Wellington, Florida—March 28

The next generation of top dressage riders took to the ring for the U25 Nations Cup to battle it out for the top of the podium during the final week of the Adequan Global Dressage Festival. The one-round competition concluded with the team from Spain taking the gold medals, the U.S. contingent winning silver and the Canadian team bronze after riding the Intermediaire II.

“It’s always exciting to be part of a team,” said Juan Matute, one of the two riders representing Spain. “It was a great opportunity to try to improve on last year’s results in the Nations Cup. Unfortunately we didn’t have a great week here last year, so I wanted to change that.”

Juan Matute and Don Diego Ymas. All photos by Ann Glavan.

Matute scored a 72.29 percent aboard Don Diego Ymas, the top score in the class by 4 percent.

“Today our test was quite good,” Matute said. “There were some things that can be improved, but over all it was pretty clean and with a good, competitive attitude, which I think was the highlight.”

Matute’s teammate, Rodrigo Encinas Fuentes, rode Cesar Parra’s Van The Man to the second highest score in the class, a 68.29 percent.

“It means a lot to me to be on this team, to be with my friend Juan,” Fuentes said. “Two young guys from Madrid making a team on the other side of the world. It’s one of the biggest things of my career and makes me feel proud of all the work that I do.”

Rodrigo Encinas Fuentes and Van The Man.

Check out our shots from the whole class!

All smiles atop the U25 Nations Cup Podium! Spain (center) took first, the U.S. (left) took second and Canada (right) was third.

Juan Matute (left) and Rodrigo Encinas Fuentes take their victory lap in the U25 Nations Cup.

Laurence Blais Tetreault and Utah execute a pirouette for team Canada. They scored a 63.76 percent.

Kerrigan Gluch and Bolero CXLVIII strut their stuff for Team USA. They scored a 65.70 percent.

I Do Kiss and Naima Moreira Laliberte scored a 67.88 for Canada.

Natalie Pai and Unlimited scored a 65.44 percent for Team USA.

Renaissance Tyme and Tanya Strasser-Shostak scored a 66.02 percent for Canada.