The first weekend of the 2025 Regional Championships season, held across nine United States Dressage Federation (USDF) regions, opened with the GAIG/USDF Region 2 Dressage Championships at the Waterloo Hunt Club in Grass Lake, MI, September 10-14. This year’s US Dressage Finals presented by Adequan® will be held October 30-November 2 at the World Equestrian Center in Wilmington, OH — a new home for the prestigious show.

Photo  – Jennifer Roth won two of her championship titles on the 12-year-old Royal DaVinci in the face of poor x-rays and a suspensory injury: “We’re just happy that we can keep ‘Humpty Dumpty’ together.” (Diana Hadsall Photography)

The first Regional Championships of the season brought rich pickings for Jennifer Roth despite the Pataskala, OH-based rider feeling very unwell during the show. She recorded a trio of championship titles, two of them on her partner James Gerhart’s 12-year-old 17.1hh Hanoverian gelding, Royal Davinci, a horse with a checkered medical past. The duo headed up both First Level classes, with a high score of 78.583% in the freestyle — the top score across all the championship classes. She also finished reserve champion in the freestyle riding Sheena Helm’s nine-year-old Rotspon mare Relish The Moment to 76.458%.

Staggering

Roth rode a staggering 19 tests over the four-day show from First Level through Grand Prix, resulting in three Regionals wins and eight more top three finishes, as well as three further non-championship class victories. Between Roth and her clients, they had 15 horses at the show.

Roth is a USEF ‘R’ Dressage Judge and a coach at Otterbein University in Westerville, OH. Before Regionals, she picked up “the back-to-school college student plague.” She lost her voice, but fortunately, trainer Sharon Ridge, who travels to shows with Roth’s team, was on hand to help with the multitude of clients and tests.

Roth and Gerhart’s story with their double champion Royal Davinci (by Royal Prince) goes back a long way. “‘Vincent’ is a half-sibling to an FEI horse I owned and loved,” explained Roth, who has regular help from trainer James Koford. “When he was four, we wanted to buy him, but he epically failed the pre-purchase exam on his x-rays, and we passed on him. He went to someone else who trained him, and when she tried to sell him, my veterinarian did the pre-purchase, which he failed again. His owner was going to put him down as he had no value to her, so my veterinarian saved him and reached out to us.

Scratch and Dent

“I’m all about the ‘scratch and dent’ horses; all my top horses always have something wrong,” she continued. “I’m all for giving the horse with the suspensory injury or the terrible x-rays a chance, so we took him in. He has spent almost two years — about half his time with us — as a field ornament. But with a great team around him, he’s holding together really well. He even decided to pull off one of his very expensive front shoes on the way to his First Level freestyle championship test, but we still managed a plus-80% score from judge Kristi Wysocki. He’s a wonderful horse, and yes, he’s a little old for First Level, but we’re just happy that we can keep ‘Humpty Dumpty’ together. He has a home for life with us.”

Relish the Moment

Relish The Moment, who is just 15.2hh, delivered a blue ribbon in the Second Level freestyle championship with 74%, as well as two reserve titles for Roth.

“I look a little silly as I’m almost 5’10”, but ‘Fiona’ is a lovely little horse owned by a great client,” continued Roth, who picked up four Finals tickets on the mare. “When you lead her around, it’s easy not to think much of her, but when you sit on her and put her together, she’s game for anything. When you ask questions of her, she never gives you the wrong answers. Because things are easy, training her is a real pleasure, and I’m looking forward to putting the flying changes onto that one.”

Not to be outdone, Adult Amateur Gerhart also claimed his Finals ticket riding Roth’s 17-year-old horse Gaijin — another to have overcome a suspensory injury — onto the podium twice at Third Level.

Shoutout

“Between us all, we’ve qualified seven or eight horses for Finals,” added Roth, who drove 3.5 hours to the Regionals and has already made her entries for Finals. “I want to give a special shoutout to my client Ann Melick, who won the First Level Adult Amateur championship on Benetto with over 73% in a class with 36 starters. The day before, they came dead last with 55% but she put in the time and patience to fix the malfunctions and went from zero to hero.”

Click here for full results from the Great American Insurance Group/USDF Region 2 Dressage Championships.

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 http://www.usdf.org/usdressagefinals/.

About USDF

Founded in 1973, the United States Dressage Federation is a nonprofit membership organization dedication to education, recognition of achievement, and promotion of dressage. For more information about USDF membership or programs, visit www.usdf.org, e-mail usdressage@usdf.org, or call (859) 971-2277.