Michele Bondy was another rider to land another triple at the Region 6 Championships at DevonWood Equestrian Centre, in Sherwood, OR, topping every single class she entered. On Sonnenburg’s Juliette d’Rosa, she was a double champion, leading both the Open Prix St. Georges and Intermediate I classes with scores over 71%. With Sonnenberg’s Nala d’Rosa, she clinched the Second Level Championship with 70.119%. Both mares were bred by Sonnenberg Farm, located just 10 minutes from DevonWood.

Photo – Michele Bondy rode the elite mare Sonnenburg’s Juliette d’Rosa, by Ampere, to two of the rider’s three Region 6 championship victories. (Ella Chedester Photography)

“Juliette is the Queen,” said Bondy of the 10-year-old elite mare by Ampere x Farrington. “I started her as a three-year-old, and she’s the first horse I’ve trained from the beginning to FEI. She’s a superstar who is a dream to ride and is super soft and supple. She’s basically trained herself, and we are hoping she will go grand prix in the future — which would be my first time at the level.”

Juliette d’Rosa has four embryo transfer offspring on the ground, including two 2024 foals by Le Formidable. Nala d’Rosa (by UB40 x Ampere) is another product of the stud’s successful mare-line: her dam is a full sister to Juliette d’Rosa.

Really Special

“That line is really special to me because I’ve ridden all of them,” added Bondy, who has worked for the stud’s founders, Dan and Gina Ruediger, for over a decade and usually rides 12 horses a day. “Nala is an easy girl — she’s even better at shows than at home, and she won the Training Level Regional Championship last year. The horses are getting better and better as the generations go down, and they’re obviously trainable. It’s very bright for the future of U.S. dressage.”

The final fixtures of the 2024 GAIG/USDF Regional Championships take place October 10-13, with the Region 1 Championships in Lexington, VA, and the Region 4 Championships in Lake Saint Louis, MO.

The 2024 US Dressage Finals presented by Adequan® is a national, head-to-head competition that showcases competitors in Adult Amateur and Open divisions. Classes run at Training Level through Grand Prix, plus freestyle to music divisions and sections for Junior/Young Riders at Training Level through Intermediate I Level. There is more than $125,000 in prize money up for grabs over the four days

Learn more at www.usdf.org/usdressagefinals/index.asp.