Isabell Werth and Jordan LaPlaca Post Grand Prix Personal Bests to Kick Off AGDF 7
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.
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%.
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