Lyle Splashes To Grand Prix Win While Bateson-Chandler Swims Ahead In Intermediaire I

Adrienne Lyle spent her morning splashing in puddles with Wizard, and that paid off in spades for her when she swam to the top of the leaderboard in the Grand Prix freestyle (74.95%) on a wet and sloppy Saturday night, June 20, at the Collecting Gaits Farm/USEF Grand Prix Championship.

Lyle, who won last year’s Brentina Cup, just edged out yesterday’s Grand Prix winner Leslie Morse on Tip Top 962 (74.25%) and Lauren Sammis on Sagacious HF (72.45%).

The freestyle schedule was in flux throughout the day as U.S. Equestrian Federation officials focused on working around the wet weather conditions. Eventually they moved the Grand Prix competition up to 3:30 p.m. in the hopes of avoiding dangerous thunderstorms.

Lightning didn’t become an issue, but the Grand Prix riders had to engage in creative choreography during their freestyles to avoid the largest puddles.

“Wizard is a giant chicken with water,” admitted Lyle, 24. “If there’s a tiny stream at home, he will run backwards to the other end of the barn. I had a feeling he might need a little practice, so I took him out, and we played in the puddles in the upper ring today. We walked and trotted around until he was comfortable with it.”

Lyle rode the 10-year-old Oldenburg gelding to a medley of country music songs that predominantly featured Big & Rich’s “Save A Horse (Ride A Cowboy).”

“It’s different, but I’m a country fan, it’s all I ever listen to,” said Lyle. “[Terry Gallo] sent me a couple demo songs of country music, and I loved it. I thought it fit Wizard well, it set a strong beat, and he’s a big, powerful horse. We’re from Idaho so we’re allowed to do country.”

Lyle rode early in the freestyle, and by the time Morse went ring conditions had deteriorated.

“At the beginning of the class it looked solid, but by the time I went, it was getting sloggy,” she said. “The centerline was very tricky. We were trying to stay away from it.”

Morse credited the impressive maintenance crew for doing their best after so much rain. “They’re getting it accomplished, but it just got a little old and wet towards the end,” she said.

Morse rode a new freestyle with Tip Top, one that features music by Annie Lennox and Stevie Wonder. Small mistakes kept the test from matching her earlier ride with the 15-year-old Swedish Warmblood stallion.

“It’s extremely difficult, and, along with the rain, I think Tip Top did phenomenal,” said Morse. “He was so submissive and so on my aids. Everything I asked for, he did, and he did it with a smile on his face. I couldn’t ask for more. I will be making some changes. We’ve used this competition as a trial, and I’ll keep tweaking it here and there until it’s absolutely solid.”

Yesterday’s second and third-placed riders—Pierre St. Jacques on Lucky Tiger and Michael Barisone on Olympus—went at the tail end of the class. Heavy going prevented them from showing the same brilliance as the day before. Barisone ran into serious trouble in his first pirouette when Olympus broke to trot, and St. Jacques put in a somewhat lackluster test that didn’t quite keep pace with his music.

For Sammis, the freestyle proved to be a much better test than her mistake-filled Grand Prix.