The 12-year-old Holts Le’Mans may look familiar to regulars at the US Dressage Finals. He stepped into the winner’s circle in 2022, taking the Third Level Jr/YR class honors under his teenage rider Ella Fruchterman. This year, it was Angela Jackson in the saddle, and she piloted him to the top of the leaderboard in the Intermediate 1 Freestyle Open with 73.175%.

Photo – Angela Jackson took over the ride on Holts Le’Mans and won the Intermediate 1 Freestyle Open. (SusanJStickle.com)

The horse has been tremendously successful with Fruchterman since her family bought the son of L’Espoir sight unseen from Denmark during the pandemic. They won triple gold at the 2022 Adequan® FEI North American Youth Championships and have enjoyed prolific Jr/YR results.

Giving a Leg Up

Fruchterman’s trainer is now giving the horse a leg-up to the higher levels.

“It’s a fun freestyle from the movie Spirit,” said Jackson, who has lost count of the number of Finals titles she has won over the years. “I recycled it for him because I only took him over in April to give him small tour experience and confidence. It started out a little rough this week — we made silly little mistakes in the Prix St. Georges that were a little unusual — but today he was really ready to go. He even wanted to go bigger; he’s a true horse that shows up for a championship and wants to be there for you.”

Fruchterman is still riding Le’Mans, and the plans around when Jackson will hand back the competitive reins remain fluid as the Young Rider also has an older schoolmaster to campaign.

Future Plans

“We’ll go to Florida for the winter season, and I’ll probably try some small tour CDIs and I’d like to get qualified for [U.S. Dressage Festival of Champions],” said Jackson, who moved to Western Kentucky from her native Germany — where she had been on the junior show jumping team — more than three decades ago.

“I also taught him the Grand Prix movements so he can do the ones and is learning piaffe and passage,” she added. “I think he’ll make a good Grand Prix horse down the road, so we have to decide if I finish that a bit more before Ella takes him back, perhaps as a Under 25 horse.”

Competition concludes on Sunday, November 12, with the final nine championship titles to be decided, from Training Level to Prix St. Georges. Follow the action via the USDF Facebook page and the US Dressage Finals website, plus live online streaming on the USEF Network. To learn more about the US Dressage Finals presented by Adequan®, view results and start lists, and read daily news releases, visit the official US Dressage Finals event website.