By Alice Collins for Jump Media/USDF
October 8, 2025 – Lexington, KY – Five out of nine Great American Insurance Group/United States Dressage Federation (USDF) Regional Championship shows took place over the weekend of October 2-5, 2025. Along with being major national events in their own right, all served as qualifiers for the 2025 US Dressage Finals presented by Adequan® at the World Equestrian Center (WEC) in Wilmington, OH, running October 30-November 2.
Region 1
At the Great American Insurance Group/USDF Region 1 Dressage Championships at the Virginia Horse Center in Lexington, VA, Emily O’Neill rode 16 tests, coming away with three championship titles and qualifying four horses for Finals.
She piloted Johanna Walters’ six-year-old MW Empire (by Escamillo x San Amour) to a Second Level double, topping both the Open straight and freestyle classes with 71.488% and 76.842% — the latter being the highest championship score of the show. It also helped them earn the Barbara Silverman Memorial Freestyle award for their consistent high scores this season.
“We found Empire as a green broke three-year-old with his breeder Jen Vanover of Maplewood Warmbloods, and I fell in love with him after a couple of laps around the arena,” said O’Neill. “This year, I had five horses at Regionals, which is the most I’ve taken in the 15 or so years I’ve been going.
“I work with Heather Mason, and she encouraged me to do as many championship classes as I could with each horse,” she continued. “We had the music made for Empire at First Level last year, but a tiny issue kept him out of Regionals. I asked Heather to help me repurpose the music, which is from Imagine Dragons and made by Terri Gallo, and we did it together in 45 minutes over a Zoom lesson. I love freestyles. They’re my jam and my favorite thing to ride since I was a kid.”
O’Neill works out of Elysian Hill Farm in Elverson, PA, where she has nine horses in training and does all the stable work herself. As a marathon runner who thrives on routine, she gets up at 3 a.m. every day to put five to 10 miles under her belt before cleaning stalls and riding with the help of just one part-time groom.
She also picked up the First Level Open title on Lory Eighme’s Sir Sinclair x Charmeur gelding Oliver Twist JP — another U.S.-bred six-year-old.
“I’ve had him since he was four, and we’ve taken our time because he’s done a lot of growing,” said O’Neill. “He competed a bit as a four-year-old, then did not do a lot as a five-year-old, and now we’re giving him more exposure. He’s a lovely type and very uphill. He has an impressive way of going and is going to be a super horse for the upper levels, so I don’t want to fry him early on.”
O’Neill qualified through a wildcard with another of Eighme’s horses, this time at the other end of the height spectrum. Fiddlemaker’s Line Drive, a 13hh six-year-old Dartmoor stallion bred by his owner, scored over 72% to book his Finals place at Second Level freestyle.
“I love ponies, and it’s going to be so special that he’ll be showing against the big horses,” added O’Neill, whose dressage career started with showing pony stallions. “I’ll also take my own horse, Presely, to Finals at Second Level. The biggest thing I took away from this show is that you have to know your horses. I felt well prepared knowing what each of them needs to be at their best, and it was really fun to have that pay off.”
Adult Amateur (AA) rider Denise Steele won two classes at last year’s Region 1 Championships, and this year she went one better, landing a triple on her own and her husband Kenneth’s 15-year-old Belissimo M mare, Bon Chance 8.
The duo are the reigning US Dressage Finals Prix St. Georges AA champions and will be able to defend their crown this year, as well as contest both Intermediate I classes. Their exemplary 2025 Regionals triple was achieved with three scores over 70%. They headed up the Prix St. Georges by an almost seven percentage point margin and led the Intermediate I freestyle with a beefy 75.25% score.
This show was replete with riders who won two championship classes. Cody Armstrong Pierce, Adriene Alvord, Ava Noone, Erin Liedle, and Kymberly Pullen all doubled up. Youth rider Elena Moffitt also won two titles, topping the Junior/Young Rider First and Second Level classes, then rode to the top of the leaderboard in the USDF Dressage Seat Semi-Finals 13 and Under. The 13-year-old who trains with Karen Lipp achieved the impressive feat on Julia Stainback’s 22-year-old Belgian Warmblood, Diano.
Region 4
At the Great American Insurance Group/USDF Region 4 Championships at the National Equestrian Center in Lake St. Louis, MO, Nicole Harrington accomplished her mission of qualifying for Finals with her two eight-year-old geldings. Her Open double at First Level on her own Maximus B (by Toto Jr. x Painted Black) included a resounding 77.764% freestyle to a medley of AC/DC and Paint It Black.
“It was a phenomenal ride — just about as flawless as it could be,” said Harrington, who operates her 17-horse training operation out of Still Water Farm in Pleasant Plain, OH. “I wanted to take both horses to Regionals and qualify this year as we are only 35 minutes from WEC, the new Finals venue, and I really want to go because it’s a fantastic place.
