By Alice Collins for Wellington International
Wellington, Fla.-February 19, 2026—The undisputed global queen of dressage, Germany’s 12-time Olympic medalist Isabell Werth, burst onto the Florida dressage scene on opening day of Week 7 at the 2026 Adequan® Global Dressage Festival (AGDF) in the Zen Elite Equestrian FEI Dressage World Cup™ Grand Prix. Her much-anticipated ride on Helgstrand Dressage’s 11-year-old Special Blend 3 was rewarded with 73.13% and the winner’s blanket despite the Sezuan x Hotline gelding losing a front shoe in the first extended trot.
Isabell Werth & Special Blend 3. Photo ©Centre Line Media
In a truly international class, riders from six different nations filled the top six spots, with Ecuador’s Julio Mendoza Loor coming closest to Werth at the top of the leaderboard. He rode his own and his wife Jessica Mendoza’s 15-year-old Bretton Woods gelding Jewel’s Goldstrike—whom he partnered at the Paris 2024 Olympics—to 71.196%, which would have been higher but for a costly mistake in the two-time changes. Canadian Olympian Brittany Fraser-Beaulieu scooped third on Jaccardo, Jill Irving’s 12-year-old (Desperado x Jazz), with 70.761%.
Julio Mendoza Loor & Jewel’s Goldstrike. Photo ©Centre Line Media
Brittany Fraser-Beaulieu & Jaccardo. Photo ©Centre Line Media
“I lost my rein and then the shoe, which was funny, but anyway, Special Blend did really, really good,” enthused Werth, who last rode in Wellington 15 years ago on her Olympic team gold medallist horse, Satchmo. The stands filled once again for her return on Thursday. “It’s nice to get this warm welcome, with so many friendly people. I didn’t expect such a positive response, so that’s been great to feel and really exciting.”
On choosing to bring Special Blend, the youngest horse in the class of 11 starters, she added, “He’s really honest, he travels well, and he’s uncomplicated. Nothing around the show affects him. Yesterday, I trained a bit under the floodlight in the evening, and he was a bit tense, but he settled down and I was very happy this morning. The warm-up was super, and I felt that he was so much more relaxed in the arena. He has real highlights in the piaffe/passage, and all the canter work was nice. I could celebrate on the last centerline and bring the test to the end in a very lightweight way, which is good to see and to feel.”
Isabell Werth & Special Blend 3 are presented as winners of the Zen Elite Equestrian FEI Dressage World Cup™ Grand Prix by Adrienne Lyle (right) and Judge at C Katrina Wüst. Photo ©Centre Line Media
The class was a qualifier for the Zen Elite Equestrian CDI3* Grand Prix Freestyle to be held during “Friday Night Stars”. The special gala event will host a stallion demonstration, including appearances from My Vitality, One Million, Zaunkönig, Fortunato H2O OLD, Rosebank VH, Fleau De Baian, and pony stallion Branley Ash Nautilus. There will also be live music from a Grammy Award-winning artist, whose identity is being kept under wraps.
It will be Werth and Special Blend’s first CDI freestyle, and they will perform to a classical soundtrack originally made for Emilio—another of Werth’s Olympic team gold medal winning horses. She will also make sure that Special Blend’s shoe is firmly on, she added.
Click for full results from the Zen Elite Equestrian FEI Dressage World Cup™ Grand Prix.
Cross-Training Pays Off
Jordan LaPlaca (USA) was the very first rider down the centerline in the Dutta Corp CDI3* Grand Prix, marking a host of firsts for the multi-talented horseman from Connecticut. Riding his own and Nancy Hutson’s 11-year-old gelding Gold Play (Grey Flannel x Sir Donnerhall II), they pulled off a personal best 68.913% performance to lead the class and hand them their first ever CDI win at their second show at the level.
Jordan LaPlaca & Gold Play. Photo ©Centre Line Media
Locally based Kevin Kohmann rode Equine Law Group’s 15-year-old Floriscount gelding, Famous, into second with 68.326%. Argentine rider Leonardo Antonio Godoy claimed third with 65.152% on Cristina Balcarce’s Lusitano stallion Marques Do Lis by Fabuloso Do Lis, who at 10 years old, was the youngest horse in the class.
Gold Play is LaPlaca’s first CDI grand prix horse, and he has produced the Oldenburg since finding him as a four-year-old at Hof Kasselmann in Germany. The horse’s regime incorporates plenty of cross-training, including galloping, hacking, and turnout, with just three arena schooling sessions a week. LaPlaca himself also cross-trains: he has driven—and won—at FEI level.
“It’s all surreal,” admitted LaPlaca, who scored an 8.5 for his final passage on the centerline. “My original long-term goal was to bring a young horse up through to the international rings, so the first CDI was already a win, whether I won or not. This is the icing on the cake—especially given that there’s so much to improve and it’s just the beginning.
“Gold Play is a very high-powered horse with a lot of energy, and we work a lot on decaffeinating him and trying to keep it all harmonious and easy,” continued LaPlaca, who trains with Albrecht Heidemann and, more recently, U.S. dressage Chef d’Equipe Christine Traurig. “The training process has been very diverse. He doesn’t know that he’s fancy, so he lives like a normal horse. When he was younger, I did my homework and took him everywhere. If the trailer was leaving the farm, he was on it, so he got used to the world.
“He’s a lot of horse, so you’ve got to work with him, not against him,” he added. “I’m just taking one step at a time, but I really would like to do him justice and the sky’s the limit. The horse is sick talent naturally—I’m just the monkey up top trying to figure out how to ride it.”
Jordan LaPlaca & Gold Play are presented as winners of the Dutta Corp CDI3* FEI Grand Prix by Susie Dutta (right) and Judge at C, Elisabeth Max-Theurer. Photo ©Centre Line Media
For now, driving is taking a back seat for LaPlaca while he focuses on CDIs with Gold Play, but he has some youngsters waiting in the wings back in Connecticut. Gold Play will now contest the CDI3* Grand Prix Special on Saturday, February 21.
Click for full results from The Dutta Corp. CDI3* Grand Prix.
The rich seam of personal bests ran throughout the day, with the Chinese rider Zhanzhao Gu also producing one from first draw to head up the morning’s Zen Elite Equestrian CDI1* Prix St. Georges. He scored 67.206% on Xiao Weilin’s 16-year-old Sancisco gelding, Shakespeare 82, who was ridden by Christoph Koschel in young horse classes before Gu resumed the horse’s CDI career at small tour in early 2025.
Click here for full results from the Zen Elite Equestrian CDI1* Prix St. Georges.
Dressage competition during AGDF 7 resumes on Friday, February 20, with daytime classes including the Lövsta Future Challenge, a series for developing grand prix horses, as well as the special “Friday Night Stars” evening featuring the Zen Elite Equestrian FEI Dressage World Cup™ Grand Prix Freestyle, which is a sold out ticketed event with a surprise musical performance from Grammy Award-winning artists and a stallion showcase.
AGDF 7 runs through Sunday, February 22. AGDF hosts seven weeks of international competition and weekly national shows over three months, finishing March 29. For more information, visit https://www.wellingtoninternational.com or watch all the action in the main arena on the live stream, which can be found here.
