Not only is she a wonderful rider and trainer, three-time Olympian Adrienne Lyle also is a top class coach, whose many strengths were on display at the U.S. Dressage Festival of Champions over the weekend with victory after victory.
She won the Developing Prix St. Georges title with Hussman’s Topgun, a dynamic son of the late, great Totilas, earning 72.549 and 73.425 percent in her classes. Adrienne feels the need to log another year of developing work for this big, talented horse before he’s a CDI championship candidate.
“He’s definitely not one that you will put any external time constraints on, because he’s ready when he’s ready,” she explained.
Adrienne and a be-ribboned Topgun. (USA Equestrian photo)
Her students also dominated their competition at the show in Illinois. Christian Simonson became the youngest person (he’ll be 23 on Tuesday) ever to win the national Grand Prix Championship with a sweep of all three classes.
His freestyle with Indian Rock, the 2024 Olympic mount of Emmelie Scholtens from the Netherlands, was close to the 80 percent stratosphere on 79.430 percent.
Looking ahead to the highlight of 2026, the FEI World Championships at Aachen, Adrienne said about Christian and Indian Rock, “We’re definitely not ruling that out. The reason we came to this (the championship) was that he needs to go step by step up the ladder. I’ve always been very careful about not letting him jump into things too soon; making sure he did all the proper steps.
Christian Simonson and Indian Rock. (California Dressage Society photo)
“I thought doing his first national Grand Prix championship was a very important step. He handled it all amazingly, as he always does. The goal for next year is to do the Grand Prix CDIs and see where that takes him.”
Christian also rode Fleau de Bain, a stallion who is the former mount of another Dutch rider, Adelinde Cornelissen, to win the U25 Brentina Cup with a 72.820 percent freestyle. That competition has special meaning for Adrienne because it is named after the favorite mount of Debbie McDonald, who was her mentor. Needless to say, Christian was the first person to take the Grand Prix and Brentina Cup titles at the same show.
“Anything that he is interested in, he is like a sponge. He wants to learn everything and absorb everything,” said Adrienne, who won the Brentina Cup when she was starting on her career path.
“We are not trying to prove anything to anyone. We are all very humble students of the craft, and if you enter with that kind of mindset, your mind is open to absorb and learn. Christian always comes with such great insights and great questions. You could tell his brain is constantly working to unlock every little bit of knowledge he can about this sport.”
Christian Simonson had several victory laps. (USA Equestrian Photo)
Both his horses and Topgun are owned by Heidi Humphries of Zen Elite Equestrian Center.
Adrienne described Heidi as “the engine that drives the machine. She is so incredibly supportive” even of horses she doesn’t own that are trained by Adrienne.
“For Heidi, they are all in the family, the barn family,” Adrienne observed.
“She has contagious enthusiasm. She has such a die-hard belief in her riders and horses through good times and bad times. Heidi’s done a fantastic job of allowing us to develop a pipeline. We’re not just looking six months or a year ahead and trying to scramble into a spot.”
Adrienne just got the ride on Zen’s newest horse, My Vitality, who is only eight. She doesn’t know if he’ll be ready for the championships, but she described him as “incredibly smart, an incredibly rideable horse.”
She appreciates the decision by the U.S. Equestrian Federation to hold the 2026 Grand Prix championship as part of the selection process for the world championships as a stand-alone at Ocala’s World Equestrian Center in May, rather than during the Dressage Festival of Champions, which has so many other divisions.
Adrienne noted the USA’s top Grand Prix horses often don’t appear at the Festival because they have just come off a European tour. Running their competition as a standalone is important, in her view.
“I think this will make it that the top horses are going head-to-head in the national Grand Prix championships,” she suggested.
In addition to everything she does with the horses, Adrienne also keeps busy as a mother with her daughter, Bailey Da Silva, who is about to turn two and already is sitting bareback on horses when she isn’t hugging or kissing them.
But Adrienne never loses focus on her work. Among others she coached to the top of the rankings at the Festival was Katie Duerrhammer, who won the Seven-Year-Old Championships at the Festival with Kylie Lourie’s Rosebank VH, who took both classes.
When Katie clinched the title, Adrienne said, “That was really a special moment. She made me cry, which is very few and far between. I’m not a crier. But she has been working so hard with that stallion and had two of her most beautiful tests. She rode so soft and so harmonious. You could have heard a pin drop.”
Katie Duerrhammer and Rosebank VH. (USA Equestrian Photo)
She was proud that in the heat of the moment, Katie was “giving him still the same soft ride he needed. It’s hard not to push a little harder when you’re under that kind of pressure.”
And then there’s Quinn Iverson, who won the Developing Grand Prix with longtime supporter Billie Davidson’s Oldenburg gelding, Gremlin 41. She earned 72.03 percent.
Quinn Iverson and Gremlin 41. (USA Equestrian Photo)
Quinn, who started as a working student for Debbie and Adrienne, has trained Gremlin for several years.
“She’s done an incredible job with him. I think he’s a super talented horse,” observed Adrienne, adding, “I think he could be on the radar to be a contender for next year (the championships shortlist) possibly too.
“It might be a little bit too soon, but our goal for next year is to get him into the Grand Prix CDIs. I’d love for him to go to Europe.”
Adrienne called Quinn, “an incredible rider. She’s one of those naturally gifted people with a super feel of the horses and the way to read horses. She can ride anything, she can get along with anything. She’s a very gifted trainer.
“I trust her to make the right decisions. That’s really exciting for me, because my goal is to bring up people who are not just good competition riders but who first and foremost are good trainers and can produce horses. We’re trying to pass Debbie’s system and knowledge to the next generation.”
It’s quite a team effort.
Christian describes his success as a reflection of the “incredible support from Adrienne and Zen,” as well as grooms Hugo Saldivar and Marina Lemay.
“Whatever Adrienne tells me to do is where I go,” Christian emphasized.
His horses have “almost the same type of character, “they’ll go through fire for you and try their hearts out.”
Each, of course, is different to ride.
Felix, as Fleau de Bain is known, is smaller than Rocky and has been Christian’s mount for 18 months. He “is like a piaffe passage machine.”
Rocky, who Christian has ridden for eight months, is “so incredibly elastic…he has incredible lateral scope and capability.”
Will we see Christian at the FEI World Cup finals and FEI World Championships next year? Could be.
When he was 13, Christian disclosed, “I wrote all of my biggest goals in a notebook. One was a Pan Ams (he already has ridden on the gold medal team in the Pan American Games), one was a WEG (World Equestrian Games, now world championships), one was an Olympics. That would be just unbelievable if it happened, Let’s keep our hooves crossed and see how it all goes.”
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