At 25 years old, Jodie Kelly could be competing in the young rider Grand Prix or the Brentina Cup classes, but she’s ready to move into the adult ranks, and she proved it with two Grand Prix CDI*** wins at the Exquis World Masters Dressage competition in Wellington, Fla.

Kelly acquired Manhattan when he was 3 years old, and she was 14. “We grew up together,” she said. Although she competed at the North American Junior and Young Rider Championships, she didn’t ride Manhattan because he wasn’t consistent enough in the show ring.

“We’d have shows where our scores were in the 40s and then in the 70s,” she said with a laugh. But in the last few years Manhattan has gotten more consistent, and Kelly was able to take him to the Brentina Cup two years ago at the Collecting Gaits Farm/U.S. Equestrian Festival Of Champions (N.J.) and placed third before moving up to the senior Grand Prix.

Last year she said she just wanted to get in the ring and ride clean, consistent Grand Prix tests, but this year she’s hoping to do a bit more. “I’m not getting everything out of him,” she said. “I need more throughness and more sharpness.”

Kelly said she was thrilled with her Grand Prix test on Wednesday. “There was lots of room for improvement, but he was with me for the whole test,” she said. She topped the class of four riders with 64.55 percent.

Kelly won the Grand Prix Special as well, but she said Manahattan wasn’t as sharp as she would have liked. “I don’t wan to have to push him so much,” she said. “I want to get that really good feeling in the show ring, the feeling that I have at home.”