By Alice Collins for Wellington International
Wellington, Fla.—February 5, 2026—A total of 27 grand prix combinations went down centerline on opening day of Week five at the 2026 Adequan® Global Dressage Festival (AGDF) in the day’s two top-level classes. Unusually chilly and blustery conditions allowed a single plus-70% score to be enough to claim the honors in each class. Geñay Vaughn (USA) led the way in the Coastal Steel Structures CDI4* Grand Prix riding Gino, while fellow U.S. athlete Ashley Holzer secured the winner’s blanket in the Modon CDI3* Grand Prix with 70.261% on Hawtins San Floriana.
Geñay Vaughn & Gino. Photo ©Centre Line Media
In the headline CDI4* class, female U.S. riders filled the top four spots. Below Vaughn on the leaderboard, locally based Devon Kane took second on her family’s Diamante Farms’ 14-year-old Vivaldi gelding, Vamos. The 68.717% was their highest score in this test in their three years at the CDI level, eclipsing their previous top score by 0.043 percentage points. Katherine Bateson Chandler rode another 14-year-old—her own and Jennifer Huber’s Connaisseur daughter Haute Couture—into third place with 68.391%.
Top three in the Coastal Steel Structures CDI4* Grand Prix: Geñay Vaughn, Devon Kane and Katherine Bateson Chandler with Sabrina Bovay of Wellington International. Photo ©Centre Line Media
Vaughn is based in Elk Grove, California, and she and the 15-year-old Gino are familiar faces in the winner’s circle on the West Coast, but this was their first East Coast victory.
“It was wild winter in there!” exclaimed Vaughn, who is spending the season in Wellington to try to secure a starting spot at the FEI World Cup™ Final in Fort Worth, Texas, in April. “For him to stay with me like he did shows me that he’s in tune with me—he’s the greatest. He’s a super freak with strengths in the piaffe, passage, and changes—everywhere really. His gaits are incredible, and everything keeps getting better; we’re starting to tap into showing everyone what we can do at home.”
Watch The Winning Round
Vaughn has been riding the striking black 17.3hh gelding by Bretton Woods since he was six, though he was originally intended as a ride for her mother Michele, who now trains the pair.
“When we brought Gino home, I did the first ride on him and my mom saw the potential and realized right away how special he was,” explained Vaughn, who sits 36th on the FEI Dressage World Ranking. “With my aspirations and what I wanted to do, I’m forever grateful to her.
“Gino is a big boy, but that doesn’t matter much because he’s so in sync with me,” she concluded. “Today, he stayed listening to me and was so sensitive. I don’t think his size matters; it’s about the size of our heart.”
Click for full results from the Coastal Steel Structures CDI4* Grand Prix.
Holzer Sets New PB in CDI3* Grand Prix
A healthy field of 17 combinations lined out for the Modon CDI3* Grand Prix. The four-time Olympian Ashley Holzer piloted Diane Fellows’s 14-year-old British-bred mare San Floriana to the top of the pack and to their first plus-70% performance in this test for the duo who began their international partnership in April 2024.
Ashley Holzer & Hawtins San Floriana. Photo ©Centre Line Media
A hair’s breadth separated the next two riders, with Spain’s Pablo Gómez Molina holding off a challenge from U.S. rider Christian Simonson. Gómez Molina scored 67.848% on Cristina Danguillecourt, Javier Bacariza, and Yeguada De Ymas’s 16-year-old PRE gelding Ulises De Ymas, by Seni Indio. Simonson finished just 0.043 percentage points adrift with 67.805% on Heidi Humphries’s 16-year-old Jazz x Ulft stallion, Fleau De Baian—a full-brother to the Olympic silver medalist Jerich Parzival.
The only blip in Holzer’s otherwise fluid test was a fluff early in the two-time changes, but she was able to pick them back up. She attributed San Floriana’s unflappable attitude in the adverse conditions to previous owners Carl Hester and Charlotte Dujardin incorporating twice-weekly hacking in all weathers into the mare’s training.
“I’ve had her about two years, and it’s taken a while to really get a partnership,” said Holzer, who formerly rode for her native Canada and switched to the Stars and Stripes in 2017. “Now, when she makes a mistake, I rebalance her and she stays with me, which was a huge problem before as she’d get really tense. It’s amazing to feel our partnership finally coming together. She’s so powerful, and Carl and Charlotte did a beautiful job training her.
Ashley Holzer & Hawtins San Floriana are presented as winners of the Modon CDI3* Grand Prix by Judge at C Ulrike Nivelle. Photo ©Centre Line Media
“It’s fun doing this—almost more fun when you’ve had challenges and you’re able to surmount them. That was very exciting for me today,” added Holzer, who trains with Bateson Chandler with additional help from her goddaughter, Canadian Olympian Lindsay Kellock. “I really want to keep having a good time showing and competing, and I’m lucky that at my age [62] I get to keep doing this. I think the key is having a great team around you and seeking out constructive criticism.”
Watch The Winning Round
Click for results from the Modon CDI3* FEI Grand Prix.
Dressage competition in AGDF 5 resumes on Friday, February 6, with day classes including the Lövsta Future Challenge, a series for developing grand prix horses, as well as the evening ‘Friday Night Stars’ session featuring both the Coastal Steel Structures CDI4* Grand Prix Special and CDI4* Grand Prix Freestyle. Covered spectator seating is free, as is the live stream, which can be found here.
AGDF 5 runs through Sunday, February 8. AGDF hosts seven weeks of CDI competition and weekly national shows over three months, finishing March 29. For more information, visit www.wellingtoninternational.com.
