Christian Simonson Asserts New Personal Best Over CDI3* Grand Prix Special During AGDF 8
By Alice Collins for Wellington International
Wellington, Fla. – February 28, 2026—The U.S. anthem rang out for Christian Simonson after his winning ride in Saturday’s Mission Control CDI3* Grand Prix Special. He steered the 16-year-old Fleau De Baian to 71.255% in the duo’s second-ever CDI Special, eclipsing their previous best of 70%, set when they won during Week 5 of the 12-week Adequan® Global Dressage Festival (AGDF) in Wellington, FL.
Of the 10 starters, it was Endel Ots who got closest to Simonson. He and Zen Elite’s Bohemian, who were travelling reserves for the U.S. team at the 2024 Paris Olympics, scored 69.681% for second place. They were the winners of Thursday’s qualifying Grand Prix at this, their first CDI show in 19 months. Michael Klimke (GER) steered the youngest horse in the field, 10-year-old Harmony’s Dante’s Peak (Dante Weltino x Desperados), to third with 68.915%.
“Today ‘Felix’ let me ride him, gave me his back, and tried really hard,” said the 23-year-old Simonson, who only rode his first senior international big tour test in May of 2023. “I think the highlights today were the lateral work and the trot work, and maybe the extensions and the piaffe/passage. He let me keep asking for more and more.”
After a mistake in the one-time changes on the diagonal, which garnered threes and fours from the judges, Simonson refocused Felix to ensure the pirouette-changes-pirouette sequence on the centerline remained fault-free and powerful.
“I knew because of the mistake that I had to make up a lot of points there, so I thought, ‘Okay, let’s try to get eights on everything here for the double coefficient,’” said Simonson, who first stepped into the CDI ring with Fleau De Baian nine months ago. “I’ve learned a lot from this horse, and he’s taught me a lot, too. He was basically my first senior grand prix horse. He’s telling me a lot about how to school lines, and we’ve grown a lot in the piaffe/passage work. With Adrienne [Lyle] I’ve learned how to make it all fun and bouncy.”
Fleau De Baian is by Jazz out of the Ulft mare Fidora, and is a full brother to Dutch rider Adelinde Cornelissen’s Olympic horse, Parzival. Cornelissen also produced Fleau De Baian from young horse classes to grand prix before he was sold to Heidi Humphries of Zen Elite Equestrian. He has been combining competition and ridden work with breeding duties since moving stateside.
“Luckily, he’s a very good stallion,” said Simonson. “His funny quirk is that when you’re hand-walking him, he’ll scream loudly. He’s not naughty, just very, very loud. But, for the most part, he’s a good boy, and he’s so well maintained by the Zen team.
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