Week ten of the 2021 Adequan® Global Dressage Festival (AGDF) continued on Friday, March 19, at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center (PBIEC) in Wellington, FL, with a winning ride for Adrienne Lyle (USA) and Harmony’s Duval in the FEI Grand Prix Freestyle CDIO3*, presented by Stillpoint Farm. AGDF 10 continues through Sunday, March 21, and the circuit hosts 10 weeks of international and national dressage competition until April 4. Free live streaming and on-demand of select classes are available to view at globaldressagefestival.com.

Photo – Adrienne Lyle and Harmony’s Duval wowed in the FEI Grand Prix Freestyle CDIO3*, presented by Stillpoint Farm, scoring 80.020%. ©SusanJStickle

Conquering the Freestyle

Lyle and Harmony’s Duval, Duval Partners LLC’s 2008 KWPN gelding by Rousseau, conquered the freestyle under the lights, riding to a score of 80.020%. “It was worth staying up past my bedtime!” she joked.

“There’s really nothing that compares to riding at Global on a Friday Night Stars,” continued Lyle. “It’s one of my favorite experiences in the horse world. To do this on Duval, who we had from when he was unbroke, all the way up to becoming an individual gold medalist here, is just really special. I’ve got an unbelievable group of owners that have supported me along the way. ”

Lyle noted that her freestyle is from her previous mount Wizard in 2011 at Dressage at Devon, but thought it would fit well for her mount’s second ever freestyle.

Click to see the winning freestyle ride from Adrienne Lyle and Harmony’s Duval! Brought to you by Premier Equestrian
©Richard’s Equine Video

“I wanted to go back to something I knew since Duval has done one freestyle in his life, so I could give him a good experience out there,” she explained.

Lyle and the gelding produced top performances all week, achieving the highest scores in both the grand prix and grand prix special before contesting the freestyle. “I started with the canter work with him [when planning the degree of difficulty]” she remarked. “I think he’s got some fun, powerful canter work. It’s not the most difficult freestyle out there nowadays. When I made it, they didn’t have the degree of difficulty score the way that they do now. But it still has double pirouettes [and] piaffe pirouettes, so it gets enough [degree of difficulty points]. I think it’s a really fun one; it doesn’t always have to be for him the most difficult every time he goes out.”

Judge at C Stephen Clarke (GBR) awarded Lyle with an 82.775%, and commented on her strong performance. “The reason why I gave Adrienne such a high mark,” he explained, “was an easy one – the hair on the back of my neck was standing up because the music and power and expression of the whole performance was outstanding.”