact that she was a rearer, so we have done a lot of groundwork.

“Even though she was borderline dangerous, these horses aren’t malicious. We just need to help them find their path,” she continued. “She had to learn how to control her emotions. Once she gained that security and confidence, and she realized that I wasn't going anywhere, she shot up the levels. She’s starting to settle into what it means to be a competition horse, and the future is exciting.”

Hellman, a career attorney, has a 150-acre farm in Virginia and has ridden Magnifique all over, including leading her off another horse, to give her exposure and boost her confidence. This winter, Hellman will spend the season in Wellington, Florida, training with Claudio Oliveira, who was recommended by her regular trainer Ali Brock. Hellman will take three horses and hopes to start training the beginnings of the grand prix work with Magnifique.

$15 Horse Triumphs
The only gelding to break through the mighty mares in the morning classes was Christine Calao’s Freshman SHS — a nine-year-old gelding she bought for $15 as a weanling. The pair from Texas headed up the Open Intermediate I Championship with 68.676%, despite the Fürstenball x Sandro Hit son having had his fair share of setbacks.

“It’s a fluke that I ended up with him,” explained Calao, who breeds a few horses herself each year and likes the temperament and paces Fürstenball brings to the table. “A breeder near me had him as a yearling and thought he was stallion quality, but he was blind in one eye with a detached retina, so she didn’t think he was worth anything. I liked him and bought him for $15.

“I tried to sell him a few times; as a two-year-old because he was gangly, and then again as a four-year-old because he was so straightforward that I thought he would be easy to sell,” she added.

Calao has found methods to cope with his blindness, such as using constant voice aids on the lunge when his blind side is to the inside. Other than that, he has required little special treatment and has continued to thrive as the work has become harder. He is no longer a sales horse.

In the spring of 2025 Freshman SHS fell in the trailer en route to a competition and ended up with some deep cuts and scrapes. Vets were concerned he may have a hole in the tendon as he had a deep fetlock cut. They also mentioned that fractures of the neck or hip are common after such accidents. Remarkably, vets informed Calao that he had “dodged every bullet that you could possibly dodge” and that he would be just fine.

“He’s super talented and very sensitive, with a very good brain,” added Calao, who trains with Lehua Custer and Leslie Morse. “Now, he’s as close to a golden retriever personality as you can get, and he’s schooling all the grand prix. He’s a machine, he’s a rockstar, and he’s a barn favorite.”

Check out the latest coverage of the 2025 Finals, including behind-the-scenes photos and daily releases here. Live results and start times can be found here.

Competition resumes on Saturday November 1, with a whopping 14 championship titles to be decided across the day and evening sessions. The full digital show program is available here. Follow the action via the USDF Facebook page, USDF Instagram page, and the US Dressage Finals website, plus live online streaming from the Sanctuary Arena on USEF Network with expert commentary from Kathy Connelly. 

Along with presenting sponsor Adequan®, the US Dressage Finals is supported by SmartEquine, LeMieux, and Platinum Performance. Contributing sponsors include Premier Equestrian, Sterling Thompson Equine, and Uvex.