Adrienne Lyle and Fürst Dream Clinch National Champion Title with an Overall Score of 9.292

It was a day filled with national championship award ceremonies at the 2022 U.S. Dressage Festival of Champions. Six titles were claimed by the country’s top dressage combinations following an excellent display of riding and talent.

Markel/USEF Young Horse Four-Year-Old Dressage National Championship

Twelve combinations returned to the Markel Arena to determine the Markel/USEF Young Horse Four-Year-Old Dressage National Championship. Adrienne Lyle and Fürst Dream continued their winning ways by topping the USEF Four-Year-Old Horse Test with a score of 9.14. Lyle (Wellington, Fla.) and Betsy Juliano, LLC’s 2018 Hanoverian stallion put in a beautiful performance to earn scores of 9.5 for the trot, 8.6 for the walk, 9.2 for the canter, 9 for submissiveness, and 9.4 for general impression. Their impressive scores throughout the competition clinched the National Champion title with an overall score of 9.292.

Photo - Adrienne Lyle and Fürst Dream (SusanJStickle.com)

“I was really thrilled with him today. He was still full of energy today, which I was happy to see,” said Lyle. “He was quite frisky today in the warmup and a little bit going around outside. But then he really focused when we went down centerline. I thought I had him even a bit better balanced and more packaged than the first day and he's just really rideable. He has such incredible suppleness, especially for a four-year-old. He just feels like every part of him moves, and I love that feeling. For me, suppleness is kind of my most important thing that I look for in a young horse. And he's got an amazing brain.”

Watch the full class.

Alice Tarjan (Oldwick, N.J.) and Ice Princess, her 2018 Oldenburg mare, earned a score of 9.00 in the USEF Four-Year-Old Horse Test and finished with Reserve Champion honors on an overall score of 8.976.  Alyssa Doverspike Burkett (Murrieta, Calif.) and For Edition, 2018 Westphalian gelding owned by Doverspike Burkett, Kimberly Pribble, and David Wightman, scored 8.90 in the USEF Four-Year-Old Horse Test and were third overall with a score of 8.604.

Overall championship results

From the Mixed Zone:

Talk about how you prepared for this event coming shortly after the ECCO FEI World Championships.

Lyle: “I definitely could not have done it without my amazing assistant, Quinn Iverson, who had, between my horses and Katie [Duerrhammer]'s horses, 25 horses under her care this summer. And my amazing team of grooms who also help ride a little bit at home, so I can be focused on something like the World Championships knowing that 100% the horses were in good hands. They were kept in light work, kept a little fitness, but really they had a little bit easier time when I'm gone in Europe. But the fact that I was able to come home, I was home for four days and get on them and get them ready for this is just a testament to what an amazing job Quinn does with them.”

Talk about the ownership support that you have with program.

Lyle: “I think it's absolutely incredible. For me, what I find joy in is developing the horses from a young age and the whole process of training. So, to have owners that are on that same mindset is really exciting. They have to be willing to be in it for the long haul. They're buying these young horses, knowing they're not going to be doing something for a while, at least not something at the top level. But I think they share the excitement and the training process, and that's what makes it work for everybody.”

Can you talk about your four-year-old and how she’s done at this show?

Tarjan: “I’m super excited about that horse. I think it’s going to be a fantastic grand prix horse. I bought it as a yearling from my friend over in Denmark. She’s not an amateur horse, I would say. She’s super honest, but she’s hot and so she can overboil really easily, so it’s taken her a little while to gain confidence and just the basic contact and that type of thing in the movement, but I think for the future that’s going to be a fantastic horse.

Talk about how your test went today.

Doverspike Burkett: “Today, it was really just important that we came in and he was relaxed. He was a little bit spooky the first day, some sound spookiness, so we took him in there this morning and just walked him and just wanted to show off his gaits and his—a really big quality about him is he can be so steady, so that was something we really wanted to showcase today.”

Competition concludes Sunday at 8 a.m. CT in the Markel Arena with the FEI Six-Year-Old Final Test of the Markel/USEF Young Horse Six-Year-Old Dressage National Championship, while the Grand Prix Arena starts at 8:30 a.m. CT with the FEI Children Individual Test of the USEF Children Dressage National Championship.

Watch the U.S. Dressage Festival of Champions live stream this week on USEF Network.

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