“I bought Max as a five-year-old in Holland when he was about 16.1hh, and he’s grown into this enormous horse, and I’m not a tall person,” she continued. “So, we’ve taken it slow and allowed him to grow into his body, which is why he’s eight and only at First Level. He has a lot of potential to go up the levels, and he’s already schooling more than he’s ready to show. He’s really showing up and doing a wonderful job.”
Her other winner, Gail Garvin’s Destano x Belissimo M gelding Despacito Corazon, also laid down a big score, topping the Third Level freestyle with 73.55%.
“I’m showing him for mileage so Gail can eventually get him in the arena,” she added. “He was an approved stallion as a two-year-old, and he has a real hodgepodge of old-fashioned German ‘R’ and ‘B’ lines in his pedigree. Then, an amateur in Germany bought him, gelded him, and spent a few years trail riding him. We imported him as a six-year-old. He did First Level last year, but this year we’ve bumped him up to Third.”
Teenage rider Grace Christianson finished in the top three in all seven classes she contested, including picking up a trio of championship titles in the Junior/Young Rider classes at First, Second, and Third Level. The 13-year-old — who was the triple gold medalist in the Children’s division at the 2025 FEI North American Youth Championships — crowned her fantastic Regionals by triumphing in the USDF Dressage Seat Semi-Finals 13 and Under.
She scored a winning double and one reserve champion title on Karissa Gearen’s six-year-old KWPN Outsider DRH (by Spielberg x Apache), heading up the First Level class with 71.319% and the Training Level test with 74.8%. Her Second Level winner, the American-bred FHF Roulee, who is by the Rohdiamant son Routinier, was almost four percentage points clear of the second-placed combination, and with 70.238% was the only one in the starting line-up to break the magic 70% barrier.
Region 9
Adult Amateur Birgitt Dagge brought two Amish-bred Dutch Harness Horses to the Great American Insurance Group/USDF Region 9 Championship at the Great Southwest Equestrian Center in Katy, TX, and both came away with winner’s sashes. Her nine-year-old Pharaon won both the Third and Fourth Level straight classes and earned a reserve champion ribbon in the Third Level freestyle.
“He’s in his fourth year under saddle,” said Dagge, who is based in Sarasota, FL, and made the 20-hour trip for the Texan hospitality and outstanding surfaces at the show. “I tried to ride Pharaon before he was five, but we call him ‘Sir Buckalot,’ and we had to wait a bit to really get going with him. He only just started Fourth Level, and I was surprised how well it went because I thought he’d be shaky at the higher level. He really is an overachiever in everything — in bucking and in actually doing the work!”
Black Jack, her Intermediate I freestyle winner with a score of 73.4%, was bought sight unseen from an online ad five years ago. When he arrived in Florida, Dagge’s boyfriend at the time borrowed him to take to a driving competition at Live Oak, where they won the dressage portion. She then wrestled the ride back, and the pair has gone from strength to strength.
“We started at Training Level, and he’s now been at I-1 for a year,” added Dagge, who works in real estate and plans to take both horses to Finals. “The freestyle at this level is my absolute favorite; we both love it. We go in there and dance away. We had a mistake in this test, but I managed to repeat the movement, so that helped the score. I love to pick upbeat music like Mambo Number 5 and Banana Boat — we want people to enjoy it.”
The experienced John Mason also produced a triple triumph, taking titles on three different horses. At First Level, Susan and Julia Peacock’s Starburszt SWF — a five-year-old Sternlicht GGF x Gribaldi mare bred in the U.S. by Mary Nuttall — clinched the top spot with a commanding 74.306%. At Fourth Level Mason not only won on Christine Renne’s eight-year-old Toto Jr. gelding, Mein Toto, with 71.181%, but he also finished second and third. Nuttall’s American-bred 10-year-old Tailormade Temptation stallion True Temptation SWF delivered Mason’s third win, this time setting him atop the Open Prix St. Georges with 68.309%.
USDF Gold Medalist Gail Abele rode Diana Cilia’s six-year-old Bonds x Sir Donnerhall gelding, Baronato, to a pair of high-scoring Second Level wins. The duo topped the straight class with 71.905% and boosted their winning score in the freestyle to 72.447%.
A media release covering the Region 3 and Region 6 Championships will soon follow.
The 2025 US Dressage Finals presented by Adequan® takes place October 30-November 2 at the World Equestrian Center in Wilmington, OH. It is a national, head-to-head competition that showcases competitors in Adult Amateur, Open, and Junior/Young Rider divisions. Classes run from Training Level through Grand Prix, plus freestyle to music divisions, with Junior/YR sections at Training Level through Intermediate I. There is more than $125,000 in prize money on offer over the four days. Learn more at www.usdf.org/usdressagefinals/index.asp.
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