Double wins abounded at the 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.

Photo – Lindsey Holleger and her diminutive four-year-old Galaxy-sired mare, Galaxena, landed a double of high-scoring wins in the hotly-contested Open classes. (High Time Photography)

“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 Merritt’s barn in Florida, where she was looking for a young horse.

Not the Expected

“Anna told us to try 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.

Two Championships

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.

Small animal veterinarian Kristy Truebenbach Lund rode her Licosto gelding, Living Lucky, to two wins at big tour level. Photo by High Time Photography

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.

Click here for full results from the Great American Insurance Group/USDF Region 3 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 www.usdf.org/usdressagefinals/index.asp.